- 4471 - EXPANDING UNIVERSE - is it flat? - Our cosmic model of the universe, based on quantum mechanics and general relativity, deals with the geometry of the universe as influenced by matter and energy, which for most purposes is considered to be “flat”, that is the same in all directions..
--------------- 4471 - EXPANDING UNIVERSE - is it flat?
- The topology of the universe itself: Is it
infinite, does it have loops, etc. This
research is done as a part of the COMPACT collaboration consisting of an
international team of scientists.
-
- There is growing evidence that the universe
is not 'statistically isotropic,' i.e. that physics is the same in all
directions. Topology is a very natural way for anisotropy to creep into our
universe.
-
- “Cosmic microwave background”, CMB, is a type of radiation belonging to the
microwave spectrum. Predicted in the 1940s as a remnant of the Big Bang, it was
detected in 1965 by accident.
-
- After the Big Bang, which is how the present
universe came into existence, there was nothing but a soup of fundamental
particles and gases at extremely high temperatures and pressures, often
referred to as a “primordial soup”.
-
- As the universe expanded, it also cooled
down. This led to the fundamental particles combining to form atoms. Up until
this point, photons were interacting with these fundamental particles and
scattering, not allowing them to travel freely. But once atoms started to form,
photons traveled more freely. This
happened around 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
-
- This marked the propagation of CMB, which is
considered an 'afterglow' of the Big Bang. It holds important information about
the early universe and the subsequent processes that led to the formation of
large-scale structures like stars and galaxies.
-
- CMB is present everywhere and, for the most
part, is uniform in temperature. However, there are small fluctuations and
anomalies in CMB data that haven't been explained.
-
- Topology is a branch of mathematics that
deals with the shape and structure of objects. The rules of topology are quite
different from the rules of geometry. While geometry and topology are distinct
concepts, geometry influences topology.
-
- Geometry defines how space is curved
(spacetime is considered flat at small scales), and topology defines the
overall connectivity of space. If we
were to have “flat space”, we can't have topologies where space curves inwards
or have loops. This means to travel between two points, we would have to take a
straight line path without any detours or loops.
-
- The universe may be like an old-time video
game, where leaving the right side of the screen would see you popping in from
the left, so you can get back where you started by a straight-line path. This
is called being multiply connected.
-
- Essentially, the straight-line path suggests
that despite the appearance of continuous motion, the underlying topology of
space allows for unexpected connectivity, where what seems like a linear
trajectory may actually loop back on itself.
-
- If the universe were to be 'multiply
connected' we would observe matched
temperature circles. This is because light traveling from a source (like a
star) could travel along two different paths and arrive at the observer (Earth)
from two directions.
-
- This leaves behind similar temperature
fluctuations on a CMB map (or heat map), resulting in matched temperature
circles. However, there has been no evidence suggesting the presence of these
matched temperature circles.
-
- The absence of matched temperature circles
in the CMB data suggests that if nontrivial topology exists, the loops passing
through our location (Earth) must be relatively small.
-
- If the CMB anomalies are due to cosmic
topology, then the length of the shortest loops through us should not be more
than about 20–30% longer than the diameter of the last scattering surface, a
sphere with a radius equal to the distance that light has traveled in the
history of the universe.
-
- The researchers propose additional ways for
detecting such topology in the future.
Alterations in the statistical patterns of temperature fluctuations in
CMB data as well as in the large-scale structure of the universe would come to
light if nontrivial topology were present.
-
- But, these detections require enormous
computational power and the researchers suggest the use of machine learning
algorithms to speed up calculations and mining CMB data to detect this
topology.
-
- Hopefully, we will someday detect cosmic
topology and thereby understand the origin of the anisotropy of our universe
and get a glimpse into the processes responsible for the original emergence of
our universe.
-
- The study also highlights that even in the absence
of explicitly matched circles, the presence of statistical anisotropy (or
anomalies) in the CMB indicates the potential existence of detectable
information about the universe's structure and topology.
-
-
May 17, 2024 EXPANDING UNIVERSE
- is it flat? 4471
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--------------------- --- Friday, May 17, 2024
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