An Intergalactic Race in Space and Time : Einstein Wins a Round Against Quantum Theory

News Type: Event — Seeded on Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:18 PM EDT

Article Source: News at Nature

science, technology-science, energy, space, nature, information, time, physics, electricity, light, black-hole, radiation, c, theory, mass, einstein, relativity, wave, matter, quantum-mechanics, dark-energy, distance, singularity, frequency, magnetism, particle, hawking, magnet, photon, em, space-time, electromagnetism, quantum-theory, massive, uncertainty, momentum, speed-of-light, wavelength, spacetime, gravitation, cosmological-constant, thermodynamics, e-mc2, electromagnetic-radiation, quanta, electro-magnetism, compton, general-relativity, wave-packet, wave-function, wavefunction, max-planck, diameter, radius, planck-length, planck-scale, special-relativity, uncertainty-principle, discrete, paul-dirac, planck-time, radian, zero-point-energy, electro-magnetic-radiation, gravitational-constant, renormalization, black-body, hawking-radiation, dirac, foamy, holographic-principle, joule, physical-constants, planck-unit, physical-constant, postulate, quantization, quantized-spacetime, radii, compton-wavelength, diracs-constant, four-momentum, h-bar, joule-seconds, natural-units, normalized, planck-mass, planck-particle, planck-sphere, radians, reduced-planck-constant, renormalisation, schwarzschild, schwarzschild-radius

Seeded by JCAtom

Astronomers have used a high-energy burst of light from a distant galaxy to test the fabric of space and time. The work is the best test yet of attempts to create a 'theory of everything'.

More Articles

Published to:

JCAtom's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: Daily Did You Know?, Extropians, Logic on the Vine, Newsvine Science, Open Minded, Psych, Soc, Philos, Science & Space Gateway, Science And Technology, The Universe
Regions: Birmingham

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

9.7

{"commentId":10347182,"authorDomain":"jcatom"}

JCAtom

The study, published online today in Nature, reports that an orbiting γ [or, Gamma] ray satellite has caught just such a race in action. On 10 May this year, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope spotted a short γ-ray burst from a galaxy at a distance of around 2 billion parsecs, or 7 billion light years, from Earth. The burst lasted several seconds, with the γ-rays of shortest wavelength arriving around 0.829 seconds after the first rays were detected.

That's late, but not late enough for the simplest theories of quantum gravity to hold up, according to Jonathan Granot, a member of the Fermi telescope team at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, UK. In other words, for now, space-time would seem to be smooth rather than sandy.

{"commentId":10347182,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"jcatom"}

6 votes

#1 - Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:21 PM EDT

{"commentId":10347225,"authorDomain":"jcatom"}

JCAtom

...more explanatory info from the NYT...

The spread in travel time of 0.9 second between the highest- and lowest-energy gamma rays, if attributed to quantum effects rather than the dynamics of the explosion itself, suggested that any quantum effects in which the slowing of light is proportional to its energy do not show up until you get down to sizes about eight-tenths of the Planck length...

But...this was only one of many classes of models. “It would be amazing that in effect we don’t need a quantum theory of gravity,” he said. “This only tells us where there are the dead ends.”

Indeed, other physicists said that even this model would not be ruled out until the size limit had been set much below the Planck size.

The good news, astronomers said, is that more data expected from Fermi could decide the question. As Lee Smolin, a quantum gravity theorist from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, said, “So a genuine experimental test of a hypothesized quantum gravity effect is in progress.”

{"commentId":10347225,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"jcatom"}

6 votes

#1.1 - Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:24 PM EDT

{"commentId":10348000,"authorDomain":"eric-albert"}

Eric Albert

Thanks JCAtom:

Always loved Einstein, in spite of Niels Bohr's additional new paradigm. I always felt that there was a reconstructive, synthesis possible, between the two theories. Awaiting for some more information. But Einstein looks like he will be vindicated, after all these problematical adjuncts, a whole counter theory, added, that were never overcome, linked to an overall theory. We may be on that threshold.

{"commentId":10348000,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"eric-albert"}

3 votes

#2 - Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:25 PM EDT

{"commentId":10353981,"authorDomain":"greenarcher170"}

bluearcher

Wait a second?

Aren't you the Islamic apologist sympathizing with every "Muslim" cause? And since Islam is the "only true way", how do you justify science since it is not covered by the Quran?

You go from equating the death of a terrorist to Nazi-ism and in a blink-of-an-eye talk rationally about science?

{"commentId":10353981,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"greenarcher170"}

2 votes

#2.1 - Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:57 AM EDT

{"commentId":10354170,"authorDomain":"jcatom"}

JCAtom

That's a little off topic.

{"commentId":10354170,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"jcatom"}

3 votes

#2.2 - Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:05 AM EDT

{"commentId":10355484,"authorDomain":"greenarcher170"}

bluearcher

My apologies. Sincerely.

{"commentId":10355484,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"greenarcher170"}

1 vote

#2.3 - Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:03 PM EDT

{"commentId":10348391,"authorDomain":"Jivatmanx"}

Jivatman

The only theory of everything that makes the most sense to me is Dewey Larson's Reciprocal System. Similarly to relativity, it also uses only the bare elements of space and time to form an all encompassing theory.

{"commentId":10348391,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"Jivatmanx"}

2 votes

#3 - Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:00 PM EDT

{"commentId":10348749,"authorDomain":"mftaylor"}

Matt Taylor

Maybe I didn't study well enough during my quantum field theory class, but don't high energy photons interact with the vacuum by producing virtual particle-antiparticle pairs? In other words a really high energy gamma ray should have a sort of 'self energy' which makes it behave as if it had mass, such as the Feynman diagram with a photon in, electron-positron loop in the middle, and photon out.

So that means you don't need fancy quantum gravity for the highest energy photons to travel slower than c, just plain old QED, right?

{"commentId":10348749,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"mftaylor"}

2 votes

#4 - Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:34 PM EDT

{"commentId":10391155,"authorDomain":"bobnelsonfrance"}

Bob Nelson.

Another good seed. Thanks.

{"commentId":10391155,"threadId":"711946","contentId":"3437513","authorDomain":"bobnelsonfrance"}

1 vote

#5 - Sat Oct 31, 2009 5:20 AM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"711946","isPrivate":false}

JCATOM

Backyard

An Intergalactic Race in Space and Time : Einstein Wins a Round Against Quantum Theory

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: