Ripples in universe unite theories
22 Jun 2005 by Evoluted New Media
Scientists have shown that theories of the infinitely large and the infinitely small are in agreement by studying elementary particles with no charge and very little mass
Scientists have shown that theories of the infinitely large and the infinitely small are in agreement by studying elementary particles with no charge and very little mass.
Astrophysicists from the Universities of Oxford and Rome have for the first time found evidence of ripples in the Universe’s primordial sea of neutrinos, confirming the predictions of both Big Bang theory and the Standard Model of particle physics.
Dr Roberto Trotta, Lockyer Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society at Oxford’s Department of Physics, said: “This research provides important new evidence in favour of the current cosmological model, unifying it with fundamental physics theories. Cosmology is becoming a more and more powerful laboratory where physics not easily accessible on Earth can be tested and verified.”
Although it is impossible to measure the cosmic neutrino background directly with present-day technology, physicists predict that ripples or waves in it have an impact on the growth of structures in the Universe.
The discovery was made by combining data produced by the NASA WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Dr Trotta added: “The high quality of recent cosmological data allows us to investigate neutrinos in the cosmological framework, obtaining measurements which are competitive with, if not superior to, particle accelerator findings.”
