Realworld "Angels & Demons": Surges of Antimatter Observed in Space

Scientists have seen surges in antimatter particles sweeping through space, and some believe the cause could be collapsing cosmic strings.  As opposed to Ming the Merciless.  Note that cosmic strings are entirely different strings from string theory - blame any confusion on the fact that there are far more cool things happening in space than we have words for.

Cosmic strings are thought to come from from phase changes in space - just as water freezing into ice may crack, cosmic strings are "cracks" in gravitational fields.  Such strings would be thinner than a proton but incredibly dense, just a couple of kilometers of such string would have the same mass as Earth.

Cosmic string theory fell out of favor for a while, but a recent resurgence has seen scientists hunting them in everything from galactic double images to the cosmic wave background of the universe.  The most awesome-sounding option is the positron surge observed last year by the PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-Nuclei Astrophysics), an increased flux of antimatter-electrons sweeping through space along with all the usual cosmic rays.

According to Professor Vachaspati of Case Western Reserve University, these antimatter emissions could come from collapsing string segments. Oscillations in the strings could cause loops of string to get "tied off", forming loops.  Such separated loops would collapse, releasing a burst of positrons such as those detected by PAMELA.

It remains to be seen whether cosmic strings are truly back (and blowing up!), but a whole host of missions - from the LISA interferometry satellite network, to the South Pole IceCube neutrino detector - will be searching for strings in the near future.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Cosmic Strings Could Solve Positron Mystery

Cosmic strings are thought to come from from phase changes in space - just as water freezing into ice may crack, cosmic strings are "cracks" in gravitational fields.  Such strings would be thinner than a proton but incredibly dense, just a couple of kilometers of such string would have the same mass as Earth.

Cosmic string theory fell out of favor for a while, but a recent resurgence has seen scientists hunting them in everything from galactic double images to the cosmic wave background of the universe.  The most awesome-sounding option is the positron surge observed last year by the PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-Nuclei Astrophysics), an increased flux of antimatter-electrons sweeping through space along with all the usual cosmic rays.

According to Professor Vachaspati of Case Western Reserve University, these antimatter emissions could come from collapsing string segments. Oscillations in the strings could cause loops of string to get "tied off", forming loops.  Such separated loops would collapse, releasing a burst of positrons such as those detected by PAMELA.

It remains to be seen whether cosmic strings are truly back (and blowing up!), but a whole host of missions - from the LISA interferometry satellite network, to the South Pole IceCube neutrino detector - will be searching for strings in the near future.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Cosmic Strings Could Solve Positron Mystery

Comments

[Narendra Nath]

The news item appears to be mostly an imaginative discription of what really may be happening. As we don't have any means yet to interact with dark matter, being non-baryonic, we have ne means to know what is happening to the dark matter, except to know indirectly through its anti-gravitational effect on our visible matter universe. i wonder how Prof. Vachaspati of Case Western Reserve University is trying to explain it away through the concept of exploding thin strings of dark matter with width less than that of the smallest nuclei, proton!

[Ivar Nielsen]

Just not make no fuss of it!

It´s just cosmic brain- and nerve cells which correlates to all other vibrating brain- and nerve cells in all living things accordingly to the "individual" amount of brain- and nerve cells in everything.

[Joe]

Mind over matter. The whole universe is just a single being. Like when you cut your nails, you can't control the regrowth, so you assume it's "the cells" that are regrowing and you quickly make the distinction between youself and your cells. This is intuitive because we are not in conscious control of those cells. But in reality, the cells ARE us, just a function of ourselves that we cannot control. In the same way, we see the Sun or other people and make the distinction betweeen ourselves and the other objects. In reality, the Sun IS us, just a function of ourselves that our indivial consciousness is not in control of. Everything is one.

[sam]

I personally blame Ming.
Or proton stars, there is a lot more interesting stuff going on with those which is where a betting man would look for weird sting stuff like this.

The problem with non-baryonic matter is it may not actually exist either.

[Asmanhall]

The most awesome-sounding option is the positron surge observed last year by the PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-Nuclei Astrophysics), an increased flux of antimatter-electrons sweeping through space along with all the usual cosmic rays.

[Impotence causes]

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