Experiment Successfully Simulates Big Bang

Started by stromboli, August 30, 2013, 10:02:49 PM

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stromboli

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 092845.htm

QuoteThis is the first time an experiment like this has simulated the evolution of structure in the early universe," said Cheng Chin, professor in physics. Chin and his associates reported their feat in the Aug. 1 edition of Science Express, and it will appear soon in the print edition of Science.
Chin pursued the project with lead author Chen-Lung Hung, PhD'11, now at the California Institute of Technology, and Victor Gurarie of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Their goal was to harness ultracold atoms for simulations of the big bang to better understand how structure evolved in the infant universe.
The cosmic microwave background is the echo of the big bang. Extensive measurements of the CMB have come from the orbiting Cosmic Background Explorer in the 1990s, and later by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and various ground-based observatories, including the UChicago-led South Pole Telescope collaboration. These tools have provided cosmologists with a snapshot of how the universe appeared approximately 380,000 years following the Big Bang, which marked the beginning of the universe.
It turns out that under certain conditions, a cloud of atoms chilled to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) in a vacuum chamber displays phenomena similar to those that unfolded following the big bang, Hung said.
"At this ultracold temperature, atoms get excited collectively. They act as if they are sound waves in air," he said. The dense package of matter and radiation that existed in the very early universe generated similar sound-wave excitations, as revealed by COBE, WMAP and the other experiments.
The synchronized generation of sound waves correlates with cosmologists' speculations about inflation in the early universe. "Inflation set out the initial conditions for the early universe to create similar sound waves in the cosmic fluid formed by matter and radiation," Hung said.
Big bang's rippling echo
The sudden expansion of the universe during its inflationary period created ripples in space-time in the echo of the big bang. One can think of the big bang, in oversimplified terms, as an explosion that generated sound, Chin said. The sound waves began interfering with each other, creating complicated patterns. "That's the origin of complexity we see in the universe," he said.
These excitations are called Sakharov acoustic oscillations, named for Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov, who described the phenomenon in the 1960s. To produce Sakharov oscillations, Chin's team chilled a flat, smooth cloud of 10,000 or so cesium atoms to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, creating an exotic state of matter known as a two-dimensional atomic superfluid.
Then they initiated a quenching process that controlled the strength of the interaction between the atoms of the cloud. They found that by suddenly making the interactions weaker or stronger, they could generate Sakharov oscillations.
The universe simulated in Chin's laboratory measured no more than 70 microns in diameter, approximately the diameter as a human hair. "It turns out the same kind of physics can happen on vastly different length scales," Chin explained. "That's the power of physics."
The goal is to better understand the cosmic evolution of a baby universe, the one that existed shortly after the big bang. It was much smaller then than it is today, having reached a diameter of only a hundred thousand light years by the time it had left the CMB pattern that cosmologists observe on the sky today.
In the end, what matters is not the absolute size of the simulated or the real universes, but their size ratios to the characteristic length scales governing the physics of Sakharov oscillations. "Here, of course, we are pushing this analogy to the extreme," Chin said.
380,000 years versus 10 milliseconds
"It took the whole universe about 380,000 years to evolve into the CMB spectrum we're looking at now," Chin said. But the physicists were able to reproduce much the same pattern in approximately 10 milliseconds in their experiment. "That suggests why the simulation based on cold atoms can be a powerful tool," Chin said.
None of the Science co-authors are cosmologists, but they consulted several in the process of developing their experiment and interpreting its results. The co-authors especially drew upon the expertise of UChicago's Wayne Hu, John Carlstrom and Michael Turner, and of Stanford University's Chao-Lin Kuo.
Hung noted that Sakharov oscillations serve as an excellent tool for probing the properties of cosmic fluid in the early universe. "We are looking at a two-dimensional superfluid, which itself is a very interesting object. We actually plan to use these Sakharov oscillations to study the property of this two-dimensional superfluid at different initial conditions to get more information."
The research team varied the conditions that prevailed early in the history of the expansion of their simulated universes by quickly changing how strongly their ultracold atoms interacted, generating ripples. "These ripples then propagate and create many fluctuations," Hung said. He and his co-authors then examined the ringing of those fluctuations.
Today's CMB maps show a snapshot of how the universe appeared at a moment in time long ago. "From CMB, we don't really see what happened before that moment, nor do we see what happened after that," Chin said. But, Hung noted, "In our simulation we can actually monitor the entire evolution of the Sakharov oscillations."
Chin and Hung are interested in continuing this experimental direction with ultracold atoms, branching into a variety of other types of physics, including the simulation of galaxy formation or even the dynamics of black holes.
"We can potentially use atoms to simulate and better understand many interesting phenomena in nature," Chin said. "Atoms to us can be anything you want them to be."

Hydra009

QuoteChin's team chilled a flat, smooth cloud of 10,000 or so cesium atoms to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, creating an exotic state of matter known as a two-dimensional atomic superfluid.
What.

Quote"At this ultracold temperature, atoms get excited collectively. They act as if they are sound waves in air," he said.
Wat.

Quote"Inflation set out the initial conditions for the early universe to create similar sound waves in the cosmic fluid formed by matter and radiation," Hung said.
[spoil:2xila2it][/spoil:2xila2it]

I no understand this.  Any of it.

Solitary

It looks like this:  :shock:  :lol:  Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

Colanth

Quote from: "stromboli"
QuoteOne can think of the big bang, in oversimplified terms, as an explosion that generated sound, Chin said.
I wish he hadn't.  To a physicist, the important part of that sentence is "in oversimplified terms".  To Christians, it's going to be "explosion" - as in "What caused the explosion?  It had to be God."
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

Solitary

Well it does seem reasonable after what God did when he blew His top.  :lol:  :twisted:  Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

radical97

In the beginning of human thought man created his gods in his own image and was under the misgiving that he and his gods were the masters of the universe.  The humans that did not create their god in their own image physically, did give him qualities of similar thought and emotion as themselves. They also  gave him the credit for the creation of the earth as they knew it but not the universe because they themselves knew nothing about it.  Neither did their god.  The beginning of the Bible's Old Testament is similar with the so-called firmament, which meant roof.  They knew that there were little pinholes of light in this roof but had no idea what they were, because their god did not know either.  

Man has always been of the impression that its man-made supernatural being created and controlled the entire known world and all the living entities therein.  

The idea that we, the human race, a miniscule entity in this vast universe, with our own imaginary invention of an all powerful god should have created everything is the height of egomania.  We think we are so important that we had a hand in the creation of this universe and everything in it.  We take credit for every small detail of this earth and its creatures; the thoughts, actions and emotions through our self-made supernatural master.  

The so-called creationists, the epitome of all egotists, even talk to this man-made illusion and ask for help in their daily life thinking that their god is the one who created them and all the other humans on the earth.  They know that they were created by him according to the book of Jewish mythology, Genesis.  Evolution and anything else scientific that differs from the Bible is considered to be blasphemy and untrue.  But even the Catholic Church accepts evolution.  In the 1950 encyclical Humani generis, Pope Pius XII confirmed that there is no intrinsic conflict between Christianity and the theory of evolution, provided that Christians believe that the individual soul is a direct creation by God and not the product of purely material forces.    

This is a shift in regard to the fact that as late as 1633 the leaders of the Vatican persecuted the astronomer Galileo for having the arrogance to declare that the Earth was not the center of the universe.  However, he was fortunate in the fact that in 1600, a man named Giordano Bruno was convicted of being a heretic for believing that the earth moved around the Sun, and that there were many planets throughout the universe where life existed. Bruno was burnt to death.  

Most rational people do not believe in all the creation stories handed down through the centuries and have the intelligence to trace and understand evolution even as far as the universe is concerned.  Many can go back to the big bang theory, the original singularity of infinite density.  But there it usually stops.  Even the most rational may say, so who created that?  Why would it be, who?  Why would it come down to the man-made creator?  

All people have a spirituality.  We are born with it.  Some may call it a god gene.  But it is there.  As dogs spontaneously and without being taught scratch up the turf and dirt to cover up their bodily waste.   As most young boys play with trucks and most young girls play with dolls; it is hereditary.  It is normal for even the strongest atheist to think "who" created the big bang? But it shouldn't be.

Realists could think of god if, it must be, as an unknown force, with nothing to do with the fates and actions of human beings.  A force like gravity.  A force in the universe similar to light with no human attributes.  Just there and always there. The original singularity and more, much more.  Nothing to explain and nothing explainable.  A simple force of nature that is responsible for the birth and death of stars, comets, nebulae, black holes and yes, the creation itself.

Jack89

Quote from: "Colanth"
Quote from: "stromboli"
QuoteOne can think of the big bang, in oversimplified terms, as an explosion that generated sound, Chin said.
I wish he hadn't.  To a physicist, the important part of that sentence is "in oversimplified terms".  To Christians, it's going to be "explosion" - as in "What caused the explosion?  It had to be God."
Or, around 14 billion years ago, an overly curious physicist tried to "simulate" a big bang, and the experiment went horribly wrong.

josephpalazzo

Quote from: "Jack89"
Quote from: "Colanth"I wish he hadn't.  To a physicist, the important part of that sentence is "in oversimplified terms".  To Christians, it's going to be "explosion" - as in "What caused the explosion?  It had to be God."
Or, around 14 billion years ago, an overly curious physicist tried to "simulate" a big bang, and the experiment went horribly wrong.

An accident-proned physicist as the creator of the universe... hmmm, could be the start of a new religion... :P

Plu

I leave for a few days and some fucking scientist decides to simulate the big bang. I can never go anywhere, sheesh  :roll:

Brian37

Quote from: "Colanth"
Quote from: "stromboli"
QuoteOne can think of the big bang, in oversimplified terms, as an explosion that generated sound, Chin said.
I wish he hadn't.  To a physicist, the important part of that sentence is "in oversimplified terms".  To Christians, it's going to be "explosion" - as in "What caused the explosion?  It had to be God."

Easy refutation to this is "Which one, and let me guess, the one you just happen to suck the dick of".

It couldn't be that believers make up gods because it reflects their own personal desires.

It frightens humans that "all this" is not for them, and we are simply part of a finite ride.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers." Obama
Poetry By Brian37 Like my poetry on Facebook Under BrianJames Rational Poet and also at twitter under Brianrrs37

Colanth

Quote from: "Jack89"
Quote from: "Colanth"
Quote from: "stromboli""One can think of the big bang, in oversimplified terms, as an explosion that generated sound", Chin said.
I wish he hadn't.  To a physicist, the important part of that sentence is "in oversimplified terms".  To Christians, it's going to be "explosion" - as in "What caused the explosion?  It had to be God."
Or, around 14 billion years ago, an overly curious physicist tried to "simulate" a big bang, and the experiment went horribly wrong.
Or sublimely right?

(Anyone remember the name of the sci-fi story with the same theme?)

Now he visits occasionally and laughs his ass off.  That maniacal laughter is NOT Satan, it's the creator of the universe - a pimple-faced high school cosmology student.
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.