Eva Silverstein
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Shape of Bouncing Universes
John D. Barrow, Chandrima Ganguly
What happens to the most general closed oscillating universes in general relativity? We sketch the development of interest in cyclic universes from the early work of Friedmann and Tolman to modern variations introduced by the presence of a cosmological constant. Then we show what happens in the cyclic evolution of the most general closed anisotropic universes provided by the Mixmaster universe. We show that in the presence of entropy increase its cycles grow in size and age, increasingly approaching flatness. But these cycles also grow increasingly anisotropic at their expansion maxima. If there is a positive cosmological constant, or dark energy, present then these oscillations always end and the last cycle evolves from an anisotropic inflexion point towards a de Sitter future of everlasting expansion.
Read more at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.06647.pdf
Relativistic Generalization of the Incentive Trap of Interstellar Travel with Application to Breakthrough Starshot
René Heller
As new concepts of sending interstellar spacecraft to the nearest stars are now being investigated by various research teams, crucial questions about the timing of such a vast financial and labor investment arise. If humanity could build high-speed interstellar lightsails and reach the alpha Centauri system 20 yr after launch, would it be better to wait a few years, then take advantage of further technology improvements to increase the speed, and arrive earlier despite waiting? The risk of being overtaken by a future, faster probe has been described earlier as the incentive trap. Based on 211 yr of historical data, we find that the speed growth of human-made vehicles, from steam-driven locomotives to Voyager 1, is much faster than previously believed, about 4.72 % annually or a doubling every 15 yr. We derive the mathematical framework to calculate the minimum of the wait time (t) plus travel time (tau(t)) and extend two exponential growth law models into the relativistic regime. We show that the minimum of t+tau(t) disappears for nearby targets. There is no use of waiting for speed improvements once we can reach an object within about 20 yr of travel, irrespective of the actual speed. In terms of speed, the t+tau(t) minimum for a travel to alpha Centauri will occur once 19.6 % the speed of light (c) become available, in agreement with the 20 % c proposed by the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. If interstellar travel at 20 % c can be obtained within 45 yr from today and if the kinetic energy could be increased at a rate consistent with the historical record, then humans can reach the ten most nearby stars within 100 yr from today.
Read more at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.01481.pdf
Neutrino Astronomy with IceCube and Beyond
Kevin J. Meagher on behalf of the IceCube Collaboration
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic kilometer neutrino telescope located at the geographic South Pole. Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged secondary particles from neutrino interactions is observed by IceCube using an array of 5160 photomultiplier tubes embedded between a depth of 1.5 km to 2.5 km in the Antarctic glacial ice. The detection of astrophysical neutrinos is a primary goal of IceCube and has now been realized with the discovery of a diffuse, high-energy flux consisting of neutrino events from tens of TeV up to several PeV. Many analyses have been performed to identify the source of these neutrinos, including correlations with active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and the Galactic plane. IceCube also conducts multi-messenger campaigns to alert other observatories of possible neutrino transients in real time. However, the source of these neutrinos remains elusive as no corresponding electromagnetic counterparts have been identified. This proceeding will give an overview of the detection principles of IceCube, the properties of the observed astrophysical neutrinos, the search for corresponding sources (including real-time searches), and plans for a next-generation neutrino detector, IceCube-Gen2.
Read more at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.00383.pdf
Ad Honorem Sir Andrew J. Wiles
On May 24, 2016, Sir Andrew J. Wiles received the Abel Prize in a ceremony held in the Aula of the University of Oslo in Oslo, Norway. Wiles, who received the prize from H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon at the award ceremony, was the fourteenth recipient of the 6 million NOK (about 750,000 USD) prize. A prize honoring the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel was first proposed by the world-renowned mathematician Sophus Lie, also from Norway, and initially planned for the one-hundredth anniversary of Abel’s birth in 1902, but the establishment of the Abel Prize had to wait another hundred years. The Abel Prize is administered by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters…
Read more at http://www.ams.org/publications/journals/notices/201703/rnoti-p197.pdf
