Strange signals detected from Antarctic ice seem to defy laws of physics. Scientists are searching for an answer

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Scientists are trying to solve a ten -year mystery by identifying the identity of abnormal signals detected under ice in Antarctica.

Strange radio waves appeared during the search for another unusual phenomenon: high -energy cosmic particles known as neutrino. Neutrinos from distant parts of the cosmos to the earth are often called “ghosts, because they become extremely variable or vaporous and can pass through all kinds of substances without changing.

In the last decade, researchers have done many experiments using wide water and ice expansions. Search neutrinoIt can shed light on the mysterious cosmic rays, the most energetic particles in the universe. One of these projects was NASA’s Antarctica impulsive temporary temporary antenna or Anita experiment between 2006-2016.

During this hunting, Anita took abnormal radio waves that did not appear to be neutrino.

The signals came under the horizon, which shows that they cross thousands of miles before reaching the detector. However, radio waves should have been absorbed by rock. The Anita team believed that these abnormal signals could not be explained by the understanding of existing particle physics.

Other instruments, including one of the recently carried out by the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, and his follow -up observations and analyzes could not find the same signals. Pierre Auger Results of Cooperation The results of the magazine Physical Review Letters In March.

Physics, astronomy and astrophysic associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania Coauuthor Stephanie Wissel remains uncertain of abnormal signals.

“Our new work shows that such (signals) is not seen by an experiment… Pierre Auger Observatory,” Wissel said. “So, it shows that there is more information to be added to the story, not new physics.”

Scientists can prove that larger, more sensitive detectors can solve the mystery, or ultimately whether abnormal signals are a FLUBE.

Search for neutrino

Detecting neutrinos on earth allows researchers to watch them to their sources, believes that scientists are primarily cosmic rays that hit the atmosphere of our planet.

The most energetic particles in the universe are often made up of protons or atomic nuclei and released along the universe, because everything that produces them is such a powerful particle accelerator in which the great hadron collision dwells. Neutrinos can help astronomers to better understand what has initiated the cosmic rays and them throughout the cosmos.

However, it is difficult to find neutrinos because they have almost no masses and they can pass through the most extreme environments, such as stars and all galaxies. However, they interact with water and ice.

Madison is designed to search for the highest energy neutrinos in the universe, Anita, Anita, Anita, Anita, Associate Professor of Wisconsin. The radio antennas of the experiment seek a short wave of radio wave produced when colliding with an atom in a neutrino antarctica ice and lead to a shower of lower energy particles.

During their flights, Anita found high -energy particle fountains from ice, a kind of upside down cosmic beam shower. The detector is also sensitive to ultra high energy cosmic rays, creating a radio burst that rains the world and acts like a flashlight of radio waves.

When Anita pursues a cosmic beam, the flashlight is the explosion of a second -length radio waves that can be matching like a wave to show how the ice is really reflected.

An anomaly in data

Twice in the data obtained from Anita flights, the original team of the experiment saw the signals from the ice at a much sharper angle than any model, and made it impossible to monitor the signals to their original sources.

“The radio waves we’ve identified almost ten years ago were 30 degrees below the ice surface,” he said.

Vandenbroucke said neutrinos could go through too much substances, but could not pass the earth.

“They are expected to come under the horizon that there are not many places to be absorbed,” he wrote with an e -mail. “Anita abnormal events are interesting, because they come under the horizon, so neutrinos will have to travel in most of the world. This is not possible according to the standard model of particle physics.”

Pierre Auger cooperation, which includes hundreds of scientists around the world, analyzed a lot of data for more than ten years to try to understand abnormal signals detected by Anita.

The team also used the observation to try to find the same signals. The Burgu Observatory is a hybrid detector using two methods to find and examine cosmic rays. One method monitors high -energy particles when interacting with water in the tanks on the earth surface, and the other follows potential interactions with high ultraviolet light in the atmosphere of our planet.

“Auger Observatory uses a very different technique to observe the ultra -energy cosmic beam air shower, using the secondary glow of the loaded particles as they pass through the atmosphere to determine the direction of the cosmic beam that started the cosmic beam that started the cosmic beam at the University of Hawaii at the University of Hawaii in Mānoa. “If Anita had acted like abnormal events, they could produce a kind of template for similar events, using computer simulations how such a particle shower will appear, and then search for data to see if such a thing is happening.”

Gorham, who was not interested in new research, designed his Anita experiment and conducted other research to learn more about abnormal signals.

Although the Burgu Observatory is designed to measure the downward particle showers produced in the atmosphere with ultrahight-energy cosmic rays, the team has redesigned the data analysis to search for upward air showers. Vandenbroucke did not work on a new study, but he saw the referee before it was released.

“Auger has a tremendous collection space for such events larger than Anita,” he said. “Anita abnormal events should be produced by any particle traveling from the world and producing showering upwards later, it must have identified and not.”

A separate follow -up work He also sought abnormal signals using the ICecube experiment, which has sensors deep into the Antarctica ice.

Between 2019-2022, Vandenbroucke, who served as the Colleadi of the Icecube Neutrino Resources Working Group, wrote, “Icecube is very sensitive, if the Anita abnormal events are neutrinos, we would have identified them,” he wrote.

“This is an interesting problem because we still do not have any explanation about what these anomalies are, but what we know is that they do not represent neutrinos,” he said.

Strangely, a different type of neutrino called Tau neutrino is a hypothesis that some scientists put forward as the cause of abnormal signals.

TAU neutrinos can be renewed. When they deteriorate at high energies, they produce a particle called another Tau neutrino and an electron, but called a much heavier Tau Lepton.

However, Tau said that the neutrino scenario is not likely to be the steepness of the signal.

“You expect all these Tau neutrinos to be very close to the horizon, perhaps one to five degrees below the horizon,” Wissel said. “These are 30 degrees below the horizon. There are too many materials. It will really lose some energy and cannot be detected.”

Future of Detection

At the end of the day, Gorham and other scientists have no idea what the origin of abnormal funds is. So far, no interpretation has matched with signals, which attracts scientists back to try to solve mystery. However, the answer can be visible.

Wissel also works on Ultra high energy observations or load load for PUEO, which will fly over Antarctica for a month from December. Wissel, PUEO, which is larger and 10 times more sensitive than Anita, can reveal more information about what causes abnormal signals detected by Anita.

“Right now, this is one of the long -standing mysteries, Wiss Wissel said. “I am excited to have better sensitivity when we fly PUEO. In principle, we should be able to understand these anomalies better to understand our past and ultimately determine neutrinos in the future.”

Gorham said that PUEO, a abbreviation referring to the Hawaii owl, should have the sensitivity to help many abnormal signals and scientists find an answer.

“Sometimes you go back to the drawing board and really need to understand what they are, Wiss said Wissel. “The most likely scenario is that there are some ordinary physics that can be explained, but we knock all the doors to try to understand what they are.”

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