from the infinite-particles-in-the-big-city dept.
It was a cold night in a dark Universe. I was working on my latest case; Searching for evidence of Gravity waves. We knew there were there; but the damn things kept slipping away like another murderer in Chicago.
We thought we had it cold; Antarctic cold that is, with the BICEP researchers who used a telescope based at the South Pole. The Data looked clear - we thought we had our evidence and could bring it in. Then the Planck team showed up. That data clearly showed that the whole damn scene had been compromised with Interstellar dust. THE BICEP team went back to find a way to merge the data and find the bastard; and I moved on.
I moved down to my back office; Joe's place was seedy, the whiskey watered, but the jazz was good. And that's when it hit me. Saavik Ford was on the Vibraphone; as he played along you could tell that each note would just barely sound up other notes on the board. I pulled up my smartphone and called up Science Daily. There it was. I knocked back a double before i finished the article.
The case was still open, but we had our lead - right there in the stars.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tynin on Thursday September 25 2014, @08:17PM
Thanks for tossing together a little creative noir filling in recent news on gravity waves.
(Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Thursday September 25 2014, @08:37PM
Well it is a dark matter...
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Thursday September 25 2014, @08:59PM
Thank you.
(Score: 1) by J053 on Thursday September 25 2014, @09:36PM
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday September 25 2014, @10:25PM
This has got to be the best summary I've ever read. Gives the links to the data, has fun with the story, get you curious about the subject and doesn't ask some inane question to try and start a discussion.
As to the G-wave mystery, well. I have my own views on them. We know they exist, the decay of a binary neutron star system proved that (orbital decay matched theory perfectly) but I feel that we need to rethink how G-waves propagate through space-time.
Right now I'm thinking gravity wave either propagate FTL (yeah, yeah, Einstein, causality, etc.. I still have yet to hear why not) or they propagate in a way we haven't thought about yet (outside the 4 dimensions of Space-Time?)
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 25 2014, @10:31PM
"I still have yet to hear why not"
Because the theory that predicts they exist at all, and which you've even implicitly cited in your comment ("orbital decay matched theory perfectly" - that theory is general relativity), predicts that they propagate at the speed of light.
"or they propagate in a way we haven't thought about yet"
Because the theory that predicts that they exist at all predicts that they, well, Jesus fucking shits, they're a fucking wave in the metric. What on Earth are you talking about? If they "propagate in a way we haven't thought about yet" then you're talking about a totally different type of theory, which means that you can't even begin to talk about them the way you are. We work with metric-based theories of gravity. Gravitational waves are nothing more or less than waves in the metric. The metric determines spacetime. You can make gravity consist of twenty space and fifteen time dimensions if you like but if you describe it with a metric you'll end up with gravitational waves the way we have in GR - but with added causality problems to go with the fact you'll struggle to match reality with it.
I know it's rough to ask that people know what the bloody hell they're talking about but sometimes, honestly, if you're going to say "well. I have my own views on them" try and make sure those views are based on something more than masturbating over a book by Brian fucking Greene.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 25 2014, @11:48PM
Or, because they change the metric of ST and your experimental setup is submerged in the same ST , you don't have a chance to measure them,
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Friday September 26 2014, @07:11PM
I think the puzzle has just been solved. If stars absorb gravity waves in resonant oscillation, then the prediction is that much (most?) of the energy of gravity waves will be absorbed and converted to something else before it ever reaches us. There are LOTS of start. So the only ones we have much chance of detecting are the ones that are fairly close. Probably within the galaxy, possibly in this half of the galaxy. (I do think we ought to be able to sense the central black hole swallowing a star, however. But that doesn't happen very often, and you need to be looking at the right time. Or a supernova should do it. But those aren't common either.
This, though, should make the predicted energy level of distant gravity wave sources to be a LOT less.
The problem with detecting the oscillation of stars to gravity waves is that stars are pretty noisy things to observe. Lots of things could cause any particular deviation from normal. So I'm not convinced that it will be possible to prove with reasonable certainty that gravity waves exist by measuring stars. (Unless they were of low enough frequency that the entire start moved visibly.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by Gravis on Thursday September 25 2014, @10:34PM
why have you added bullshit story telling to what should be news? the quality of summaries from SN is dropping to the point where i feel like just going back to /.
this isnt intended as a troll but it is an uncomfortable truth and i wont sugarcoat it.
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Friday September 26 2014, @03:09AM
What bullshit? Must news be read in a dry tone?
What you have there is an opinion, not any kind of "truth".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Friday September 26 2014, @03:36AM
"Gravity Waves, a Noir"
The gravitational news, is news, and is here. It specifically stated in the title that it was an attempt at a Noir representation of the subject, and hence explicitly a form of art.
God forbid we expose ourselves to art. This is not News For Nerds. The is Soylent is People. Perhaps we like a little bit of art in the news presented to us.
I don't get it either, you sound snobby. This Noir thing is a perfect excuse to break out the wine and cheese and discuss things like the intellectuals do at the coffee shops. Perhaps some mad hijinks like Frasier. Maybe something happened to the cheese?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @08:11AM
If I wanted art, I'd go seek out an art website. I come here for news and discussion, not to read middle-school creative writing. The article author's idea of Noir is a tired cliché at this point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @09:52AM
Looking at the comments so far, the majority liked it.
And so did I, BTW.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @05:29PM
Pipedot, here I come!
(Score: 2) by jcross on Friday September 26 2014, @01:28PM
Of course it's a tired cliche, that's why it's amusing to bend the trope into a story about physics. People like it for the same reason they like Garrison Keiler's "Guy Noir, Private Eye" skits. I think there's some word for this practice on tvtropes, but it's not coming to mind.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 26 2014, @10:12PM
There is news and discussion, you are worried about presentation style, metadata. Well everybody is a critic.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Blackmoore on Friday September 26 2014, @01:51PM
Look i have to admit that in part this came out of boredom. in part due to that damn narrator who's stuck in my head.
I get this idea that this Narrator (perhaps he's just a hard-boiled Astrophysicists) is looking for answers for the hard questions, as if he was looking for a kidnapped wife or child.
I suspect he'll be back. Dont expect this to be a common re-occurrence.
(Score: 2) by weeds on Friday September 26 2014, @02:48PM
As I read it, heard Garrison Keeler's Guy Noir voice in my head.
Well done.
In my opinion there is nothing wrong with a little imaginative reporting.
It was not a chore to find the story in there and it conveyed the mood.
Get money out of politics! [mayday.us]
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Friday September 26 2014, @03:05PM
Thank you. I think I'll do another at some point. It is too damn short, and not really all that engaging.
Next time I'll try for something longer with a lot more meat to it (both in true science and trope details)
(Score: 2) by SuperCharlie on Friday September 26 2014, @12:50AM
Read it out loud in the tone and mood to the wife and we enjoyed not thoroughly. Well done 😀
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 26 2014, @11:54AM
Very clever write-up.
Best Regards,
Hugh Pickens