Scientists have reported the largest blast of energy ever recorded from a far-off quasar, some two trillion times more energetic than the sun. The discovery may explain confusing discrepancies between the observed and predicted masses of black holes.
Quasars are extremely bright galaxy cores, at the center of which sits a black hole. Their light is generated when material is sucked into that black hole, creating large amounts of energy.
But quasars are also capable of emitting that energy back out, away from the black hole, and one of those emissions is what the researchers, led by Nahum Arav of Virginia Tech, observed.
The team used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, located in Paranal, Chile.
Energy outflows from quasars on the scale of what Arav’s team observed have been predicted for some time by theorists, but have never been recorded by researchers.
The existence of such emissions may answer a question that has intrigued astrophysicists for some time. While theoretical models of the universe tend to approximate what researchers observe, one major difference has persevered: Theoretical models tend to overestimate the mass of black holes relative to the rest of the galaxy. If quasars are ejecting energy at the rate observed by Arav’s team, that could explain where that mass goes.
But the theory rests on the notion that such emissions are fairly common, and the team’s discovery is the first such emission researchers have observed. As a result, Arav and his team now want to find more powerful quasar emissions to cement the idea.
If they can’t, Arav says, the quasar emissions may not tell the whole story.
Unexpected data from the Large Hadron Collider suggest the collisions may be producing a new type of matter.
Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
Collisions between protons and lead ions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have produced surprising behavior in some of the particles created by the collisions. The new observation suggests the collisions may have produced a new type of matter known as color-glass condensate.
When beams of particles crash into each other at high speeds, the collisions yield hundreds of new particles, most of which fly away from the collision point at close to the speed of light. However, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) team at the LHC found that in a sample of 2 million lead-proton collisions, some pairs of particles flew away from each other with their respective directions correlated.
“Somehow they fly at the same direction even though it’s not clear how they can communicate their direction with one another. That has surprised many people, including us,” says MIT physics professor Gunther Roland, whose group led the analysis of the collision data along with Wei Li, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at Rice University.
A paper describing the unexpected findings will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Physical Review B and is now available on arXiv.
The MIT heavy-ion group, which includes Roland and MIT physics professors Bolek Wyslouch and Wit Busza, saw the same distinctive pattern in proton-proton collisions about two years ago. The same flight pattern is also seen when ions of lead or other heavy metals, such as gold and copper, collide with each other.
Those heavy-ion collisions produce a wave of quark gluon plasma, the hot soup of particles that existed for the first few millionths of a second after the Big Bang. In the collider, this wave sweeps some of the resulting particles in the same direction, accounting for the correlation in their flight paths.
It has been theorized that proton-proton collisions may produce a liquid-like wave of gluons, known as color-glass condensate. This dense swarm of gluons may also produce the unusual collision pattern seen in proton-lead collisions, says Raju Venugopalan, a senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, who was not involved in the current research.
Venugopalan and his former student Kevin Dusling theorized the existence of color-glass condensate shortly before the particle direction correlation was seen in proton-proton collisions. While protons at normal energy levels consist of three quarks, they tend to gain an accompanying cluster of gluons at higher energy levels. These gluons exist as both particles and waves, and their wave functions can be correlated with each other. This “quantum entanglement” explains how the particles that fly away from the collision can share information such as direction of flight path, Venugopalan says.
The correlation is “a very tiny effect, but it’s pointing to something very fundamental about how quarks and gluons are arranged spatially within a proton,” he says.
The CMS researchers originally set out to use the lead-proton collisions as a “reference system” for comparison with lead-lead collisions.
“You don’t expect quark gluon plasma effects” with lead-proton collisions, Roland says. “It was supposed to be sort of a reference run — a run in which you can study background effects and then subtract them from the effects that you see in lead-lead collisions.”
That run lasted only four hours, but in January, the CMS collaboration plans to do several weeks of lead-proton collisions, which should allow them to establish whether the collisions really are producing a liquid, Roland says. This should help narrow down the possible explanations and determine if the effects seen in proton-proton, lead-proton and lead-lead collisions are related.
“The universe may be growing in the same way as a giant brain – with the electrical firing between brain cells ‘mirrored’ by the shape of expanding galaxies.”
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
By Michael Rundle
Posted: 27/11/2012 09:59 GMT
Updated: 27/11/2012 12:38 GMT
The idea of the universe as a ‘giant brain’ has been proposed by scientists – and science fiction writers – for decades.
But now physicists say there may be some evidence that it’s actually true. In a sense.
According to a study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, the universe may be growing in the same way as a giant brain – with the electrical firing between brain cells ‘mirrored’ by the shape of expanding galaxies.
The results of a computer simulation suggest that “natural growth dynamics” – the way that systems evolve – are the same for different kinds of networks – whether its the internet, the human brain or the universe as a whole.
A co-author of the study, Dmitri Krioukov from the University of California San Diego, said that while such systems appear very different, they have evolved in very similar ways.
The result, they argue, is that the universe really does grow like a brain.
The study raises profound questions about how the universe works, Krioukov said.
“For a physicist it’s an immediate signal that there is some missing understanding of how nature works,” he told Space.com.
The team’s simulation modelled the very early life of the universe, shortly after the big bang, by looking at how quantum units of space-time smaller than subatomic particles ‘networked’ with each other as the universe grew.
They found that the simulation mirrored that of other networks. Some links between similar nodes resulted in limited growth, while others acted as junctions for many different connections.
For instance, some connections are limited and similar – like a person who likes sports visiting many other sports websites – and some are major and connect to many other parts of the network, like Google and Yahoo.
No, it doesn’t quite mean that the universe is ‘thinking’ – but as has been previously pointed out online, it might just mean there’s more similarity between the very small and the very large than first appearances suggest.
Professor Raymond P. Wheeler (University of Kansas) compiled 20 centuries of historical records, and concluded from his studies that there exists a most important 100-year-cycle of climatic changes that influences human affairs in a profound manner.
The cycle occurs in four distinct phases, which are descriptive of worldwide conditions rather than specific areas. The four phases are disturbed by secondary leads and delays — as much as 10 years — in isolated and widely separated areas.Prof. Wheeler stated:
“The climatic curve is intended to represent — as far as one curve can — the weather trend in the world as a whole at any one time. The curve has no absolute significance. The meaning of the curve at any one time is relative to the pattern of the 100-year old cycle as a whole.”
The 100-year weather cycle and its phases are not of precisely equal duration. The cycle can contract to 70 years or expand to 120. The cycle is divided into a warm and a cold phase, each of which has a wet and dry period. Because people are affected by weather, the cycles of weather produce similar patterns of behavior and events in history during the same phases of the century-long weather cycle. The phases are: (1) Cold-Dry, (2) Warm-Wet, (3) Warm-Dry, and (4) Cold-Wet. We are now in a cold-dry phase, which will prevail until about 2000 A.D.
Lisbon Great Earthquake
Dr. Wheeler extended his research to reveal a continuous, universal cultural pattern of “mechanism” alternating with “humanism” that occurs throughout history synchronously with the 100-year weather cycle. During the warm and humanistic phases of the historical weather cycle, emphasis is placed on holistics: the whole person’s relationship to the world and society, basic laws of nature, modernistic art and architecture, and political “statism” emphasizing nationalism, the welfare of the nation over that of individuals. In the extreme case, dictatorships and other “absolute” forms of tyrannical government emerge, including communism and socialism. Major international wars come to pass during every warm phase of the 100-year weather cycle, when nations are powerful enough to wage such wars. During the emergence of the holistic trend, this statism degenerates into despotism in its many forms. The warm weather effectively decreases human energies and birthrates, and eventually brings about economic depression and social dependence that cannot support a war effort. Aristocratic forms of social organization prevail, rather than democracy. Warm weather produces luxury, small families, “golden ages”, and “classical” literature and art. Business booms at the end of a warm cycle, when temperatures are falling and a cold-wet phase is about to begin. Depression sets in thereafter. Such a scenario was last in effect in 1975.
During the cold and mechanistic phases of the historical weather cycle, human thought and activity is largely directed at “units” rather than whole systems: atoms, cells, numbers, individual responses, classification of data, and complexity of detail. Cold climates make us aggressive and independent, and promote revolution, civil war, and anarchy, which leads eventually and ultimately to popular reforms under democratic societies, large families, simple lifestyles, “romantic” literature and “dark ages”. Over 90% of the rulers and leaders who have been titled “great” and called “good” by historians held their positions during the cold-dry nation-building phases of the 100-year weather cycle. They helped lead their people out of the chaos marked by class riots, assassinations, and sabotage. Dr. Wheeler wrote:
“In short, there has been a pattern on the cold side that has transposed from one cold period to another throughout history, a pattern whose extreme form has been anarchy pure and simple, ranging from wars, intrigue and treachery among the governors and their loyal followers to commercial war, race and religious riots, and armed civil war among the governed. All this is the fanatic aspect of cold times. The “lethargic” aspect has always assumed the form of neglect, debauchery, and extravagance on the part of the rulers and the upper classes, and listlessness, pauperism, begging, itineracy, rapine and vagabondage among the lower classes.
“[The cold-dry phase is characterized by] General individualism, with weak governments, migrations, and other mob actions such as race riots. Class struggles, and civil wars ranging from palace intrigues to revolutions occur during the general anarchy of the Cold-Dry period. People are cosmopolitan and epicurean, borrowing culture and living by the superficial and skeptical philosophies.
“[The cold-dry phase is marked by major geophysical phenomena, including] an increase in the severity of earthquakes and volcanoes… a lowering of continental altitudes, with marine invasions on the upswings and mountain building on the downswings.”
Weather is coldest during the cold-dry phase. Near the end of the cold-dry phase, societies become stabilized by strong leadership, reformed governments, and a revival of nationalism. The wars in this phase are expansionary and imperialistic. The transition from the cold-dry to the following warm-wet period is characterized by a revival of learning, burgeoning genius, industrial revolution, and bountiful crops. Human behavior is improved by the high energy level:
“With increased vigor as a base (whatever the physiological causes may be), optimum conditions for an abundance of available energy for work occur during the period of climatic normality and on the upward crossing, or transition, from cold to warm. This is the “springtime” of the climatic cycle, while the preceding cold period was the “wintertime”. On the upswing, more than in any other place on the cycle, the human race possesses energy, above that necessary for a maintenance of the physiological engine… Here, mental and physical energy are at a maximum: hence the appearance of both good leadership and good followership; economic and political aggressiveness and enthusiasm; ability to exercise more self-control and make better judgments; predominance of constructive measures and the absence of decadent modes of behavior. With all of these are associated a greater incidence of genius, a generally higher birthrate, a more stable behavior, and a higher moral tone of society. Moreover, physical conditions are then the most favorable for economic prosperity and for the growth of stationary societies, dominated by city life, for rainfall is ample and crops are good.
“The Golden Ages of history, the best in human health and leadership, cultural output, the great periods of economic and political growth and expansion, have occurred after a toughening process has been going on that has revitalized the race and the biological level. Moreover, during cold times cultures came in contact with one another during migrations, travel exploration and colonization — all of which extended to some extent into the earlier part of the warm period.
“In the hands of a new generation, a fresh natural spirit wells up, and revolts occur against frustration. Enthusiasm, optimism, and aggressiveness, organized through a social revolution, result in a new state… As democratic government continues, it tends to become bureaucratic — either in the hands of leftovers from the previously dominant aristocracy or in the hands of a new generation of rulers who have come into power through intrigue, wealth or some other form of leverage. A new set of rebellions breaks out following the dry years of the cold side; and during these rebellions, effort is made to overcome the evils of decadence in the democratic pattern, or the tyranny left over from the previous warm times…
“A strong leader comes to the front. A new Golden Age is on, and a new cycle of imperialism begins. The revolutions result at first in the democratic reforms, because they begin on the cold side. Were it to remain cold, these reforms would remain; but as it becomes warmer, the more power the “radical” party assumes.
“After a reign of terror, the new spirit coalesces into a strong, centralized government which, from the standpoint of individual rights, is reactionary.
“During cold times the government usually attempts to control the persecution of racial or other minorities, but during the warm droughts, persecutions almost always have been government-sanctioned or government-promoted events.
“The warm-wet phase sees the climax of organized accomplishments characterized by cooperative, integrated efforts rather than individual achievements. Governments become centralized and inflexible.
“During periods of warm-dry weather, “good” (i.e., democratic) governments decline and decay under bureaucratic tyranny and plutocracy or dictatorial oligarchy. Totalitarian governments reach their climax when temperatures are highest during the warm-dry phase of the 100-year weather cycle. Concerning this, Dr. Wheeler wrote:
“It is only on the upswing and during the early part of the warm period that strong governments manifested “good” qualities such as liberality, constructiveness, benevolence, humanitarianism, foresight and stability.
“As the warm period continues, as imperialism increases, and as the state becomes militarized, the reactionary movement becomes absolutistic and totalitarian, whether under a king, a Duce, a Fuhrer or a “dictatorship of the proletariat”. The latter, by the way, is a complete misnomer as far as realities are concerned. There is no such thing as a dictatorship of the proletariat. The only way in which the proletariat has ever “ruled” at any time in history — and the only way in which it can rule — is through truly democratic movements.
(NOTE: I personally disagree of some of the portrayed being tagged as despots)
“Sometimes there is a cold break in a warm period (but not a true cold phase), usually at the peak of the sunspot cycle. Then the general energy level of the populace begins to rise, and civil wars erupt. A reformed government with new leadership then comes to power…
“Thus, when it turns cold, the individual thinks of himself first. A combination of increased energy, hardship, discontent; an over-centralized and tyrannical government; disgust with growing decadence, spurs him to fight for his individual rights. Here comes the realization that society can be improved only through the work and free expression of the capable individual.
“But because the cool break is only an interruption (only one to ten years) of the longer overall warm phase, the democratic reforms implemented then cannot survive. The state subsequently depletes its economy and its people, body and soul, in continual warfare until such capabilities become utterly exhausted by the inevitable subsequent extreme warm temperatures and drought. Dr. Wheeler explained such behavior thus:
“There are, in general, two categories into which forms of insanity fall. While these are not inclusive, they cover the majority of cases. The one category includes depression, lethargy, seclusion, flight from reality, indifference, lack of emotional tone, schizophrenia, inaction. The other includes elation, overactivity, mania, excessive emotionality, belligerence and dangerous forms of paranoia. Mental deterioration or decline, then, expresses itself either way, dividing most individuals into these two psychotic groups. On the other hand, the normal individual will fluctuate, under pressure, from one mood — the depressed and indifferent — to the other — the manic and overactive. In an extreme form, either mood is a sign of weakness.
“Societies revealed many of the same characteristics when they became unstable, or went into decline, on the warm side; for it was here that there broke out fanaticism, cruelty, and intolerance as measured by inquisitions, persecutions, pogroms, massacres, and tortures, all state-promoted. Either indifference of fanaticism in a people, then, is a sign of weakness.
Alessandro Magnasco, Interrogations in Jail
“It turned out that the more democratic countries or states generally declined through indifference, while the totalitarian and more dynamic states declined through fanaticism. The first political “psychosis” was more often Western, and the latter, Eastern; or, the first characterized by older states that had gone through several cycles; the second, the younger states of more recent unification. In any case, the appearance of these traits was certain indication of an imminent collapse into civil war.
“Again, a combination of causes — economic, political, psychological, biological, and climatic — leads to the next phase in the cycle of events. Before political unity has declined, and while fanaticism is still controlling governmental policy, temperatures start dropping, and the national spirit revives and plays into the hands of a decadent and despotic leadership. This imperialism bursts forth once more and international wars break out on the warm side of the downswing.
“We have noted that there is a strong tendency for state-promoted persecutions, pogroms, and massacres to occur during the warm-dry phases of the 100-year cycle. A graphic example is the horrible treatment by the [Nazis] of Jews in World War II.
“All of this results from the fact that, whenever it is warm for an extended period, the individual becomes less important. It is then that he is killed with the least compunction; it is then that the fanatic sacrifice for the state reaches its highest combination of circumstances…
“Wars fought during downswings of the weather cycle have always evidenced more betrayals and sabotage, and less resistance to the invasion, even inviting it at times.
“The transition to the subsequent cold-wet period is marked by decadence, which degenerates further to widespread cruelty, slavery, and slaughter, further to widespread cruelty, slavery, and slaughter, as in WW2. When the average temperature falls and rainfall increases, a general revival commences with good crops and increased activity.
“During the cold-wet phase of the Wheeler Weather Cycle, government and business become decentralized. Individualism revives in a natural, emancipated behavior. Art becomes simpler, education is increasingly “mechanistic”. These trends eventually climax in the anarchy characteristic of the cold-dry phase which follows.
“Absolutist governments will not thrive in a cold phase, when the invigorating or uncomfortable weather brings out increased expression of social discontent.
“The cold-wet phase is characterized by large sunspots appearing temporarily in a shortened sunspot cycle, and displays of the aurora borealis extending to temperate zones, lower temperatures, and increased storminess. The cold phases of the 100-year weather cycle are interrupted by a temperature rise during the sunspot maximum. Society experiences an increased birthrate, improved general health and mental vigor, mass migrations of the populace to rural areas, economic prosperity, international trade, and other forms of intercultural exchange.”
Dr. Wheeler also was able to elucidate the presence of 500-year cycles of climate throughout 2,500 years of history. Alternate 500-year cycles produce a secondary climax of extreme cold and drought coupled with massive migrations and great revolutions of society. The end of each second 500-year cycle also marks the end of a 1,000-year cycle which Dr. Wheeler also detected. The 1,000-year cycle has a very warm period in its center. Alternate 500-year cycles always end during the warm phase in the middle of the 1,000-year cycle.
The 500-year cycle of weather is distinguished by the unusual severity of every fifth cold phase in the 100-year cycle. These have occurred in the 5th century BC, and the 1st, 5th, 10th and 15th centuries A.D. Dr. Wheeler stated:
“The turning points (between old and new civilizations) occur when cold-dry times reach their maximum severity.”
Dr. Wheeler designed a “clock” of the cycles of Cold, Drought, and Civil War, illustrated in Figure 6.3. The 170-year Cycle of Civil War and the 510-year Cycle of Drought intersect at 1999, at which time we can expect another engulfing crisis. (15, 16)
Another 510-year pattern occurs in the rhythm of world dominance, alternating between the East and West. In the 510 years after about 670 BC, when the Greek and Ptolemaic empires declined, Rome entered into its peak of development. After 60 BC, Rome weakened while Asian empires developed. After 450 A.D., the Byzantine and Oriental powers declined, and Charlemagne’s empire grew, as did Britain. The next 510 years were dominated by Eastern power (Genghis and Kublai Khan, etc.). After 1470, Europe unified and extended its imperial dominion over the earth, and the United States came into power.
The next great shift of power is to the East and is exemplified by the ascendancy of China, Japan, and Russia. We are now in the 27th cold-dry phase of the 100-year weather cycle since 540 BC, and the first such since the 1800s. This is also the fifth — and coldest — phase of the 6th 500-year cycle of weather determined by Dr. Wheeler. Also, we are approaching the climax of a 1,000-year weather cycle that will produce record high temperatures during the first half of the 21st century.
Furthermore, according to Dr. Wheeler, there are possible indications that we are in a period of “reversal” of the alternate 1,000-year weather cycle, in which the evolution of humanity will take a leap forward:
“A new and probably different series of species of similar general form will begin soon, and thus the Earth is about to begin a new phase of history.
“Old civilizations collapse and new civilizations are born on the tide of climatic change. The turning points occur when cold-dry times reach their maximum severity.
“The problem is to expand democracy by voluntary means, preserving democratic institutions and laws while the expansion process is being achieved. Now, during the next few decades, this new and powerful class of voters, the laborers, must, in a sense, be absorbed into the middle class and be given middle-class concepts of free enterprise and democracy. While assuming greater responsibility, they must experience success in helping democracy work, or else, when it turns warm again and centralizing trends are under way once more, there will be nothing but stagnation and ruin ahead. If this happens, the next warm period will produce a despotism as catastrophic for modern civilizations of Greece and Rome.
“By the proper emphasis upon education in our schools and by the proper cooperation between capital and management on one hand and labor on the other, such a catastrophe can be prevented. During the next few decades when both the middle class and labor are democratically minded is the time to stabilize our institutions — enriched by the contributions and cooperation of labor — to the end that they will not collapse in the warm periods to come.
“The conflict between labor and management contains no necessary threat to society and will not culminate in socialism or communism. When viewed in the light of historical ecology, it is only the next step and expected in the evolution of true democracy. The net result of the revolution will, in the end, be greater opportunity and freedom for all classes.
“Three main facts pertain to the rise and fall of governments, that, all through the investigation, were so invariable and their relationship to climate so precise as to challenge any attempt at explanation in general terms
“First, there were the occurrences of Golden Ages, the rise of strong governments under superior leaders, the outburst of international wars on climatic upswings from long cold periods into the warm-wet phase of the climatic cycle.
“Second, the decline, onset of decadence, the growing excesses of centralized government, the emergence of dictators, tyranny, fanaticism, communism, and socialism, as the warm epoch continued, and as temperatures and dryness increased.
“Third, the occurrence of civil wars, rebellions, and revolutions, the origin and growth of democratic institutions and individualism, during cold periods… No law of chance can explain the fact that undemocratic trends are invariably associated with the warmer climatic phases, and democratic trends with the colder phases. No law of chance can explain why international wars so consistently predominate on the warm side and civil wars on the cold. Relationship so consistent, universal and precise point directly to a causal factor or set of causal factors.”
Dr. Wheeler also found that a slight average annual temperature change will produce profound changes in human behavior:
“A difference in mean annual temperature of no greater than 1.5 F, when prevailing consistently for no longer than half a decade, is sufficient, anywhere on earth, to start changes in the human behavior pattern in one direction or the other.”
Dr. Ellsworth Huntington determined the optimum temperatures for human performance to be 38 F for mental activity, and 68-70 F for physical action. The best climate for the full range of human life ranges between the mean annual temperatures of 2-47 F At this time the zones with such an optimal temperature range extend from Great Britain across Europe to the Black Sea and the Ural Mountains, across North America between southern Canada and the northeast and northwest USA, and Japan. The area of optimal temperature can be extended to include central China, the northern parts of Africa and South America, southeast Australia, and New Zealand.
The mean global temperature has decreased over 2.7 Fsince 1945. Meanwhile, the Arctic and Antarctic ice covers have increased over 15% since 1966, and glaciers in North America and Europe have begun to advance again, whereas until 1940 they had been retreating. These and many other weather signs indicate that e are now in a Cold-Dry phase of the 100-year weather cycle, and may even be entering into a mini-Ice Age.
Raymond H Wheeler
Most of the material that we have about Wheeler is found in the book Climate: The Key To Understanding Business Cycles by Raymond Wheeler, (Revised & Edited by Michael Zahorchak). This volume summarizes Raymond H. Wheeler’s extensive research with long climatic cycles and their relationship to the business cycle. In the 1930’s Wheeler began a lifetime study that analyzed world climate and cultural activities back to the dawn of recorded civilization.
Wheeler was also the creator of a huge volume known as “The Big Book” which was housed at the Foundation for the Study of Cycles until the late 1990s.
Wheeler corresponded with Dewey, and observed on one occasion that often cycles were found with similar numerical values for their periods even though in different units. This may be seen as equivalent to Dewey’s proportions of 2 and 3 and products of these, because that will link from months to years for example.
The End Of All Crossroads 