2023-06-29 20:03:32
In recent decades, we have witnessed the emergence of new forms of investigation of the Universe that go beyond the traditional observation of light or more generally of the electromagnetic spectrum. Neutrinos and gravitational waves have been added to the list of available cosmic messengers, which have begun to play a fundamental role in our understanding of the cosmos.
Two very important results have been announced this week. The first is the detection of a neutrino signal from our galaxy, the Milky Way. The second is the first solid evidence for the existence of a gravitational wave background through the observation of pulsar signals. These results have curiously parallel histories. Both the detection of cosmic neutrinos and that of the gravitational wave background arose from revolutionary ideas conceived in the second half of the last century. In the early 1960s, it was first proposed to use large volumes of transparent matter, such as seawater or ice at the South Pole, to observe elusive neutrinos. In the late 1970s, the idea of detecting the passage of gravitational waves by precisely measuring the offsets in the radio pulses emitted by pulsars, neutron stars formed after the explosion of supernovae, arose.
Both types of detection have been made possible by the advancement of a wide variety of new technologies and decades of research and development. And yet, in both cases it has taken the patient accumulation of data for more than a decade before these instruments could find the proverbial needle in their respective haystacks.
The detection of galactic neutrinos, thanks to observations from the IceCube telescope, constitutes the first evidence that very high-energy cosmic rays are being accelerated in our galaxy. This detection adds to the first indications in the same direction announced last month by the ANTARES neutrino telescope, an underwater detector that was installed in the Mediterranean Sea until last year.
The signal detected by IceCube is diffuse, that is, it is a global surplus of neutrinos over the annoying background of neutrinos that our own atmosphere is continually creating. We know that this signal comes from the disk of our galaxy, but the sources that produce it are currently impossible to elucidate.
The answer can be given to us by the KM3NeT neutrino telescope, currently under construction and in which there is significant Spanish participation. KM3NeT, a part of which is already taking data, will be fully operational in its final configuration before the end of the decade. It has been designed to be especially sensitive to the neutrino emission in our galaxy. The IceCube announcement is, therefore, very positive for KM3NeT, because this telescope will have the best angular resolution and, therefore, the one with the greatest potential for identifying emitting sources. This will allow to study in detail the mechanisms of particle acceleration in these sources.
These results confirm the growing role of gravitational wave and neutrino astronomy, which are expected to provide us with relevant discoveries in the coming years. Both detection techniques also share another characteristic: the possibility that they can help us discover “new physics”, elucidate the nature of dark matter, quantum gravity phenomena or exotic objects such as cosmic strings, or even observe unpredicted phenomena. by the Standard Model of particle physics.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juan Jose Hernandez Rey
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Francisco Salesa Graves
#ways #Universe