Cosmology

Scientists Switched On Europe Big Bang $10b Atom Smasher Machine

The Seferm Post (Free subscription) | 21/11/2009

"Some of the scientists had gone home and had to be called back in," Gillies said.

Life Forms

miramiramazing (Free subscription) | yesterday

' Life Forms ' at Bonnier's Art Gallery this afternoon was an adventure and inspiration on many levels. Couldn't get anyone to go with me, but as it was, this was a good thing. I took my camera with to me to help record the many impressions. So much to take in. I felt greedy . Wanted to consume everything at once. The excitement of it all. When I go on these adventures into the world of art that interests...

Virgin Media save Generation Kill from my DVR death sentence

Dan's Media Digest (Free subscription) | yesterday

I've been recording Generation Kill every week since it started on Channel 4 HD, waiting for the ideal time to delve into its seven episodes. But, to be honest, too many shows have my attention already, so finding the time to set aside was proving... well, impossible. Added to that, those unwatched HD recordings were devouring my digibox's storage space, so I was seriously contemplating just erasing...

Beam Sent From Large Hadron Collider After 14 Months Of Repairs

Cool Science News (Free subscription) | yesterday

Large Hadron Collider: The machine has been restarted after $40million of repairs From The Daily Mail: The world’s largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, has been re-started after 14 months of repairs. The $10billion (£6billion) machine suffered a spectacular failure more than a year ago – just nine days after the launch. Scientists are hoping the results from the device,...

Exotic smoothness in 4 Dimensions and Semiclassical Euclidean Quantum Gravity. (arXiv:0911.4068v1 [gr-qc])

Arxiv (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

In this paper we present a model for 4 dimensional quantum gravity constructed using exotic smooth structure. We calculate the semi-classical expectation value of volume and correlation functions for several gravitational free-field actions and find that the results are similar, independent of the particular action that is chosen. These are first results of their kind in dimension 4, and represent...

On Chern-Simons corrections to magnetohydrodynamics equations. (arXiv:0911.3967v1 [gr-qc])

Arxiv (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

We study the effect of a (3+1)-dimensional Chern-Simons electrodynamics on the equations governing the dynamics of magnetized plasma and fields. In this model, the Chern-Simons (CS) part consists of a dynamical pseudo-scalar field whose space-time derivatives couple with the electromagnetic field. We explore the CS corrections to the evolution equation for the magnetic field in a plasma with non-zero...

On the fate of vacuum bubbles on matter backgrounds. (arXiv:0911.3910v1 [gr-qc])

Arxiv (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

In this letter we discuss cosmological first order phase transitions with de Sitter bubbles nucleating on (inhomogeneous) matter backgrounds. The de Sitter bubble can be a toy model for an inflationary phase of universes like our own. Using the thin wall approximation and the Israel junction method we trace the classical evolution of the formed bubbles within a compound model. We first address homogeneous...

Universal Ringdown Amplitudes in Extreme Mass Ratio Inspiral. (arXiv:0911.3899v2 [gr-qc])

Arxiv (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

An extreme mass ratio inspiral consists of two parts: adiabatic inspiral and plunge. The plunge trajectory is quite universal (independent of initial conditions). We write an expression for its solution in closed-form and for the emitted universal waveform. In particular we extract an expression for the universal black-hole ringdown amplitudes, which reduces to solving certain ordinary (radial) differential...

Dissipative Processes in the Early Universe: Bulk Viscosity. (arXiv:0911.4105v1 [gr-qc])

Arxiv (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

In this talk, we discuss one of the dissipative processes which likely take place in the Early Universe. We assume that the matter filling the isotropic and homogeneous background is to be described by a relativistic viscous fluid characterized by an ultra-relativistic equation of state and finite bulk viscosity deduced from recent lattice QCD calculations and heavy-ion collisions experiments. We...

Bayesian coherent analysis of in-spiral gravitational wave signals with a detector network. (arXiv:0911.3820v1 [astro-ph.CO] CROSS LISTED)

Arxiv (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

The present operation of the ground-based network of gravitational-wave laser interferometers in "enhanced" configuration brings the search for gravitational waves into a regime where detection is highly plausible. The development of techniques that allow us to discriminate a signal of astrophysical origin from instrumental artefacts in the interferometer data and to extract the full range...

Localized Matter and Geometry of the Dirac Field. (arXiv:0911.3671v1 [math-ph] CROSS LISTED)

Arxiv (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

Within the framework of classical field theory, the connection between the Dirac field as the field of matter and the spacetime metric is discussed. Polarization structure of the Dirac field is shown to be rich enough to determine the spacetime metric locally and to explain the emergence of observed matter as localized waveforms. The localization of the waveforms is explained as the result of the...

Can Einstein make you afraid of heights?

Chez Aspie - DJ Kirkby's blog (Free subscription) | yesterday

Can Einstein make you afraid of heights? The answer is yes. Maybe. Well actually it's ageing that may make you suddenly develop a fear of heights and with good reason. Marcus Chown explains it much better than I can in this video clip: So yeah, anyway, as I was saying; Einstein (channeled through Marcus) can explain fear of heights 'in women of a certain age' (me) . Don't tell me you didn't find that...

Evolving Chemicals

Angry Astronomer (Free subscription) | 21/11/2009

No matter the context, to Creationists, "Evolution" is a dirty word that they have to deny exists or minimize. I already have an entire series of posts about stellar evolution . But another "evolution" Creationists try to deny is the so-called "chemical evolution". What this might mean differs depending on which Creationist you're talking to (or more commonly, by how far...

Scientists stunned by restart of Euro Big Bang machine

Toronto Sun - News (Free subscription) | 21/11/2009

Scientists moved Saturday to prepare the world's largest atom smasher for exploring the depths of matter after successfully restarting the $10 billion machine following more than a year of repairs.

• Europe: Proton beams circulate in Big Bang machine - Seattle Times
• Europe: Proton beams circulate in Big Bang machine - Examiner

Quick restart of Big Bang machine stuns scientists

A View to a Thrill...Not! (Free subscription) | 21/11/2009

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer Alexander G. Higgins, GENEVA – Scientists moved Saturday to prepare the world's largest atom smasher for exploring the depths of matter after successfully restarting the $10 billion machine following more than a year of repairs. The nuclear physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider were surprised that they could so quickly get beams of protons...