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- The Universe appears to us as extremely homogeneous on the grandest scales. It appears uniformly the same in all directions. It spatial geometry appears to be “flat“. This is analogous to being on the surface of the Earth. The sphere is so large to two eyes only six foot off the ground the Earth is flat.
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-. Using that same analogy the Universe must be an expansion much, much, greater than the 13.8 billion light-years radius that we can see from our vantage point. “Radius” is not the right word because it can imply one direction outward from the center. Actually, space expanded in all directions, everywhere, at the same time. There is no center. Yet, for it to look the same looking 13.8 billion light-years in one direction and 13.8 the light-years in the opposite direction it must have expanded faster than the speed of light. This is where the theory of Cosmic Inflation comes from. If the Universe did expand faster than the speed of light in the very beginning than the Universe is much larger than what we can see What we see only appears homogeneous and geometrically flat.
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-. By the way, space expanding faster than speed of light does not violate the Theory of Relativity that states nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. That speed limit is constant and remains true. It says nothing about the ability of space itself to expand faster than the speed of light. We just can not move through space any faster than 670,633,500 miles per hour.
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-. Cosmic Inflation to happened at 10^-38 seconds after the Big Bang, when the expansion first started. In that trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, in that short period of time, in that instant, space expanded over 1,000 times.
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-. As evidence of that expansion there now appears gravitational waves embedded in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. Gravitational waves are waves in space-time geometry. Pushes and pulls of the fabric of space-time that is detected in the polarization of the earliest light.
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-. Light itself is electromagnetic radiation, waves of light are actually two traveling waves, oscillating, at right angles to each other. Alternating traveling Electric waves intermingled with traveling Magnetic waves both oscillating at the same frequency. This frequency ranges from radio waves, to microwaves, to gamma rays, across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
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-. The waves at right angles are denoted as the E-mode and B-mode, for Electric and Magnetic waves. Normally, the orientation of the waves is random, rotating at every angle over the full 360 degrees. Polarization is a process where a specific orientation is selected. Polaroid sunglasses have filters that only pass light that is oriented in a specific up-down orientation.
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- It turns out that the B-mode waves are easier to detect. A careful analysis of the primordial Cosmic Micro Background radiation can detect the orientation of the B-mode polarization. This is the light that left the Big Bang opaque plasma 380,000 years, shortly after, the Big Bang. The pattern of this polarization shows us convincingly that gravitational waves exist in the fabric of space-time just as Cosmic Inflation theory predicted.
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-. This detected stretching and compression of space-time was imaged in the BICEP2 experiment being conducted at the South Pole. Astronomers have witnessed an exciting new era since telescopes have been enable to see more than visible light.. New telescopes and detectors today witness the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves, to microwaves, to infrared, to ultraviolet ,to x-rays, to gamma rays. Each leap in technology has brought us a wave of new knowledge.
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-. But, the electromagnetic detection has its limitations. We can get back to the Cosmic Microwave Background which left 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Beyond that the view is opaque. We cannot see further because the charged plasma scattered photons to such a degree we can not see through them. It is like looking at the surface of a cloud. We witness the surface but we cannot see inside.
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-. Gravity waves give us another detection system that could see inside the earlier Universe. Science is busy building these gravitational wave detectors.
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-. See the LIGO- Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory to learn more about attempts to see our first gravity waves.
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-. These gravity wave detectors are essentially a giant microphone designed to listen to gravity sound waves originating from the Big Bang and even from with Stellar Blackholes.
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-. To get gravity waves we need massive objects that can curve space-time into swells of gravity waves. Although direct detection has eluded us. Indirect detection has been accomplished studying a binary pulsar system. One of the stars is a pulsar emitting a light beam pulse like it cosmic clock. The other is a neutron star.
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-. The orbiting pair are slowly losing their angular momentum and spiraling in towards each other. The loss of momentum energy is due to their massive movements generating gravity waves. These radiating gravity waves drain energy from the system, causing the orbits to tighten down and speed up. Because the pulsar’s cosmic clock is so accurate that lower orbit speeds could be measured precisely. The measurements agreed exactly with the Theory of Relativity equations for the emission of gravity waves.
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- An atomic interferometer is a new detecting technique that measures the distance between clouds of ultra cold atoms just 1,000 kilometers apart. A laser is used to measure the distance between the clouds. If a gravity wave comes through the clouds the distance will change to and fro as the wave passes.
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-. Another technique is the Laser Interferometer used in LIGO which sends two laser beam's in perpendicular directions, reflecting against mirrors, and creating an interference pattern when they meet on the return trip. If the distance shifts due to passing gravity waves the interference pattern will change.
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-. BICEP2, Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization, is a detector designed to measure the very faint polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The CMB appears as a uniform blackbody at 2.7 degrees Kelvin. This detector is designed to see the small variations down to 0.000,000,85 degrees Kelvin, ( 85 nano-Kelvin per square degree pixel ). To get there all the optics of the telescope are cooled down to 4.0 degrees Kelvin. And the beam size of the telescope is limited to 0.22 angular degrees.
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-. The Amundsen – Scott South Pole Station proved to be the perfect environment for this microwave astronomy. Data was taken from November, 2009, to December, 2012. The polarization map produced from the data appears like iron filings arranging themselves under the influence of a magnetic field.
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-. The vortex like curling patterns were detected as B-modes which were the signs of the passage of gravitational waves generated during the brief period of Cosmic Inflation. Cosmic Inflation theory assumes that everything started out as quantum fluctuations that got amplified with inflation. The detected B-mode gravitational waves matched the theoretical expectations of both quantum mechanics and relativity. Wow! Three years of microwave data gathering ,and , extensive detailed systematic analysis down to 5-Sigma on two different modes of detection. Science is hard work. More announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned we have a whole new set of eye in gravitational waves.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
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