Gravity Waves --- maybe. Stay tuned...


BaalChatzaf

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From the article:

They are minuscule ripples in the fabric of the universe that carry energy across space, somewhat similar to waves crossing an ocean . . . . It (the “bicep” telescope) scans the sky at microwave frequencies, where it picks up the fossil energy from the big bang.

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So, though they are calling it “gravity” waves it is really something that would only have been created in the first instance after the “Big Bang.” If something other than it’s earliest affects can now be seen, through the interference of galaxies in the way, then it may never be created again. Yet could “it” still exist as dark matter, I wonder? But then my first year college physics tells me a ripple, or a wave, is not actually matter since I don’t think anyone has ever seen a graviton. And now the Big Debate begins.

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General Relativity (GR) predicts a finite universe that's in a steady state. With the observations of Hubble, however, we know that the universe, while finite, is expanding. This required a revision of GR that was done by others, based upon the differential geometry of Wyl...another story.

Independent of any theory, we also have 20+ year old evidence that waves bounce off of the universe's rim, and are therefore received. So the search for gravitational waves is normal science, given said ability to receive, which is an instrumental issue. In this respect, there's the possibility of an announcement tomorrow!

Because Special Relativity (SR) demonstrates the conversion of matter to energy and back, gravity adheres to both. This tends to clump gravity, making the calculations based upon light obviously a bit difficult.

Fortunately, this bending of light around gravity was calculated by Einstein the original GR formulation. The curvature is said to be 'Ricci', expressed as a Riemannian 'tensor'. The reason why this is important is that the article referred to GR, but erred I believe, as to why GR is important. It's the process of measurement, not the finite, 'rooftop' prediction.

EM

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