A Window into New Physics

poppageek
poppageek
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 259
Credit: 2,473,733,872
RAC: 0
Topic 198120

A Window into New Physics http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/fast-radio-bursts/

Quote:

In 2007, David Narkevic was using a new algorithm to chug through 480 hours of archived data collected by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. The data was already six years old and had been thoroughly combed for the repeating drumbeat signals that come from rapidly-rotating dead stars called pulsars.

But Narkevic, a West Virginia University undergrad working under the supervision of astrophysicist Duncan Lorimer, was scouring these leftovers for a different animal: single pulses of unusually bright radio waves that are known to punctuate the rhythm of the most energetic pulsars.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6,581
Credit: 308,554,213
RAC: 210,497

A Window into New Physics

Good article. Thanks for bringing that one to attention. :-)

There's some serious dispersion corrections being applied in that analysis. By comparison E@H's dispersion factors are piddling. If the sources have that billion-light-year distance then cosmological expansion is now relevant for signal transmission and of course the information is very aged, so the sources are quite archaic. But they are of a few milliseconds duration and confined very narrowly in angle. That makes the total energy received within the detection sample very small, or if you like involves relatively few photons. So no wonder there is much speculation !!

[ Including that it may just be happenstance co-incidence on the signal record. I'll assume the investigators have done some analysis in that regard and perhaps are quoting with that in mind. ]

As for me, I'll go with a Ravenous Star Beast snacking his way through the galaxies. Nice crunchy neutron stars flavoured with accretion disk topping. These fast radio bursts are the equivalent of a damp squeak before swallowing. :-) :-)

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

poppageek
poppageek
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 259
Credit: 2,473,733,872
RAC: 0

RE: Good article. Thanks

Quote:

Good article. Thanks for bringing that one to attention. :-)

There's some serious dispersion corrections being applied in that analysis. By comparison E@H's dispersion factors are piddling. If the sources have that billion-light-year distance then cosmological expansion is now relevant for signal transmission and of course the information is very aged, so the sources are quite archaic. But they are of a few milliseconds duration and confined very narrowly in angle. That makes the total energy received within the detection sample very small, or if you like involves relatively few photons. So no wonder there is much speculation !!

[ Including that it may just be happenstance co-incidence on the signal record. I'll assume the investigators have done some analysis in that regard and perhaps are quoting with that in mind. ]

As for me, I'll go with a Ravenous Star Beast snacking his way through the galaxies. Nice crunchy neutron stars flavoured with accretion disk topping. These fast radio bursts are the equivalent of a damp squeak before swallowing. :-) :-)

Cheers, Mike.

I enjoyed that! Very descriptive. :-)

Cheers!

Betreger
Betreger
Joined: 25 Feb 05
Posts: 992
Credit: 1,558,415,086
RAC: 736,587

A good read, thanx

A good read, thanx

Filipe
Filipe
Joined: 10 Mar 05
Posts: 185
Credit: 392,058,590
RAC: 210,927

Can we detect some of those

Can we detect some of those FRB with the current search parameters of BRP6?

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6,581
Credit: 308,554,213
RAC: 210,497

RE: Can we detect some of

Quote:
Can we detect some of those FRB with the current search parameters of BRP6?


Alas no. These signals are one-off events by definition. We do those which repeat. Our algorithms would view these burst photons as being in the noise/background.

That's a pretty key point for analysis. The putative mechanisms - bouncing black holes, imploding neutron stars or whatever - aren't going to allow re-runs on the same object. Finito ......

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.