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Penrose Claims Ligo Dissonance Is Bear Witness For Cyclic Cosmology

Noise is the physicists’ biggest enemy. Unless you lot are a theorist whose pet view masquerades equally noise. Then you lot are best friends alongside noise. Like Roger Penrose.
    Correlated "noise" inwards LIGO gravitational moving ridge signals: an implication of Conformal Cyclic Cosmology
    Roger Penrose
    arXiv:1707.04169 [gr-qc]

Roger Penrose made his elevate alongside the Penrose-Hawking theorems in addition to twistor theory. He is besides well-known for writing books alongside real many pages, most lately “Fashion, Faith, in addition to Fantasy inwards the New Physics of the Universe.”

One man’s dissonance is about other man’s signal.
Penrose doesn’t similar most of what’s currently inwards fashion, but believes that human consciousness can’t live on explained past times known physics in addition to that the universe is cyclically reborn. This cyclic cosmology, hence his recent claim, gives rising to correlations inwards the LIGO dissonance – just similar what’s been observed.

The LIGO experiment consists of ii interferometers inwards the USA, separated past times nearly 3,000 km. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 gravitational moving ridge dot should overstep through both detectors alongside a delay determined past times the fourth dimension it takes the gravitational moving ridge to sweep from ane US-coast to the other. This delay is typically of the gild of 10ms, but its exact value depends on where the waves came from.

The correlation betwixt the ii LIGO detectors is ane of the most of import criteria used past times the collaboration to tell dissonance from signal. The dissonance itself, however, isn’t exclusively uncorrelated. Some sources of the correlations are known, but about are not. This is non odd – agreement the detector is equally much business office of a novel experiment equally is the criterion itself. The LIGO collaboration, needless to say, thinks everything is nether command in addition to the correlations are adequately taken help of inwards their dot analysis.

the fault was on his site. Once corrected, Harry’s analysis reproduces the correlations which shouldn’t live on there. Bummer.

Ian Harry did non respond to my requests for comment. Neither did Alessandra Buonanno from the LIGO collaboration, who was besides acknowledged past times the Danish group. David Shoemaker, the electrical current LIGO spokesperson, allow me know he has “full confidence” inwards the results, in addition to also, the collaboration is working on a reply, which mightiness nevertheless lead maintain several months to appear. In other words, expire away, there’s nil to encounter here.

But piece nosotros hold off for the LIGO response, speculations abound what mightiness drive the supposed correlation. Penrose crunch everyone to it alongside an explanation, even Craig Hogan, who has run his ain experiment looking for correlated dissonance inwards interferometers, in addition to who I was counting on.

Penrose’s cyclic cosmology industrial plant past times gluing the large bang together alongside what nosotros commonly recall of equally the terminate of the universe – an interplanetary space accelerated expansion into nothingness. Penrose conjectures that both phases – the inaugural of all in addition to the terminate – are conformally invariant, which agency they possess a symmetry nether a stretching of distance scales. Then he identifies the terminate of the universe alongside the inaugural of all of a novel one, creating a cycle that repeats indefinitely. In his theory, what nosotros recall of equally inflation – the accelerated expansion inwards the early on universe – becomes the concluding stage of acceleration inwards the cycle preceding our own.

Problem is, the universe equally nosotros shortly encounter it is non conformally invariant. What screws upwardly conformal invariance is that particles lead maintain masses, in addition to these masses besides laid a scale. Hence, Penrose has to assume that eventually all particle masses fade away hence that conformal invariance is restored.

There’s about other problem. Since Penrose’s conformal cyclic cosmology has no inflation it besides lacks a machinery to create temperature fluctuations inwards the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Luckily, however, the theory besides gives rising to a novel scalar particle that couples only gravitationally. Penrose named it  “erebon” subsequently the ancient Greek God of Darkness, Erebos, that gives rising to novel phenomenology.

Erebos, the God of Darkness,
according to YouTube.
The erebons lead maintain a majority of nearly 10-5 gram because “what else could it be,” in addition to they lead maintain a lifetime determined past times the cosmological constant, presumably besides because what else could it be. (Aside: Note that these are naturalness arguments.) The erebons brand upwardly night affair in addition to their decay causes gravitational waves that seed the CMB temperature fluctuations.

Since erebons are created at the inaugural of all of each cycle in addition to decay away through it, they besides create a gravitational moving ridge background. Penrose in addition to hence argues that a gravitational moving ridge dot from a binary dark hole merger – similar the ones LIGO has observed – should live on accompanied past times noise-like signals from erebons that decayed at the same fourth dimension inwards the same galaxy. Just that this noise-like contribution would live on correlated alongside the same time-difference equally the merger signal.

In his paper, Penrose does non analyze the details of his proposal. He but writes:
“Clearly the proposal that I am putting forwards hither makes many testable predictions, in addition to it should non live on difficult to disprove it if it is wrong.”
In my impression, this is a sketchy view in addition to I dubiousness it volition work. I don’t lead maintain a major work alongside inventing about particle to brand upwardly night matter, but I lead maintain a difficult fourth dimension seeing how the decay of a Planck-mass particle tin plough over rising to a dot comparable inwards pull to a dark hole merger (or why several of them would add together upwardly precisely for a larger signal).

Even taking this at confront value, the decay signals wouldn’t only come upwardly from ane galaxy but from all galaxies, hence the dissonance should live on correlated all over in addition to at pretty much all time-scales – non just at the 12ms equally the Danish grouping has claimed. Worst of all, the dominant business office of the dot would come upwardly from our ain galaxy in addition to why haven’t nosotros seen this already?

In summary, ane can’t blame Penrose for existence fashionable. But I don’t recall that erebons volition live on added to the listing of LIGO’s discoveries.

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