How to win a Nobel Prize

Hi people

I have just finished Lisa Randall's "Warped Passages, Unraveling the
mysteries of the universe's hidden dimensions" and it is a wonderful book.

It proposes several hidden dimensions to our reality, making it a
fascinating read. Well but... there isn't even the shadow of a proof
or an experiment that would allow us to believe in what she is saying.

That is quite a let down, always waiting for the "next bigger
accelerator".

But now, I have read in "Space daily" that
(I quote from
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Sc..._Of_Space.html)

Scientists at Duke and Rutgers universities have developed a
mathematical framework they say will enable astronomers to test a new
five-dimensional theory of gravity that competes with Einstein's General
Theory of Relativity.

Charles R. Keeton of Rutgers and Arlie O. Petters of Duke base their
work on a recent theory called the type II Randall-Sundrum braneworld
gravity model. The theory holds that the visible universe is a membrane
(hence "braneworld") embedded within a larger universe, much like a
strand of filmy seaweed floating in the ocean.
The Randall-Sundrum braneworld model -- named for its originators,
physicists Lisa Randall of Harvard University and Raman Sundrum of Johns
Hopkins University -- provides a mathematical description of how gravity
shapes the universe that differs from the description offered by the
General Theory of Relativity.

Keeton and Petters focused on one particular gravitational consequence
of the braneworld theory that distinguishes it from Einstein's theory.

The braneworld theory predicts that relatively small "black holes"
created in the early universe have survived to the present. The black
holes, with mass similar to a tiny asteroid, would be part of the "dark
matter" in the universe. As the name suggests, dark matter does not emit
or reflect light, but does exert a gravitational force.

The General Theory of Relativity, on the other hand, predicts that such
primordial black holes no longer exist, as they would have evaporated by
now.

"When we estimated how far braneworld black holes might be from Earth,
we were surprised to find that the nearest ones would lie well inside
Pluto's orbit," Keeton said.

Petters added, "If braneworld black holes form even 1 percent of the
dark matter in our part of the galaxy -- a cautious assumption -- there
should be several thousand braneworld black holes in our solar system."

But do braneworld black holes really exist -- and therefore stand as
evidence for the 5-D braneworld theory?

The scientists showed that it should be possible to answer this question
by observing the effects that braneworld black holes would exert on
electromagnetic radiation traveling to Earth from other galaxies. Any
such radiation passing near a black hole will be acted upon by the
object's tremendous gravitational forces -- an effect called
"gravitational lensing."

"A good place to look for gravitational lensing by braneworld black
holes is in bursts of gamma rays coming to Earth," Keeton said. These
gamma-ray bursts are thought to be produced by enormous explosions
throughout the universe. Such bursts from outer space were discovered
inadvertently by the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s.

Keeton and Petters calculated that braneworld black holes would impede
the gamma rays in the same way a rock in a pond obstructs passing
ripples. The rock produces an "interference pattern" in its wake in
which some ripple peaks are higher, some troughs are deeper, and some
peaks and troughs cancel each other out. The interference pattern bears
the signature of the characteristics of both the rock and the water.

Similarly, a braneworld black hole would produce an interference pattern
in a passing burst of gamma rays as they travel to Earth, said Keeton
and Petters. The scientists predicted the resulting bright and dark
"fringes" in the interference pattern, which they said provides a means
of inferring characteristics of braneworld black holes and, in turn, of
space and time.

"We discovered that the signature of a fourth dimension of space appears
in the interference patterns," Petters said. "This extra spatial
dimension creates a contraction between the fringes compared to what
you'd get in General Relativity."

------------------------------------------------------------

OK OK. Instead of waiting for atoms smashers we have to wait for a bunch
of satellites. Not a big difference.

BUT WAIT!!!!!

WAIT A MINUTE... if there are so many black holes going around, maybe
a black hole has collided with the earth already?

Mmmmmm that makes me remember... a post in sci.astro.research, a nice,
low traffic discussion group.

The 25th november 2002, I posted in this discussion group this:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From : jacob navia
Date : Lun 25 nov 2002 14:19
E-mail : jacob navia
Groups : sci.astro.research

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2502755.stm

What?

Quark matter passing through earth?

If we have 2 events like that/year the abundance of that strange matter
must be quite high!

Quote:
In 1984, Harvard physicist and Nobel Laureate Sheldon Glashow suggested
that physicists should team up with seismologists to search for traces
of the strange matter that might have passed through the Earth at
supersonic speed.

[snip]

In 1993, Vidgor Teplitz, Eugene Herrin, David Anderson and Ileana
Tibuleac, all of the Southern Methodist University in the US, began
looking for such events.

[snip]

They looked at more than a million records collected by the US
Geological Survey between 1990 to 1993

[snip]

One event occurred on 22 October, 1993, when, according to the researchers,
something entered the Earth off Antarctica and left it south of India 0.73
of a second later.

The other occurred on 24 November, 1993, when an object entered south of
Australia and exited the Earth near Antarctica 0.15 of a second later.

The first event was recorded at seven monitoring stations in India,
Australia, Bolivia and Turkey, and the second event was recorded at nine
monitoring stations in Australia and Bolivia.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is interesting to note that William E Todd answered to that message
with this:
-------------------------------------------------------------
From : William E. Todd
Date : Lun 25 nov 2002 18:45
E-mail : "William E. Todd"
Groups : sci.astro.research

That was an interesting article. I'm still not understanding how SQM
could be so dense and hold together, and even as it interacts with the
earth. I guess I'll have to read up on this a little more.

Would a mini black hole (or maybe a primordial black hole as I have
heard it called before) produce the same kind of results?

Bill
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, if anyone here gets here the Nobel prize, he should give a part to
Bill and me :-)

Summary:
--------
To get a Nobel prize quickly you should:

1) Sift through all the seismic records you can get a hold of and try to
find the signature of a black hole passing through the earth.

2) If you find it (and you have ALREADY TWO data points!!!!!) you are
all set.

jacob