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Understanding a Warped Cosmos

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Understanding a Warped Cosmos Lisa Randall. “One challenge today is to see what you can do with large amounts of data, to study fundamental properties, not just questions of how electromagnetism gives rise to certain things. Can we actually see deviations from what you would predict in conventional theories?” Rami Shllush Understanding a warped cosmos What’s the connection between dinosaurs and dark matter? What is the glue that holds the universe together? Is there a fourth - and fifth - dimension? These are just some of the questions that occupy Lisa Randall, the first female physicist to get tenure at Princeton, Harvard and MIT ■ ״ ״r* י •• 1 י׳ The CERN facility, near Geneva. “We need higher-energy machines and particle Illustration of a large asteroid colliding with Earth over the Yucatan Peninsula, in accelerators,” says Randall, “but to really see new things, we need even more Mexico. The impact of such occurrences are thought to have led to the death of the powerful machines.” Richard Juillian/AFP dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Mark Garlick/Science Photo Libra Ido Efrati in the sciences. In 2016 he mystery of the universe,be seen as evidence that dark matter Over the years, studies have specializes interview with The New she and the many riddles that re- interacted in some way with hydrogen mapped the presence of dark matter Yorker, related that in her teens she had fre- main open about itcan be ex- atoms, thus leadingto the loweringof in various placesin the universe,in- the of the dark matter. our emplifiedin myriad ways. temperature eludingin the center of galaxy,the quent confrontations with her mother, to One of the most frustratingPhysicistsresponding the article Milky Way. In her most recent book, who was reluctant to lether leave for nature challengesinvolves the fact that sci- in suggested that the discov- “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The school before dawn so she could ar- ence is familiar with less than five ery could open new direction into Astounding Interconnectedness of rive in time for the early-morning the of dark matter and the uni- percent of the matter that makes up study the Universe” (HarperCollins,2015), meetingsof the school’smath team, of the universe. That iswhat Randall takes dark matter and its paltryfigure verse.) pos- which she was captain(thefirstgirlto after allthe matter The 69 of the sibleeffects one you get addingup remaining percent step further,linking serve in that capacity). on Earth and outside it all for the observed behav- its in our solar with including “explanation” presence system At age 17,Lisa finished firstin the the galaxies,solar systems, and such ior of the universe is the postulationthe extinction of nearlyallof the dino- prestigiousWestinghouseScience Tal- as that there is some sort of out saurs some 66 million heavenlyobjects asteroids,meteors, energy years ago. ent Search (asit was then known), gas clouds and interstellardust.Effec- there that researchers called “dark The unusual connection between nationwide science competition for tively,everythingthat’smade of atoms. energy.” dark matter and dinosaurs proved ir- high-schoolseniors. The problem was that science could This force did not enter the theoret- resistiblyintriguingon the lecture cir- She entered Harvard in 1980,and not explainempiricalobservations of ical pictureuntil the end of the 1990s, cuit and TV talk shows. Her research by 1987 had obtained doctoral de- the universe based on the matter and on the basis of observa- on this with of surprising subjectbegan survey gree in particlephysicsthere. She was events energieswe know about. The bafflingtions of supernova (theexplo- allthe known craters on Earth with the first woman to receive tenure in conclusion of centuries of observations sion of which revealed that the stars), diameter of more than 20 kilometers the physicsdepartment of Princeton and calculations is that the matter and universe is not and only expanding and which are no more than 250 mil- Universityand the first female,ten- that have been identifiedcon- but is acceler- energies spreading, constantly lion years old.There are 26 such mon- ured theoretical physicistat Harvard. to be 4.9 the with which itdoes so. stitute, precise,just percent ating speed ster craters, all created,according She also served as tenured professor had been that the ex- of everythingin the universe. So what (The assumption to the geologicalevidence,by large at MIT, else is out that we haven’t seen? was because of there, pansion decelerating, objectsthat slammed into the planet. Her research deals with diverse as- the effects of The basic Scientists call the mysterious95.1 gravity.) argu- Randall found consistent cyclicality pects of theoretical physicsand with ment for the existence of dark percent of whatever is making up the energy in the formation of the craters, with the studyof the universe (cosmology), universe “dark matter” and “dark en- is that there must be hidden force new one having appeared approxi- coveringthe gamut from elementary It’scalled “dark” because itcan’t that is the from ergy.” pushing galaxiesaway mately every 30 million years. The particlesthe minuscule,basic matter be not in the form of celestial one another. seen, reason for this recurring cycle,she of which the materials of the universe bodies or even dust clouds. Nor does When met the Frank B. Randall, argues, is to be found in the cyclical- are constituted to understanding it to interact with the Jr. Professor of Science at Har- appear particlesBaird, ityof the solar system’scircumnavi- space itself. we do know asked she chose to focus about,includinglightpar- vard, why gationof the Milky Way once every The “standard model” of particle tides. her research on dark matter. physics 30 million years. physics,formulated in the 1970s,de- It is on dark matter that Prof. Lisa Our interview took placeat the Dan scribes the structure of matter on Randall, physicistat Harvard Univer- Carmel Hotel,in Haifa. small scale. The model refers to the sity,hopes to shed light. “I think that dark matter is justat reciprocalrelations between the dif- day before Randall arrived in ferent atomic which are di- very interestingjuncturerightnow, ‘Ibelievethere’slifeon other particles, Israel,this past December, to partici- vided into called because we know it’sthere,but we particles “bosons,” pate in the annual conference of the on don’t know what it is. And, depend- planets.don’t believewe’ll which carry the forces that act IsraelPhysicalSociety,U.S. President matter, and “fermions,”from which ing on what it is,there can be differ- finditor know about Donald Trump forbade the Centers for it, all the of matter are ent ways to look for it.My research is particles made, Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. with the forces that act on them. being conducted in areas that others but do think along health from the necessarily, public agency, using haven’t looked at.” The model, which describes the ba- terms “evidence-based” and “science- it’sthere.Everytime we’ve sic interactions in contains But are you certain that itexists? nature, based” in documents. Ran- budgetary three forces: They are known as the “I would say yes. There are many decided we’re uniqueor dall openedher talk at the conference, nu- different piecesof evidence that point “strongnuclear force,”the “weak which was held at the Technion Is- thatwe’re the we’ve to its existence. We see how stars center, clear force” and the “electromagnetic rael Institute of Technology,in Haifa, force.” move in our galaxy;we see how gal- been don’t see on December 17,by saying,“It’snice wrong. to Prof. Yael axies move in galaxyclusters.We also According Shadmi, to speak at conference in country we should be the theoretical at the see evidence in cosmic microwave why only physicist Technion, where you can stilluse the word ‘sci- who has worked with “As background radiation,left over from Randall, ence.’” exampleof anything.’ the earliest moments of the universe.” of today,we have beautiful theory Her barbed remark reflects the ap- called the ‘standard which de- (Randallis referringto radiation that model,’ prehensionof many of her colleagues is kind of remnant of the Big Bang, scribes allvisiblematter and itsinter- about the future of scientificresearch the event that brought the universe actions,with the exceptionof gravity, in the United States in lightof the The blow to Earth isrelated in terms of small number of into beingnearly14 billionyears ago. cyclical very Trump administration’s approach.In to two We The radiation isan artifactthat serves phenomena, Randall believes. elementaryparticles. understand the meantime,though,Randall contin- One is familiar from the weak and as somethinglike photographof the concept space strong, electromagnetic ues to occupy herself vigorouslywith as as state of the universe at itsgenesis,and research known the “Oort cloud.” forces stemming from symmetries. the bigquestionsof the universe,in- The second is Randall’s of The weak force is related to broken its existence is one of the proofsthat theory eluding,most recently,the nature of the existence of the “double-disk dark the Big Bang occurred.) symmetry.” dark matter. matter.” Shadmi: “The which “In contrast to dark energy, dark Higgs boson, If less than five percent of what The named for the was matter is,after all,matter, which Oort cloud, 20th- discovered in 2012,is responsible comprisesthe universe iseven known for this and its means it can interact,it can clump century Dutch astronomer Jan Oort,is symmetry breaking, to science,what can it say about the mass determines the of the differently,it could take on certain thoughtto consist of billionsof blocs strength rest? Scientistsestimate that some 26 weak force. But there are fundamen- shapesand sizes and exist in different of ice that are the source of many of percent of the universe is dark mat- concentrations in galaxies.So there’s the meteors, the long-tailedicybod- tal problemswith the theory in addi- ter.
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