ZAP // Dall-E-2
There is no visual evidence of cosmic strings (in the image, artistic concept of their appearance)
Physicists may be closer than ever to unlocking the secrets of time travel. Mysterious cosmic strings could revolutionize the way we view astrophysics, and even enable time travel.
“The Holy Grail of physics: a theory of everything. And, in the distant future, they may even allow us to travel through time.” This is how (SF) refers to cosmic stringsone of the great mysteries of the Universe.
Although not yet a theoretical concept, these highly fine structures, if they exist, could hold the key to some of the Universe’s greatest mysteries, including the possibility of time travel.
Cosmic strings are thought to be unimaginably thinbut extraordinarily massive. A single string can have the mass of thousands of stars, despite being so thin that it would be invisible to the naked eye.
They could extend infinitely through the Universe or turn around on themselves. Over time, these strings would emit gravitational waves as they lose energy.
And Oluma researcher at Tufts University, describes them as astronomically long tubes. “Most likely they exist in the form of ties or long strings that go on forever“, he states.
And although they are very thin, they can contain a lot of mass: “A typical loop, which can be about 10-20 light years long, can contain the equivalent of the mass of tens of thousands of stars”says Olum. But it is believed that these will shrink over time as the tubes shake, radiating gravitational waves.
According to researchers, cosmic strings are areas of very high energy density left behind during a cosmic transition from higher to lower energy.
If we ever found a cosmic string, which is unlikely, that might not be very pleasant, warns SF. A cosmic string traveling close to the speed of light and hitting Earth head-on would cut the planet in halflike a wire cuts a ball of clay.
But one of the halves would immediately collide with the other, explains David Chernoffprofessor of astronomy at Cornell University. In practice, we could feel a earthquake with the greatest magnitude everexceeding 12.5 on the Richter scale.
There are those who even claim to have seen cosmic strings. In 2003, a team of astronomers reported the potential discovery of one, but it was later proven that the two galaxies they had seen were not identical. Last year, another similar claim was made. Still, Olum warns that recent research suggests that This method of detecting cosmic strings is not correct.
Chernoff invented a new method (more promising, according to SF) to detect them, called micro-lens gravitational. Instead of looking at galaxies, which appear as fuzzy objects, the lens is detected through observation of individual stars.
According to Chernoff’s theory, if a string passes between us and a star, the star’s light will be gravitationally captured by the string.. As summarized by , this can temporarily double the brightness of a star.
This theory can open new ways to analyze another question, which concerns not only astrophysicists: the possibility of traveling through time.
It is known that time loops can actually exist: this is proved by the Theory of Relativity, known to everyone. “General Relativity says you can geometrically beat a beam of light in a race if there is a shortcut,” he says Richard Gottprofessor of astrophysics at Princeton University.
If we were to travel between two planets, for example, and there was a cosmic string in the middle, this would then create a shortcut compared to a direct trip between points.
But for this, SF points out, it would be necessary for both the spacecraft and the strings travel at 99.99% the speed of lightwhich is difficult to achieve.
Even though he admits that it would be difficult to build a time machine this way, Gott believes there may be another: instead of using infinitely long strings, we could use a finite loop of strings in the shape of a rectanglewith two very short sides and two extremely long sides (potentially thousands of light years long).
The next step would then be let the loop collapse. “It is possible to manipulate this loop by moving huge spaceships around it”, he explains, but warns that “we are talking about super civilizations”.
“So if your civilization agrees to make a loop storm around you, what you have to do in your spaceship is wait for the sides of the loop come closer.” And they can get very close, explains SF, millimeters away. Then, it would be possible to “fly” around the ropes to visit its past.
However, he would have to make a choice — If he visited his past, he would be eternally trapped in a black hole, explains the researcher. “We couldn’t go out again to tell our friends about our adventures”, he comments.
The decision, which may not come before the earth is “cut in half” by a cosmic tether, is in your hands — would you be trapped in a black hole just to revisit your past?
