Gravitational waves: have US scientists heard echoes of the big bang?

There is intense speculation among cosmologists that a US team is on the verge of confirming they have detected “primordial gravitational waves” – an echo of the big bang in which the universe came into existence 14bn years ago.

Rumours have been rife in the physics community about an announcement due on Monday from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. If there is evidence for gravitational waves, it would be a landmark discovery that would change the face of cosmology and particle physics.

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> There is intense speculation among cosmologists …

Consider me on tenterhooks.

Cambridge, MA -

First Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation

Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting fraction of a second, the universe expanded exponentially, stretching far beyond the view of our best telescopes. All this, of course, was just theory.

Researchers from the BICEP2 collaboration today announced the first direct evidence for this cosmic inflation. Their data also represent the first images of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. These waves have been described as the “first tremors of the Big Bang.” Finally, the data confirm a deep connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

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Time to celebrate

:)

I’d like to see a good deal more scepticism in the reporting of these things.

Do these people see the things they want to see, and disregard the rest?

The Rev Dodgson said:

I’d like to see a good deal more scepticism in the reporting of these things.

Do these people see the things they want to see, and disregard the rest?

I would think they spend a lot of time with information that they eventually disregard

mollwollfumble would be able to say more about that

I’d like to see a good deal more scepticism in the reporting of these things.

Do these people see the things they want to see, and disregard the rest?

They were surprised to detect a B-mode polarization signal considerably stronger than many cosmologists expected. The team analyzed their data for more than three years in an effort to rule out any errors. They also considered whether dust in our galaxy could produce the observed pattern, but the data suggest this is highly unlikely.

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2014-05

seems they had three years of scepticism.

anyway if the interpretation of the data is wrong then someone will be along to show them the error or their ways. it might even be the same team, then they would have two lots of papers instead of just the one so will look even better on their CVs.

;-)

<i>Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the current result is in some tension with earlier claimed upper limits from other experiments, so we will need to wait for the results of a host of other experiments currently operating that can check this result.</i> "A Scientific Breakthrough Lets Us See to the Beginning of Time Posted by Lawrence Krauss":http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/03/a-scientific-breakthrough-lets-us-see-to-the-beginning-of-time.html

[quote=ChrispenEvan] <i>Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the current result is in some tension with earlier claimed upper limits from other experiments, so we will need to wait for the results of a host of other experiments currently operating that can check this result.</i> "A Scientific Breakthrough Lets Us See to the Beginning of Time Posted by Lawrence Krauss":http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/03/a-scientific-breakthrough-lets-us-see-to-the-beginning-of-time.html [/quote] That's more like it :)

http://www.caltech.edu/content/building-bicep2-conversation-jamie-bock

also for those that may wish to know what BICEP2 means, BICEP2 is a telescope whose name is short for Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarisation, and is the 2nd version. a BICEP3 is being constructed.

If gravity waves are real, can we go surfing on them ?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9b43rcbm1fn4ed4/CMBPolarization.pdf

for those that understand at this level.

http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2014/03/16/gravitational-waves-in-the-cosmic-microwave-background/

a bit less technical blog.

Short radio broadcast in which Hawking discusses the significance of the discovery:

Stephen Hawking ‘wins inflation debate’

Scientists say they have extraordinary new evidence to support a Big Bang Theory for the origin of the Universe.

Researchers believe they have found the signal left in the sky by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came into being.

The BBC’s Tom Feilden discusses the significance of this new evidence, before Professor Stephen Hawking speaks to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, placing the latest discovery in the context of his previous work.

Professor Neil Turok also speaks to presenter Sarah Montague about a long-standing bet he has held with Mr Hawking, and how this latest discovery affects this.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday 18 March.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26625791

Bubblecar said:

Short radio broadcast in which Hawking discusses the significance of the discovery:

Stephen Hawking ‘wins inflation debate’

Scientists say they have extraordinary new evidence to support a Big Bang Theory for the origin of the Universe.

Researchers believe they have found the signal left in the sky by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came into being.

The BBC’s Tom Feilden discusses the significance of this new evidence, before Professor Stephen Hawking speaks to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, placing the latest discovery in the context of his previous work.

Professor Neil Turok also speaks to presenter Sarah Montague about a long-standing bet he has held with Mr Hawking, and how this latest discovery affects this.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday 18 March.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26625791

.

At what distance from the actual big bang would it not be possible to view the location because the viewers would be moving away from the location, would be exceeding the speed of light?

At what distance from the actual big bang would it not be possible to view the location because the viewers would be moving away from the location, would be exceeding the speed of light?

it is imprinted on the cmbr which we can still see as it happened everywhere at the same time. there will be a time however when the expansion will have redshifted the cmbr to such an extent that the emissions from our galaxy will swamp the cmbr and we will no longer be able to “see” it.

ChrispenEvan said:

At what distance from the actual big bang would it not be possible to view the location because the viewers would be moving away from the location, would be exceeding the speed of light?

it is imprinted on the cmbr which we can still see as it happened everywhere at the same time. there will be a time however when the expansion will have redshifted the cmbr to such an extent that the emissions from our galaxy will swamp the cmbr and we will no longer be able to “see” it.

‘

ChrispenEvan thankyou, vas is das cmbr?

cmbr = cosmic microwave background radiation, the (very cold) fossil radiation of the Big Bang.

Bubblecar said:

cmbr = cosmic microwave background radiation, the (very cold) fossil radiation of the Big Bang.

Bubbles, thankyou,
bob

cosmic microwave background radiation. this was produced about 370 000 years after the BB when the temp of the universe allowed atoms to form and light could travel freely

ChrispenEvan said:

cosmic microwave background radiation. this was produced about 370 000 years after the BB when the temp of the universe allowed atoms to form and light could travel freely

Yes, that’s more accurate :)

In cosmology, recombination refers to the epoch at which charged electrons and protons first became bound to form electrically neutral hydrogen atoms. After the Big Bang, the universe was a hot, dense plasma of photons, electrons, and protons. This plasma was effectively opaque to electromagnetic radiation, as the distance each photon could travel before encountering a charged particle was very short. As the universe expanded, it also cooled. Eventually, the universe cooled to the point that the formation of neutral hydrogen was energetically favored, and the fraction of free electrons and protons as compared to neutral hydrogen decreased to about 1 part in 10,000.

Shortly after, photons decoupled from matter in the universe, which leads to recombination sometimes being called photon decoupling, although recombination and photon decoupling are distinct events. Once photons decoupled from matter, they traveled freely through the universe without interacting with matter, and constitute what we observe today as cosmic microwave background radiation. Recombination occurred when the universe was roughly 378,000 years old, or at a redshift of z = 1100.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombination_(cosmology)

mollwollfumble said:

> There is intense speculation among cosmologists …

Consider me on tenterhooks.

I wish cosmologists wouldn’t dumb the science down so much! A TV interview on this topic of Australian Astronomer Fred Watson was totally meaningless. There was no clue in the interview as to whether this was Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, Gravitational Waves, Polarisation of the microwave background, Distribution of dark matter, Infrared observations, or other. The questioner knew it had something to do with observations at the South Pole, but Watson totally failed to explain what observations, and his explanation of why the South Pole was a meaningless ramble.

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

> There is intense speculation among cosmologists …

Consider me on tenterhooks.

I wish cosmologists wouldn’t dumb the science down so much! A TV interview on this topic of Australian Astronomer Fred Watson was totally meaningless. There was no clue in the interview as to whether this was Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, Gravitational Waves, Polarisation of the microwave background, Distribution of dark matter, Infrared observations, or other. The questioner knew it had something to do with observations at the South Pole, but Watson totally failed to explain what observations, and his explanation of why the South Pole was a meaningless ramble.

But, but, but. Radio Journos love Fred W, because he can play the guitar.