Physics: Getting real about reality; The final parsec problem

The boffins of physics have playful minds. They are proposing a quantum geometry that exists outside of space and time. They have been forced to this point because many physicists believe they’ve reached the end of the road when it comes to conceptualizing reality in terms of quantum events that play out in space and time. Something new is needed.

Princeton University graduate student Carolina Figueiredo discovered an unexpected connection between three different types of subatomic particle collisions, producing identical results. This discovery led to the realization of a hidden structure underlying particle physics. Quanta magazine described it like this:

In the fall of 2022, a Princeton University graduate student named Carolina Figueiredo(opens a new tab) stumbled onto a massive coincidence. She calculated that collisions involving three different types of subatomic particles would all produce the same wreckage. It was like laying a grid over maps of London, Tokyo and New York and seeing that all three cities had train stations at the same coordinates. “They are very different [particle] theories. There’s no reason for them to be connected,” Figueiredo said.

The coincidence soon revealed itself to be a conspiracy: The theories describing the three types of particles were, when viewed from the right perspective, essentially one. The conspiracy, Figueiredo and her colleagues realized, stems from the existence of a hidden structure, one that could potentially simplify the complex business of understanding what’s going on at the base level of reality.

In 2013 physicists discovered a jewel-like geometric object that forecasts the outcome of certain particle interactions. They called the object the “amplituhedron.” However, the object didn’t apply to the particles of the real world. The amplituhedron could predict certain particle interactions without relying on traditional space-time concepts. Coupled with the amplituhedron and Figueiredo’s hidden structure, physicists are slowly closing in on  discovering new space-time and quantum mechanics that arise from a new set of principles. 

This research amounts to a geometrical method, now known as “surfaceology.” It streamlines quantum physics by sidestepping the traditional research approach, which tracks the countless ways particles can move through space-time. Quanta comments:

Unlike the amplituhedron, which required exotic particles to provide a balance known as supersymmetry, surfaceology applies to more realistic, nonsupersymmetric particles. “It’s completely agnostic. It couldn’t care less about supersymmetry,” Spradlin said. “For some people, me included, I think that’s really been quite a surprise.” 

The question now is whether this new, more primitive geometric approach to particle physics will allow theoretical physicists to slip the confines of space and time altogether.

“We needed to find some magic, and maybe this is it,” said Jacob Bourjaily, a physicist at Pennsylvania State University. “Whether it’s going to get rid of space-time, I don’t know. But it’s the first time I’ve seen a door.”

These new geometric approaches to particle physics may allow theoretical physicists to move beyond the constraints of space and time, potentially leading to new insights into quantum gravity and the fundamental nature of reality. Surfaceology involves a possible way to do that. 

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Physicists believe they maybe have solved the final parsec problem, but they just don't know which solution is right. The final parsec problem is the unexplained ability of merging supermassive black holes to spiral into each other and get closer to each other than one parsec. A parsec is 3.26 light years or 1.9164¹³ miles. Astronomers prefer the parsec over the light year to state distances. 

At a 1 parsec distance, physics predicts that the two big black holes would stall out for at least as long as all time since the big bang. Instead, the spiraling black holes pass the 1 parsec point and eventually merge into each other. 

Quanta magazine writes:

Astrophysicists have a new suggestion: Dark matter could sap angular momentum from the two black holes and nudge them closer. Dark matter is the term for the undiscovered 85% of matter in the universe. We can see its gravitational effects on galaxies and cosmic structure, but at the moment we can’t work out what it is.

“Earth is orbiting the sun, and we’re not falling into each other,” Alonso-Álvarez said, and the same should be true for two black holes. “There is a conservation of angular momentum in the orbit that prevents them from falling, unless there’s something that’s extracting this energy.”

Proposed explanations for black hole mergers invoke gravitational interactions with surrounding stars, interactions with gas in the galactic center and gravitational waves emitted by a black hole pair. Something has to be sucking angular momentum away from a circling pair. Researchers are working on incorporating new insights into models of galaxy formation and evolution. Continued research in this field could help explain the formation of the largest structures in the universe and provide new targets for gravitational wave detectors.

Gravity waves and the gravitational wave 

detector LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna)

Scheduled for space launch in 2035

By Germaine: Just as confused as you are