Cosmology: gravitational waves scar spacetime (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, December 10, 2021, 20:05 (1078 days ago) @ David Turell

They leave a permanent distortion which changes information:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/gravitational-waves-should-permanently-distort-space-tim...

"The “gravitational memory effect” predicts that a passing gravitational wave should forever alter the structure of space-time. Physicists have linked the phenomenon to fundamental cosmic symmetries and a potential solution to the black hole information paradox.

"The first detection of gravitational waves in 2016 provided decisive confirmation of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But another astounding prediction remains unconfirmed: According to general relativity, every gravitational wave should leave an indelible imprint on the structure of space-time. It should permanently strain space, displacing the mirrors of a gravitational wave detector even after the wave has passed.

"Since that first detection almost six years ago, physicists have been trying to figure out how to measure this so-called “memory effect.”

“'The memory effect is absolutely a strange, strange phenomenon,” said Paul Lasky, an astrophysicist at Monash University in Australia. “It’s really deep stuff.”

"Their goals are broader than just glimpsing the permanent space-time scars left by a passing gravitational wave. By exploring the links between matter, energy and space-time, physicists hope to come to a better understanding of Stephen Hawking’s black hole information paradox, which has been a major focus of theoretical research for going on five decades. “There’s an intimate connection between the memory effect and the symmetry of space-time,” said Kip Thorne, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology whose work on gravitational waves earned him part of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. “It is connected ultimately to the loss of information in black holes, a very deep issue in the structure of space and time.”

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"According to the memory effect, after the passing of the wave, the circle should remain permanently deformed by a tiny amount. The reason why has to do with the particularities of gravity as described by general relativity.

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“'The memory is nothing but the change in the gravitational potential,” said Thorne, “but it’s a relativistic gravitational potential.” The energy of a passing gravitational wave creates a change in the gravitational potential; that change in potential distorts space-time, even after the wave has passed.

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"...space-time has the potential to store information, which could be the key to solving the infamous black hole information paradox. Briefly, the paradox is this: Information cannot be created or destroyed. So where does the information about particles go after they fall into a black hole and are re-emitted as information-less Hawking radiation?

"In 2016, Andrew Strominger, a physicist at Harvard University, along with Stephen Hawking and Malcolm Perry realized that the horizon of a black hole has the same supertranslation symmetries as those in asymptotically flat space. And by the same logic as before, there would be an accompanying memory effect. This meant the infalling particles could alter space-time near the black hole, thereby changing its information content. This offered a possible solution to the information paradox. Knowledge of the particles’ properties wasn’t lost — it was permanently encoded in the fabric of space-time.

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"Lasky and Schmidt have independently predicted that they’ll need over 1,000 gravitational wave events to accumulate enough statistics to confirm they’ve seen the memory effect. With ongoing improvements to LIGO, as well as contributions from the VIRGO detector in Italy and KAGRA in Japan, Lasky thinks reaching 1,000 detections is a few short years away."

Comment: So a black hole does not destroy information. That may solve the information paradox related to black holes. dhw should be willing to wait for research results, but unfortunately he isn't and constantly complains about God's deeds before they are understood..