Contrabang! #31 Blunderchains

The ‘Strong CP Problem’ Is The Most Underrated Puzzle In All Of Physics (link)

If you ask a physicist what the biggest unsolved problem facing the field today is, you’re likely to get a variety of answers. Some will point to the hierarchy problem, wondering why the masses of the Standard Model particles have the (small) values we observe. Others will ask about baryogenesis, asking why the Universe is filled with matter but not antimatter. Other popular answers are just as puzzling: dark matter, dark energy, quantum gravity, the origin of the Universe, and whether there’s an ultimate theory of everything for us to discover.

That's a lot of unsolved problems listed by a guy who routinely reassures us that cosmologists understand our "entire cosmic history." One would think scientists were busy tying up loose ends rather than being pressed on all sides by big, fundamental mysteries of the universe. We could add quite a few more to that list, as well.

No, Thermodynamics Does Not Explain Our Perceived Arrow Of Time (link)

In this lovely No-Comma, he takes on one conjecture regarding the flow of time. While physics has no explanation for why time seems to flow consistently in one direction, the Second Law of Thermodynamics - that entropy always increases - would seem to dictate that time must march forward. Here, Ethan refutes that the flow of time has anything to do with thermodynamics. It is an interesting stance coming from him because - as far as I know - there is not a consensus among physicists about this. Normally Ethan make a beeline for the most establishment-friendly stance, but here he has dared to stake out a claim in the wild frontiers. Unfortunately, his logic is flawed.

There’s a caveat that most people forget when it comes to the second law of thermodynamics and the inevitable, accompanying entropy increase: the law only holds when we apply it to a closed system. So long as we have a system where there’s no external energy inputted into it or extracted from it, or there are no additions to or subtractions from entropy with respect to the outside world, the second law of thermodynamics is mandatory.

But if we violate those conditions, we could violate the second law of thermodynamics after all. A way to reverse the “two halves of a box” reaction was first thought up by the great physicist James Clerk Maxwell way back in the 1870s. By positing an external entity that’s capable of quickly opening or closing a divide between the two sides of the room at an opportune moment, the “cold” molecules can be collected one side with the “hot” molecules collected on the other.

This idea is now known as Maxwell’s demon, and it enables you to decrease the entropy of the system after all, at the cost of expending the energy required to monitor the system and open-and-close the gate between the two sides.

Doing this doesn’t violate the second law of thermodynamics, as the total entropy of the box and the entropy of the demon (or the actions of the demon) must be added together, and that combined entropy always increases. Only if you look at a part of the system, like the box alone (and ignored the demon and its actions), would you perceive a decrease in entropy.

But this is exactly what we need to disprove the hypothetical connection between the thermodynamic arrow of time and the perceptive arrow of time. Even if you lived in the box and the demon were undetectable — similar to if you lived in a pocket of the Universe that saw an entropy decrease — time would still run forward for you. The thermodynamic arrow of time does not determine our perceptive arrow of time.

There is no caveat here. No one has ever argued that time is a local phenomenon driven by the local rate of change in entropy. No one says that time speeds up in an oven as it heats, or that it reverses in a freezer as it cools. What has been noted is that the entropy of the universe increases as time flows forward. We also note that the human perception of time is bound to our innate understanding of entropy. If we were shown a video where a milk puddle flows into a overturned cup which then rights itself, we would quickly realize it was a video of a spilling event played in reverse. We can say that the direction of time and entropy appear to be tightly coupled, but not necessarily why. (Which is why it's called a Law and not a Theory.) The claim of the title isn't necessarily wrong, but it isn't refuting an argument that anyone is making, as the No-Comma implies.

Bonus: Black Hole Nurtures Baby Stars a Million Light-Years Away (link)

In the world of cryptocurrencies, a blockchain is a digital means of tracking transactions. Each time a transaction occurs, a block is added to the chain. A similar concept appears in astrophysics, which we might dub the blunderchain. With each unexpected observation, scientists are compelled to add another mistaken interpretation to an ongoing chain of blunders.

In this story, direct from NASA, a new addition is added to the blunderchain that describes supermassive black holes.

Black holes are famous for ripping objects apart, including stars. But now, astronomers have uncovered a black hole that may have sparked the births of stars over a mind-boggling distance, and across multiple galaxies.

If confirmed, this discovery, made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, would represent the widest reach ever seen for a black hole acting as a stellar kick-starter. The black hole seems to have enhanced star formation more than one million light-years away. (One light year is equal to 6 trillion miles.)

Not only was the observation of opposing jets of X-ray-emitting material from galactic centers not predicted by the model of supermassive blackholes, the discovery should have compelled scientists to take a pause and perhaps back up a few notches on the blunderchain to regroup. Instead, they've pressed on, often avoiding even an attempted explanation for the strange observation. For instance, this article says very little on the subject.

A black hole is an extremely dense object from which no light can escape. The black hole's immense gravity pulls in surrounding gas and dust, but particles from a small amount of that material can also get catapulted away instead at nearly the speed of light. These fast-moving particles form two narrow beams or "jets" near the poles of the black hole.

There is nothing about the theory of black holes to explain narrow jets of high-energy particles that travel to distant galaxies, and now it has been observed that those unpredicted, unexplained jets are having an unpredicted, unexplained effect at vast astronomical distances.

The jet can be traced back to the supermassive black hole, which Chandra detected as a powerful source of X-rays produced by hot gas swirling around the black hole. Gilli and colleagues also detected a diffuse cloud of X-ray emission surrounding one end of the radio jet. This X-ray emission is most likely from a gigantic bubble of hot gas heated by the interaction of the energetic particles in the radio jet with surrounding matter.

How blacks holes would heat orbiting clouds of gas to X-ray energies is yet another one of those pervasive theories that has to be taken as a matter of faith. The authors of the study allege that the narrow jet of high-energy particles interacts with a large bubble of gas. That the combination of a small amount of high-energy particles and a large amount of neutral particles would remain at X-ray energies is yet another proposal that must be believed rather than understood. And they aren't finished yet.

As the hot bubble expanded and swept through four neighboring galaxies, it could have created a shock wave that compressed cool gas in the galaxies, causing stars to form.

Here we see that a whole additional blunderchain - the standard model of the stellar lifecycle - is also in play. They surmise that stars are formed by the compression of cold gases. The gases must be cold because hot gas expands and won't collapse into a neat little ball of plasma. So the theory is that the X-ray jets are capable of both creating very large bubbles of hot diffuse gas but also compressing cool gas. There is nothing in the universe that can't be explained by the magic powers of black holes. This wild analysis cannot be attributed to sloppy science reporting - the article is taken directly from the Chandra mission page on the NASA website.

One of the authors of the paper made a very astute comment about the research:

“The story of King Midas talks of his magic touch that can turn metal into gold,” said co-author Marco Mignoli, also of INAF in Bologna, Italy. “Here we have a case of a black hole that helped turn gas into stars, and its reach is intergalactic.”

Indeed, it can best be likened to mythical tales of magic and alchemy. Very true. He's practically telling us that it's all nonsense. Another co-author comments:

“Black holes have a well-earned reputation for being powerful and deadly, but not always," said co-author Alessandro Peca, formerly at INAF in Bologna and now a Ph.D. student at the University of Miami. “This is a prime example that they sometimes defy that stereotype and can be nurturing instead.”

Welcome to the world of woke science. The sentiments of this author - still working on his Ph.D. - indicate that things are only going to get worse. He is all but introducing the equivalent of gender fluidity for black holes. How dare you try to stereotype these black holes or force them to obey consistent rules, you bigot! Each black hole is special and unique, and it's experienced reality might change day to day. Today the jets create diffuse hot clouds, tomorrow compact cold clouds. Who are you to judge? Again, this isn't published in Politico, but directly on NASA's mission page. The major takeaway here is that our scientific leaders - and their upcoming replacements - are functionally retarded.