Physicists have discovered that gravity can produce light. How is this possible?

The first second after the Big Bang is the period of existence of the universe, which is of great interest to physicists. At that time the rapid expansion of the universe most likely occurred. According to a theory called cosmic inflation, the universe swelled up in an instant, like a rapidly inflating balloon.

As it expanded, the linear dimensions of the universe increased by one by several tens of zeros. It happened in a split second. What was going on inside the balloon then? Scientists believe that The universe was in a strange state: interactions and matter as we know it were just taking shape.

According to the last hypothesis, she played a special role at that time gravity. According to the researchers, it can “produce” light. A research paper on this topic has been published in the scientific journal Physics of the Dark Universe.

To understand how gravity gave rise to light at the birth of the universe, it can be helpful to remember this Playing on the swing. When we sit on it, we usually quickly and easily figure out what needs to be done to swing it higher and higher.

We bounce off the floor, and begin to bend back and forth, while swinging our legs. Our movements are cyclical. We quickly notice that we can adjust their pace in such a way as to make the swing swing.

We use it most of the time without even knowing it Known from classical physics, the phenomenon of resonance. By applying a properly selected force, we increase the amplitude of the pendulum. So we make the swing swing more and more.

According to the researchers In the initial period of the universe’s existence, a type of resonance called parametric resonance could have been of great importance. As explained by Dr. Tomasz Kawalec of the Jagiellonian University Institute of Physics in the journal “Foton”, parametric resonance appears when In a given oscillatory system, one of its parameters changes periodically. For example, in the case of an oscillation, a parametric resonance will occur if its length suddenly starts to change.

How does this relate to a universe so small? The authors of the aforementioned work believe that it could have appeared at that time Strange form of parametric resonance. It will be exposed to gravitational waves, which will become very powerful as a result.

Contrary to our daily experience, Spacetime is not static at all. It is constantly vibrating under the influence of gravitational waves that drive it. The ones we record today thanks to terrestrial detectors are very faint. Under their influence, the dimensions of space change to similar values, for example, the diameter of a proton.

It is not surprising that the world seems to us to be a fairly stable place (at least when it comes to physical quantities). But immediately after the Big Bang, things could have been very different. As a result of inflation, the universe could be filled with extremely powerful gravitational waves. Some of them, overlapping each other, can form so-called standing waves. As a result, a lot of gravitational energy can accumulate in some places.

According to scientists, this may have affected the electromagnetic fields that existed in the universe at that time. Regions of intense gravity can excite the electromagnetic field with enough strength to reveal some of its energy as radiation. This is how light could have originated in the early universe by gravitational influence.

This is not the first time that scientists have found connections between concepts and physical phenomena that seem to have little in common. Researchers are constantly looking for Confirmation of Breit-Wheeler operation. According to him, matter can form from light under certain conditions.

sources: phys.orgAnd Dark Universe PhysicsAnd Photon.