Latest news with #cosmicradiation
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
A radio signal from the beginning of the universe could reveal how everything began
A radio signal from the early universe could allow us to understand how everything that surrounds us began. The signal – known as the 21-centimetre signal – could finally let us understand how the first stars and galaxies switched on, and brought the universe from darkness to light. 'This is a unique opportunity to learn how the universe's first light emerged from the darkness,' said co-author Anastasia Fialkov from Cambridge University, in a statement. 'The transition from a cold, dark universe to one filled with stars is a story we're only beginning to understand.' The signal comes to us from more than 13 billion years ago, just a hundred million years after the Big Bang. The faint glow is created by hydrogen atoms that fill up the space between regions of space where stars are being formed. Scientists now believe they will be able to use the nature of that signal to better understand the early universe. They will do that with a radio antenna called REACH – the Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen – which will try and capture radio signals to reveal data about the beginnings of the universe. To better understand how that project might work, researchers created a model that predicted how REACH as well as another project called the Square Kilometre Array will be able to provide information about the masses and other details of the first stars. 'We are the first group to consistently model the dependence of the 21-centimetre signal of the masses of the first stars, including the impact of ultraviolet starlight and X-ray emissions from X-ray binaries produced when the first stars die,' said Professor Fialkov. 'These insights are derived from simulations that integrate the primordial conditions of the universe, such as the hydrogen-helium composition produced by the Big Bang.' 'The predictions we are reporting have huge implications for our understanding of the nature of the very first stars in the Universe,' said co-author Eloy de Lera Acedo, Principal Investigator of the REACH telescope. 'We show evidence that our radio telescopes can tell us details about the mass of those first stars and how these early lights may have been very different from today's stars. 'Radio telescopes like REACH are promising to unlock the mysteries of the infant Universe, and these predictions are essential to guide the radio observations we are doing from the Karoo, in South Africa.' The work is described in a new paper, 'Determination of the mass distribution of the first stars from the 21-cm signal', published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Science
- CBC
Sudbury's SNOLAB delves into quantum computing research
The underground Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Laboratory is most well-known for its Nobel Prize-winning research on subatomic particles called neutrinos. But the lab, commonly called SNOLAB, located two kilometres underground at mining company Vale's Creighton Mine, is also home to several other experiments that benefit from its unique location. One of those experiments is at a facility called the cryogenic underground test facility, or CUTE, which is testing what effect cosmic radiation has on quantum computing. Because SNOLAB is under two kilometres of northern Ontario rock it has natural protection from cosmic radiation that constantly bombards everything on the Earth's surface. Vijay Iyer, a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Toronto stationed at SNOLAB, explains that quantum computing is so complex that cutting out something like cosmic radiation could have an impact. What is quantum computing, anyway? A classical computer works with transistors that switch between zeros and ones, much like a light switch might complete or cut off a current. "A quantum computer makes use of qubits [quantum bits] instead of regular bits which are zeros and ones," Iyer said. He used the analogy of a coin flip to explain the difference. When that coin is in the air it is both heads and tails, until it lands. Thanks to a principle called superposition, a qubit is like that mid-air coin. It can represent a zero, a one, or a combination of both simultaneously. Quantum computers also rely on a phenomenon called entanglement, which links qubits together in such a way that their fates are intertwined, regardless of the distance separating them. A change to one affects another. Because of those two phenomena, a problem that could take a classical computer years or even decades to solve in a linear fashion can be solved by a quantum computer in a matter of hours. Iyer explained that qubits are "extremely fragile" since a transistor with qubits would be controlled one atom at a time. "So being able to control something at that level is very difficult, which means any small amount of noise that exists in the environment, it can break down the entire system," Iyer said. Iyer is part of a team examining the link between cosmic rays and quantum bits. The ability to shield a quantum computer from cosmic rays should shed more light on that link. International collaboration The University of Waterloo and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden are the primary institutions behind the research. And they've been awarded a grant from the U.S. Army Research Office to explore that link. Jeter Hall is SNOLAB's outgoing director of research. He said that while U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has cut research grants in several areas, including at the National Institute of Health, SNOLAB's research on quantum computing should be safe from any cuts. "The American government has stated this is a priority," he said. "So we believe right now that that work will continue and we'll be able to bring those benefits both to Canada and the U.S. in a collaborative manner." But Hall said SNOLAB is looking to more international collaborations to fund its research projects, especially if funding from the U.S. could dry up. A project to explore neutrino properties, which Hall said has the potential to win a second Nobel Prize for research done at SNOLAB, could cost up to $400 million.
