Integral challenges physics beyond Einstein

European Space Agency ^ | June 30, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

30 June 2011 ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory has provided results that will dramatically affect the search for physics beyond Einstein. It has shown that any underlying quantum ‘graininess’ of space must be at much smaller scales than previously predicted.

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity describes the properties of gravity and assumes that space is a smooth, continuous fabric. Yet quantum theory suggests that space should be grainy at the smallest scales, like sand on a beach.

One of the great concerns of modern physics is to marry these two concepts into a single theory of quantum gravity.

Now, Integral has placed stringent new limits on the size of these quantum ‘grains’ in space, showing them to be much smaller than some quantum gravity ideas would suggest.

According to calculations, the tiny grains would affect the way that gamma rays travel through space. The grains should ‘twist’ the light rays, changing the direction in which they oscillate, a property called polarisation.

High-energy gamma rays should be twisted more than the lower energy ones, and the difference in the polarisation can be used to estimate the size of the grains.

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“This is a very important result in fundamental physics and will rule out some string theories and quantum loop gravity theories,” says Dr Laurent.

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[decimon]

Cat gut ping.

[Da Coyote]

Now, this is cool.

I was wondering when we’d get some interesting results from observational testing into whether time and space were themselves quantized.

[Sacajaweau]

IMHO, No one has ever assumed that Einstein’s gravity calc is perfection but the number of forces is so great that it is impossible to get closer than Einsteins “basic”.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

If time and space are quantized, then that could be because we are locked into some very large scale virtual reality simulator.

It's all pixels and clock cycles! Integral is just finding out that we're in a higher res simulator than we had originally thought.

[dartuser]

“You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? ... Ignorance is bliss.”

[rstrahan]

All due respect, I put a cat in a box, stick a bomb in, and it goes off, the cat is dead, whether or not I look at it. Quantum stuff is at such a low level that some of the assumptions are questionable.

[NonValueAdded]

No, no, no ... there was “consensus” so there’s no room for new data.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon.

ESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory... has shown that any underlying quantum 'graininess' of space must be at much smaller scales than previously predicted... has placed stringent new limits on the size of these quantum 'grains' in space, showing them to be much smaller than some quantum gravity ideas would suggest. According to calculations, the tiny grains would affect the way that gamma rays travel through space. The grains should 'twist' the light rays, changing the direction in which they oscillate, a property called polarisation. High-energy gamma rays should be twisted more than the lower energy ones, and the difference in the polarisation can be used to estimate the size of the grains... "This is a very important result in fundamental physics and will rule out some string theories and quantum loop gravity theories," says Dr Laurent.

I wonder what Halton Arp thinks of this?

Hey, it's great just to have a nice, pure String Theory topic for a change, even if it's not 100 percent pure. ;')

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[Condor51]

*** All due respect, I put a cat in a box, stick a bomb in, and it goes off, the cat is dead, whether or not I look at it. ***

With all due respect, not 'exactly'.
You're making the same assumption that Claus von Stauffenberg, made in 1944: Nobody bothered to look.

BTW, why do you want to kill Schrödinger's cat?
(I'm calling PETA!)

;-)

[Condor51]

ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory has provided results that will dramatically affect the search for physics beyond Einstein. ..... According to calculations, the tiny grains would affect the way that gamma rays travel through space. .... High-energy gamma rays should be ....

High-energy gamma rays, should be; LEFT ALONE!

Go to the LHC in Geneva and make a Black Hole or some Antimatter. But kindly stop messing with THE MOST dangerous thing in the known universe. So leave GAMMA RAYS alone, dammit.

Sheesh, give these idiots enough money and they'll kill us all.

Getting hit by a gamma ray burst is #2 on my ways of how I'd like to 'croak'.
#1 is crossing the Event Horizon and falling into a Black Hole.

[MHGinTN]

They have to be quantized because a photon travels even sometimes tens of billions of miles remaining always in the present of the moment it was formed.

As one famous freeper has put it, (paraphrasing) 'in the absence of time physical events cannot occur, and in the absence of space physical things do not exist.'

[LibWhacker]

High-energy gamma rays should be twisted more than the lower energy ones, and the difference in the polarisation can be used to estimate the size of the grains.

When I first started reading this article, I was thinking it was too bad we'd never, ever be able to detect something that small.

And now the fact that we've established the graininess to be at least 10 trillion times smaller than the Planck scale?...

Just, wow!

Sure is nice having been created in His image, which, it appears, may include an infinitesimal scintilla of His infinite understanding. Perhaps because of that, nothing is beyond Mankind's understanding as well -- except we are "condemned" to comprehend His Infinite Creation one Planck-scale factoid at a time, while He grasps the Whole of it, all at once, with ease. It is nonetheless another priceless Divine gift that I think is vastly underappreciated.

"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible." -- Albert Einstein