It is known that gravitational waves are disruptions in space-time that arise from a range of sources, such as supernovae, neutron stars, pulsars, supermassive black holes, and different mergers of these astronomical objects.
According to a recent paper, gravitational waves might act as a "gravitational laser," spreading throughout the cosmos.
But this hypothesis depends on a boson called the axion, which is one of the most likely but speculative theories to explain dark matter.
If Albert Einstein's many discoveries were somehow combined to create a superhero movie universe, "gravitational lasers" would be the pinnacle of team collaboration.
As part of his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein postulated the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, although he wasn't sure if they could ever be seen. However, the former patent clerk also unveiled his quantum theory of radiation a year later, explaining in full the concept of "stimulated emission of radiation," or what is known as the "ser" in a laser.
According to a recent research that was posted on the preprint archive arXiv, gravitational waves might act like a laser and spread throughout the cosmos. That is one of the most Einsteinian sentences ever.
According to Jing Liu, a study author from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, "two of the most important predictions made by Albert Einstein are stimulated radiation and gravitational waves (GW)." We show that gravitational atoms, which are made up of Kerr black holes and the surrounding boson clouds created by superradiance, can produce stimulated gravitational wave radiation.
Okay, let's rewind a bit. Spacetime itself is literally rippled by gravitational waves. The largest celestial objects and collisions in the universe, including as pulsars, supernovas, merging supermassive black holes, and colliding neutron stars, are the source of the ones that we can currently detect. These space-time disruptions have been referred to as waves ever since Einstein first theorised about them since they genuinely spread outward over the cosmos.
This recent research proposes that gravitational waves could move in a similar manner to laser beams, but this hypothesis is dependent on axions, a significant component absent from the Standard Model of Physics. Because they are so light, they exhibit quantum qualities, and this hypothetical, weakly interacting boson is one of the main theories to explain dark matter. Axions would not fall into a revolving (Kerr) black hole but rather surround it "the way electrons exist near the nucleus of an atom," according to LiveScience, because of their wave/particle characteristics.
Superradiance, an interaction between axions and gravitational wave emissions, would enable coordinated excitations to the point where the black hole functions as a laser, ejecting "gravitational lasers," as the research refers to them, into the cosmos.
Earth is unlikely to detect a black hole because these beams would be directed in absolutely random directions, though this may not always be the case. The European Space Agency, working with NASA, approved the construction of the LISA space-based gravitational wave detector last month. Unlike LIGO, LISA will be able to detect gravitational waves at considerably lower frequencies, which will allow for the identification of a whole new range of potential cosmic sources.
After all, Einstein never imagined that gravitational waves would ever be detected, so who knows what other undiscovered phenomena may exist?
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