Black hole quasinormal modes
Small perturbations of a black hole produce undulations of the surrounding spacetime, which then move outward as gravitational waves. The pattern of these spacetime fluctuations, dictated solely by the mass and spin of the black hole, oscillates in a distinctive manner within the framework of Einstein’s general relativity. Any deviation from this gravitational theory results in detectable signals in the oscillation spectrum.
“A right heart exceeds all.”
Theorist’s cartoon of the universe’s history
How did our universe come to existence? Our current best understanding is that our universe was once smaller than the size of an electron in the phase inflation--where the universe was extremely hot such that space was rapidly created due to the enormous amount of energy density. Quantum fluctuations of energy density evolve into all matter contents we observe nowadays. Relics of quantum fluctuations can be found in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and even large scale structure. It is a beautiuful story that we have statistical confidence but never 100% sure. The astonishing theoretical fact is that we can learn a lot about events that took place in less than the first trillionth second of our universe from correlations of hot and cold spots in CMB.
Worlds Innumerable — Mankinds
It is better to be destroyed than to triumph in slaying the spirit. Such as it is, the spirit that we have achieved is fair; and it is indestructibly woven into the tissue of the cosmos.
We die praising the universe in which at least such an achievement as ours can be.
We die praising the universe in which at least such an achievement as ours can be.
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︎ ︎ ©Sam Wong 2022