Sam Wormley
2015-03-17 01:32:59 UTC
Confirming Einstein, scientists find 'spacetime foam' not slowing down
photons from faraway gamma-ray burst (Update)
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photons from faraway gamma-ray burst (Update)
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-einstein-scientists-spacetime-foam.html
One hundred years after Albert Einstein formulated the general theory
of relativity, an international team has proposed another
experimental proof. In a paper published today in Nature Physics,
researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Open
University of Israel, Sapienza University of Rome, and University of
Montpellier in France, describe a proof for one of the theory's basic
assumptions: the idea that all light particles, or photons, propagate
at exactly the same speed.
The researchers analyzed data, obtained by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray
Space Telescope, of the arrival times of photons from a distant
gamma-ray burst. The data showed that photons traveling for billions
of years from the distant burst toward Earth all arrived within a
fraction of a second of each other.
This finding indicates that the photons all moved at the same speed,
even though different photons had different energies. This is one of
the best measurements ever of the independence of the speed of light
from the energy of the light particles.
Beyond confirming the general theory of relativity, the observation
rules out one of the interesting ideas concerning the unification of
general relativity and quantum theory. While these two theories are
the pillars of physics today, they are still inconsistent, and there
is an intrinsic contradiction between the two that is partially based
on Heisenberg's uncertainty principle that is at the heart of quantum
theory.
--One hundred years after Albert Einstein formulated the general theory
of relativity, an international team has proposed another
experimental proof. In a paper published today in Nature Physics,
researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Open
University of Israel, Sapienza University of Rome, and University of
Montpellier in France, describe a proof for one of the theory's basic
assumptions: the idea that all light particles, or photons, propagate
at exactly the same speed.
The researchers analyzed data, obtained by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray
Space Telescope, of the arrival times of photons from a distant
gamma-ray burst. The data showed that photons traveling for billions
of years from the distant burst toward Earth all arrived within a
fraction of a second of each other.
This finding indicates that the photons all moved at the same speed,
even though different photons had different energies. This is one of
the best measurements ever of the independence of the speed of light
from the energy of the light particles.
Beyond confirming the general theory of relativity, the observation
rules out one of the interesting ideas concerning the unification of
general relativity and quantum theory. While these two theories are
the pillars of physics today, they are still inconsistent, and there
is an intrinsic contradiction between the two that is partially based
on Heisenberg's uncertainty principle that is at the heart of quantum
theory.
sci.physics is an unmoderated newsgroup dedicated to the discussion
of physics, news from the physics community, and physics-related
social issues.
