beyond einstein

7/15/2019 Beyond Einstein

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WHAT POWERED

THE BIG BANG?

WHAT HAPPENS

AT THE EDGE

OF A BLACK HOLE?

WHAT IS

DARK ENERGY?

National Aeronautics andSpace Administration

Presented b y Dr. James Lochner (USRA & NASA /GSFC)



BEYOND EINSTEIN

Beyond Einstein

• Einstein’s Predictions

• Expanding Universe

• Black Holes

• Dark Energy

• Evidence for those predictions

•

Lingering Questions … • What Powered the Big Bang?

• What Happens at the Edge of a Black Hole?

• What is Dark Energy?

• … And How We’ll Answer them

• LISA

• Constellation-X

• Implications for Your Students



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Einstein changed the way we think of the universe:

•

The speed of light is the ultimate speed limit.• Time passes more slowly for observers traveling at high

speeds or near a massive body.

• Light rays can be bent passing near a massive body.

Einstein & Our Universe

These predictions have been confirmed by observations.

Einstein’s theories also made three startling predictions:

• The expansion of the Universe (from a big bang)

• Black Holes

•

Cosmological Constant(acting against pull of gravity)



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Evidence for the Expanding Universe

• We know about Expanding Universe &

Big Bang from:

• Hubble’s discovery of red-shifted

galaxies.

• Penzias & Wilson discovery of 3 K

background.

• Abundances of the light elements.

•

Big Bang alone doesn’t quite producethe universe we see.

• Inflation produces a flat universe.

• A growth spurt that stretches sub-atomic scales to

astronomical scales.

• Produces the fluctuations that lead to galaxies.



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Evidence for Black Holes

• Black holes in 3 flavors

• Stellar (5 - 15 solar masses)

o Evident in X-ray Binary Systems

• Massive (Million solar masses)

o In center of galaxies

• Intermediate (Thousand solar masses)

o Within galaxies, but not in center

• Abundant Observations and Evidence

• We measure masses (e.g from binary systems).

• We observe radiation from gaseous disks surrounding the

black hole.

• We see effects of strong gravity on nearby matter.

o First evidence for frame dragging and black hole rotation.



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Evidence for Dark Energy

Dark Energy revealed itself in a survey of

supernovae in the late 1990’s.

We can use certain types of supernovae to

determine distances to galaxies.

We then compare those distances with the

galaxy’s velocity.



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A dying star becomes a white dwarf.

1. Create a White Dwarf



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The white dwarf strips gas from its stellar companion….

2. Dump more mass onto it



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….and uses it to become a hydrogen bomb. Bang!

3. Until it explodes



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The explosion is as bright as an entire galaxy of stars….

…..and can be seen in galaxies across the universe.

4. Observe it in a distant galaxy



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Evidence for Dark Energy

SN Ia are more distant than expected.

Spacetime has expanded more than

expected.

R e d s h i f t

Distance via SN Ia



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We do not know what 95% of the universe is made of!

Dark Energy and the Universe

Flatness of Universe and amount of known

matter (and dark matter) means dark energy

makes up 70% of the Universe



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Completing Einstein’s Legacy

BIG BANG

What powered the Big Bang?

BLACK HOLESWhat happens at the edge of a Black Hole?

DARK ENERGY

What is the mysterious Dark Energy pullingthe Universe apart?

Einstein’s legacy is incomplete, his theory fails to explain the

underlying physics of the very phenomena his work predicted



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What Powered the Big Bang?

Inflation

(Big Bang plus

10-34 Seconds)

Big Bang plus300,000 Years

Big Bang plus

14 Billion Years

What Powered the Big Bang?Gravitational Waves Can Escape from

Earliest Moments of the Big Bang

Nowgravitational waves

light



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Gravitational waves coming from

Inflation period and from “phase transitions”

may be detected directly.

• Free quarks becoming bound into protons, neutrons, etc

• Decoupling of the Electroweak and Strong forces

Wavelength of the Gravitational Waves gives size of

Universe at that time.

What Powered the Big Bang?

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Sources of Gravitational Waves

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•

Black holes orbiting each other generate gravitationalwaves.

• Merging black holes also generate gravitational

waves.

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Catching a Gravitational Wave

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Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)

LISA uses a laser based Michelson

interferometer to monitor the

separation between proof masses in

separate spacecraft.

Joint ESA-NASA project

• Three spacecraft separated by 5 million km.

• Each spacecraft includes two freely falling test masses.

• Distance changes measured with precision of 4 ppm

RMS over 100 seconds.

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Close to a black hole event horizon,

extreme distortions of space & time

predicted by Einstein can be observed

Black holes are ubiquitous in the Universe

Chandra Deep Image

What Happens at the Edge of a Black

Hole?

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What Happens at the Edge of a Black

Hole?

• Japan-US ASCA satellite studied iron gas orbiting near the event horizon of a black hole.

• Iron line emission exhibits a distortion due to motion of

gas and strong gravitational effects near the black

hole.

• Line profile provides a probe of regions near blackhole.

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Measuring Black Holes via Spectroscopy

• Better determination of black hole parameters by

studying individual blobs falling into event horizon.

• Measure effects of black hole spin on nearby space-

time.

• Study intermediate size black holes.

• Growth of supermassive black holes early in the

universe.

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Constellation-X

A fleet of 4 X-ray Telescopes to perform highresolution spectroscopy on faint x-ray sources

• Each telescope 10 meter focal length.

• 4 telescopes increase the light collection area.

• Launched on two Delta rockets.

• Placed at L2 point (4x distance to moon)

• 4 - 10 year lifetime.

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Constellation-X: Achieving High

Resolution Spectroscopy

X-ray Microcalorimeter Spectrometer:Measure the heat from an x-ray to determine the

x-ray’s energy.

Resolution of 4 ev for a 6 kev x-rayenergy. (25x-100x better than current

sensitivity.)

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are needed to see this picture.

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What is the Dark Energy?

Einstein introduced the Cosmological Constant to explain what was

then thought to be a static Universe, “my biggest mistake . . . ”

Empty space has energy. It’s

gravitational effect pushes the

universe apart.

Need a form of energy that is elastic:

• Vacuum energy (= Cosmol. Const.)

• But it’s effect may be too large

• Quintessence (particle field)

Astronomical Tools: Surveillance & Interrogation

• Measure expansion via fluctuations in CMB.

• Measure expansion via more SN and clusters of

galaxies.

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Constellation-X and Dark Energy

• Dark Energy with Galaxy Clusters- Compare Distance with redshift to measure history of

expansion of the universe.

- Examine the growth of structure in the universe.

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Realizing Science Beyond Einstein

1. Einstein Great Observatories providing breakthroughincreases in capabilities to address all BeyondEinstein science:

• LISA: Gravitational waves from merging black holes and theearly Universe.

•

Constellation-X: Spectroscopy close to the event horizon of black holes and place constraints on dark side of the Universe.

2. Einstein Probes to address focused scienceobjectives:

• Determine the amount and nature of the Dark Energy.

• Search for the signature of inflation in the microwavebackground via gravitational waves.

• Take a census of Black Holes of all sizes in the Universe.

3. A technology program, theoretical studies and aneducation program to inspire future generations of scientists and engineers towards the vision:

• Directly detect the gravitational waves emitted during theBig Bang.

• Image and resolve the event horizon of a Black Hole.

Three inter-linked components that work together:

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Image a Black Hole!

0.1 arc sec resolutionHST Image M87

Black Hole Imager 0.1 micro arc sec resolution

4-8 m arc sec

Hubble, Chandra, and other observatories

are showing black holes are common place

in the Universe.

Black holes provide a unique laboratory

to test Einstein’s theory of gravity.

A future black hole imager with a resolution

one million times Hubble will observe the

effects Einstein predicted.

X-ray emission from close to the eventhorizon provides a powerful probe.

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Observe the Big Bang

• Detect the gravitational waves from the earliest

moments after the Big Bang.• Provides a direct view of the formation of space

and time.

• Big Bang Observer will also detect mergers of

neutron stars and black holes, giving the rate of expansion of the universe through time.

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Beyond Einstein Timeline

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The Story of “Beyond Einstein”

• Science is an endless frontier

• Einstein changed our way of thinking about the universe,but we are going beyond that.

• Science is a search for answers

• Nature of science inquiry

• Science as a process and as a human endeavor.

• When we do not know the answers, we work on

phrasing the questions.

• We push the envelope of what we know.

• We push the envelope of our technology.

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How did the Universebegin? Does time

have beginning & an

end? Does space

have edges? The

questions are as oldas human curiosity.

But the answers have

always seemed

beyond the reach of

science. . .until now!

The 21st Century

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Dark Energy Probe

• Determine amount of dark energy, and whether it changes.

• Ex. Search for large numbers of Type Ia supernovae.

Inflation Probe

• Map polarization of Microwave Background to search for signature of gravitational waves from the Big Bang.

Black Hole Finder Probe

• Take census of black holes in the universe

• Ex. Use wide-field X-ray telescope

Einstein Probes

Three focused missions, each designed to address a

single high priority science question:

beyond einstein

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