New cosmic background radiation map challenges some foundations of cosmology

Bill Angel · August 11, 2013

The most detailed map ever created of the cosmic microwave background the relic radiation from the Big Bang acquired by ESAs Planck space telescope, has been released, revealing features that challenge the foundations of our current understanding of the Universe and may require new physics...The image is based on the initial 15.5 months of data from ESAs Planck space telescope and is the missions first all-sky picture of the oldest light in our Universe[the cosmic background radiation], imprinted on the sky when it was just 380 000 years old.

See New cosmic background radiation map challenges some foundations of cosmology

What brought this report (above) to my attention was another article from a few years back (2007):

see Physicists find way to see extra dimensions

Peering backward in time to an instant after the big bang, physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have devised an approach that may help unlock the hidden shapes of alternate dimensions of the universe.

A new study demonstrates that the shapes of extra dimensions can be "seen" by deciphering their influence on cosmic energy released by the violent birth of the universe 13 billion years ago. The method, published today (Feb. 2, 2007) in Physical Review Letters, provides evidence that physicists can use experimental data to discern the nature of these elusive dimensions the existence of which is a critical but as yet unproven element of string theory, the leading contender for a unified "theory of everything."

...The mathematics of string theory suggests that the world we know is not complete. In addition to our four familiar dimensions three-dimensional space and time string theory predicts the existence of six extra spatial dimensions, "hidden" dimensions curled in tiny geometric shapes at every single point in our universe...The new Wisconsin work may provide a long-sought foundation for measuring this previously immeasurable aspect of string theory....Just as a shadow can give an idea of the shape of an object, the pattern of cosmic energy in the sky can give an indication of the shape of the other six dimensions present....To learn how to read telltale signs of the six-dimensional geometry from the cosmic map, the researchers worked backward. Starting with two different types of mathematically simple geometries, called warped throats, they calculated the predicted energy map that would be seen in the universe described by each shape. When they compared the two maps, they found small but significant differences between them.

Their results show that specific patterns of cosmic energy can hold clues to the geometry of the six-dimensional shape the first type of observable data to demonstrate such promise. Though the current data are not precise enough to compare their findings to our universe, upcoming experiments such as the European Space Agency's Planck satellite should have the sensitivity to detect subtle variations between different geometries, Shiu says.

"Our results with simple, well-understood shapes give proof of concept that the geometry of hidden dimensions can be deciphered from the pattern of cosmic energy," he says. "This provides a rare opportunity in which string theory can be tested."

Technological improvements to capture more detailed cosmic maps should help narrow down the possibilities and may allow scientists to crack the code of the cosmic energy map and inch closer to identifying the single geometry that fits our universe.

The implications of such a possibility are profound, says Tye. "If this shape can be measured, it would also tell us that string theory is correct."

So the question that occured to me is whether these new results from the Plank satellite will shed any light on the validity of String Theory. I suppose that one could argue that any pattern found in the cosmic backround radiation eminating from near the time of the big bang could be shown to be consistent with at least one six-dimensional geometric model derived from String Theory, and perhaps more than one. Hence any purported validation of String Theory from this new data would likely be considered inconclusive.

pantheory · August 13, 2013

Bill Angel,

"New cosmic background radiation map challenges some foundations of Cosmology"

This news is several months old now but this "new" CMBR map does seem to challenge some past notions of what the CMBR was supposed to look like according to Big Bang theory. But it does not seem to clearly indicate or support other ideas or theories either, like string theory.

Much Fewer theorists today look toward any possibilities of M-theory having validity, sorry Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory). There are still those looking for evidence for it like in this study of observations you posted. The original idea of string theory was that with extra-dimensions maybe General Relativity and Quantum Theory might be brought together under common concepts and mathematics of string theory. Since then there have been no consensus evidence to there being any extra dimensions, and no concensus predictions of the theory have ever been made. There are much fewer people today working on string theory possibilities.

As the article suggests they are looking for possible evidence for "hidden dimensions" but I think few outside of string theory proponents, expect anything to come from such searches.

You might say that both General Relativity and Quantum Theory themselves are not beyond question today, so the idea of somehow combining them is probably much less appealing today than during the 70's, during the time of the inception of modern string theory.

Edited August 13, 2013 by pantheory

Bill Angel · August 14, 2013

Bill Angel,

"New cosmic background radiation map challenges some foundations of Cosmology"

This news is several months old now but this "new" CMBR map does seem to challenge some past notions of what the CMBR was supposed to look like according to Big Bang theory. But it does not seem to clearly indicate or support other ideas or theories either, like string theory.

There are some predictions open to experimental verification that are made by String Cosmology. In the following recent short talk from June 2013 (see video) , the speaker discusses the physics of an ideal gas made up of strings, as opposed to an ideal gas made up of particles.

Unlike particles,he asserts that there is a maximum temperature for strings.

He discusses the difference between String Gas Cosmology and Inflationary Cosmology.

String Gas Cosmology makes different predictions about the nature of gravitational waves than does the Inflationary Model in Cosmology.

Based on the material covered in his brief lecture, I located a more precise description of what he was discussing in the following paper:

“It has recently been shown that a Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology may provide a causal mechanism for generating a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of scalar metric fluctuations, without the need for an intervening period of de Sitter expansion. A distinctive signature of this structure formation scenario would be a slight blue tilt of the spectrum of gravitational waves. In this paper we give more details of the computations leading to these results.”

See:

String Gas Cosmology and Structure Formation