Astrophysicist explains big GRAVITATIONAL WAVE discovery! Are they NEW PHYSICS or merging SMBHs?

The BIG news in physics is that a new type of gravitational wave has been detected using pulsar timing arrays. In this video we’re chatting about what a pulsar timing array actually is, what’s been found, and why the gravitational waves might be from pairs of supermassive black holes orbiting each other, but there’s evidence that they could be from new physics processes occurring in the early Universe…

NanoGrav research papers - https://nanograv.org/news/15yrRelease
EPTA & InPTA research papers - https://www.epta.eu.org/epta-dr2.html
Parkes PTA research papers - https://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pu...
Chinese PTA research papers - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...


00:00 - Introduction
01:48 - What is a pulsar timing array?
04:47 - How are these gravitational waves different to the ones detected by LIGO?
06:33 - What are the pulsar timing arrays looking for?
09:37 - What does the data look like?
13:11 - Are these gravitational waves from pairs of supermassive black holes?
16:02 - OR Is there evidence for NEW PHYSICS?
21:34 - What's next then?
23:29 - Bloopers

Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV

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👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.


http://drbecky.uk.com
https://rebeccasmethurst.co.uk