Lifeboat Foundation

The universe has always held mysteries that spark our curiosity. As we currently understand it, the fabric of the universe comprises three primary components: ‘normal matter,’ ‘dark energy,’ and ‘dark matter.’ However, new research is turning this established model on its head.

Enter Rajendra Gupta, a seasoned physics professor who isn’t afraid to question the status quo. With years of research under his belt, Gupta is shaking up our understanding of the universe.

Gupta, based at the University of Ottawa, conducted a study that suggests we might not need dark matter or dark energy to explain the workings of the universe. This bold claim is turning heads in the scientific community.

A rare configuration of seven galaxies aligned behind a galaxy cluster allows researchers to probe with high precision the dark matter distribution within the cluster.

Despite its intensity, the gravitational collapse of certain massive stars does not produce an abundance of heavy elements.

About half of the elements heavier than iron are made by the r, or rapid, process. A nucleus captures neutrons so quickly that radioactive decay is forestalled until the neutron-heavy nucleus finally emits electrons and neutrinos and settles at a new, higher atomic number. Besides normal supernovae and neutron-star mergers, the r process is also suspected to occur in so-called collapsars. These are rapidly rotating massive stars that collapse without producing a regular supernova once they exhaust their fuel. However, simulations by Coleman Dean and Rodrigo Fernández of the University of Alberta, Canada, have now undermined that r-process conjecture [1].

A collapsar’s progenitor is massive enough that it forms a black hole. To shed its prodigious angular momentum, it also forms a thick, unstable accretion disk. During the collapse, nuclei in the stellar envelope break apart, and their protons combine with electrons in the envelope to produce neutrons and neutrinos in large numbers. These neutrons could turn the disk into a favorable, if fleeting, site for the r process to forge and disperse heavy elements—provided that this neutron-rich matter can be ejected.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have for the first time observed a galaxy in the early universe growing from the inside out, a mere 700 million years after the Big Bang.

This galaxy, significantly smaller yet more mature than expected, demonstrates unique growth patterns with its dense core and rapidly forming star outskirts.

Astronomers have employed the NASA /ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the ‘inside-out’ growth of a galaxy in the early universe, a mere 700 million years after the Big Bang.

Some scientists believe black holes might be wormholes, offering shortcuts through space and time

A team of physicists from Sofia University in Bulgaria has proposed a fascinating theory that wormholes, hypothetical tunnels linking different parts of the universe, could be hiding in plain sight. These wormholes may resemble black holes so closely that current technology cannot distinguish between the two, according to a new study reported by New Scientist.

Now in Quantum: by Antonio deMarti iOlius, Patricio Fuentes, Román Orús, Pedro M. Crespo, and Josu Etxezarreta Martinez https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2024-10-10-1498

Antonio deMarti iOlius¹, Patricio Fuentes², Román Orús^3,4,5, Pedro M. Crespo¹, and Josu Etxezarreta Martinez¹

¹Department of Basic Sciences, Tecnun — University of Navarra, 20,018 San Sebastian, Spain. ² Photonic Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. ³ Multiverse Computing, Pio Baroja 37, 20008 San Sebastián, Spain ⁴ Donostia International Physics Center, Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 4, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain ⁵ IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Plaza Euskadi 5, 48009 Bilbao, Spain.

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A new study challenges the existence of dark matter, proposing that gravity can arise from ‘topological defects’ in spacetime.

Dark Stars Could Explain Dark Matter and Fast Radio Bursts, Challenging Our Understanding of Black Holes

A theory suggests that black holes, rather than being empty voids in space, might actually be “dark stars” filled with incredibly dense and exotic matter. This concept could provide new insights into two of the universe’s greatest mysteries: the nature of black holes and the elusive dark matter.

Black holes, as understood through Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, are regions in space where matter is so compact that it warps space-time, creating a gravitational pull so intense that even light cannot escape. The center of a black hole is believed to contain a singularity, an infinitely small and dense point where gravity becomes infinitely strong. This singularity is surrounded by an event horizon, a boundary beyond which light and matter cannot escape.

But you might notice that something is missing: this radiation doesn’t seem to encode, in any way, knowledge of the information that went into the creation of the black hole in the first place. Somewhere along the way, information was destroyed. That’s the key puzzle behind the black hole information paradox. No one seriously disputes the initial setup of the puzzle: that information exists, and that the information (and entropy) does in fact go into the black hole both when it’s first created and also as it grows. What is up for debate, and what in fact is the big question behind the information paradox, is whether that information comes back out again or not.

The way we calculate what comes out of a black hole via Hawking radiation, despite the fact that Hawking radiation has been around for a full half century as of 2024, hasn’t changed all that much over the past 50 years. What we do is assume the curvature of space from general relativity: the fabric of space is curved by the presence of matter and energy, and general relativity tells us exactly by how much.

We then perform our quantum field theory calculations in that curved space, detailing the radiation that comes out as a result. That’s where we learn that the radiation has the temperature, spectrum, entropy, and other properties we know that it possesses, including the fact that it doesn’t appear to encode that initial information when the radiation comes out.