Calculating how electromagnetic waves propagate in a plasma is almost everyday life for physicists. Today, some of them have had the idea of applying these methods to the study of gravitational waves. With the hope of finally accessing the beginning of time.
Gravitational waves. These are strange ripples from the curvature of thespace-timespace-time. The fabric of our UniverseUniverse. Albert EinsteinEinstein predicted their existence as early as 1916. But it took 100 years for it to be confirmed. And today, it is in the hope of catching a glimpse of the very beginning of time that researchers at Princeton University (United States) are counting on these funny waves. More exactly on the way in which they could affect the matter and the radiations than the astronomersastronomers observe today.
Because they have developed formulas that could, theoretically, cause gravitational waves to reveal hidden properties of bodies that navigate our Universe. When waves pass through matter, they create energy. lightlight whose characteristics depend on the density of said material. Analyzing this light could thus give access to the properties ofstarsstars millions of light-years away. And even information dating back to the Big Bang period.
Go back to the Big Bang thanks to the experience of nuclear fusion
How did the researchers proceed? Based on work on nuclear fusion. Yes, the one that powers our Sun and the stars. The one also which we hope will bring usenergyenergy that we will need in the future.
For some time now, scientists studying the nuclear fusionnuclear fusion managed to calculate how electromagnetic waves travel in plasma. Understand the soupelectronselectrons and atomic nuclei which supplies the installations of fusionfusion in the form of a donut that the physicistsphysicists call the tokamaks. However, it turns out that this process is unmistakably similar to the movementmovement gravitational waves through matter. All that remains is to use the formulas developed by researchers at Princeton University to analyze real data. And see what will come of it…
