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University of Alabama in Huntsville

For more information:
Dr. Richard Lieu, (256) 824-1425
Dr. Lloyd Hillman, (256) 824-6276
Phillip Gentry, (256) 824-6420

Feb. 6, 2003

Does sharp image of distant galaxy shred the fabric of space and time?
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The sharp image of a galaxy halfway across the 
universe might shred modern theories about the structures of time and 
space, and change the way astrophysicists view the "Big Bang," 
according to two scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville
(UAH).

Their findings might also provide important clues to (and cause 
significant upheaval among) researchers trying to merge two of the 
most significant scientific theories of the last century: Einstein's 
theory of general relativity and Planck's theory of the quantum.

Using Hubble Space Telescope images of galaxies at least four billion 
light years from Earth, UAH's Dr. Richard Lieu and Dr. Lloyd Hillman 
tested a popular theory of modern quantum physics: That time flows in 
incredibly small but finite and measurable quantum bits.

Their research findings are scheduled to be published in the March 10 
edition of "Astrophysical Journal Letters," and have been released in 
the journal's website.

Lieu and Hillman used images gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope to 
look for patterns that shouldn't be present if prevailing notions of 
time quantum were correct.

"I fully anticipated that the pattern wouldn't show," said Lieu, an 
associate physics professor at UAH.

Instead, when they looked at Hubble images of galaxies at least four 
billion light years from Earth, each image unexpectedly showed a sharp 
interferometric pattern -- a ring around the galaxy.

Using that data, the UAH team was able to determine that the speed of 
that light didn't fluctuate by more than a few parts in 10**-32 as it 
traveled across the cosmos.  That measurement is significantly more 
accurate than should be possible if quantum theories of time and space
are correct.

Their findings will create problems for astrophysicists and 
cosmologists who agree with Albert Einstein's theory that time, 
gravity and the fabric of space are different manifestations of the 
same phenomenon, sort of like thunder and light are different 
signatures of lightning.  More recently, when scientists theorized 
that gravity is composed of quantum energy "packets" called gravitons,
it made sense that time and space would also be composed of related 
quantum bits.

Which brings us to Planck time and Planck length, thought to be the 
shortest possible measurements of time and distance. Both are based on 
calculations of the most energetic radiation theoretically possible. 
There are twenty million trillion, trillion, trillion Planck time
intervals (5 x 10**-44) in one second. Planck length is the distance a 
beam of light would travel in that time -- about 
0.000000000000000000000000000000001 (10**-33) cm.

Tying together the theory of gravitons with the shortest possible 
measurements of time, quantum theory says time would move in 
miniscule, Planck time-sized bits -- like grains of sand passing 
chaotically through an hourglass, or a sequence of jittery freeze 
frames that on average last one Planck time rather than a continuous, 
seamless flow.

Scientists say time and distances smaller than Planck scales are 
"fuzzy," since they can't be measured. If there is a finite limit to 
the smallest units of time and distance, however, that means there are 
limits on how accurately scientists can measure things like the speed 
of light.

This limitation opens the possibility of Planck-scale fluctuations in 
the speed of light, said Lieu. Because these fluctuations would be 
extremely small, however, they would only be evident in light that 
travels a great distance. The extended travel gives the slightest
variations in speed an opportunity to spread out and become 
noticeable.

(The same principle applies to racing events. A sprinter, for 
instance, one percent faster than his opponents might win a 100-meter 
race in a photo finish, while a marathon runner one percent faster 
than the field would finish a race hundreds of meters ahead.)

After billions of years, the faster components of a light wave would 
be far enough ahead and the slower components far enough behind that 
the light's wave front would be sufficiently distorted (or blurred) to 
be seen and measured by a telescope.

It was that distortion that Lieu and Hillman expected to find in the 
Hubble images. Not finding that distortion means time isn't a quantum 
function, says Lieu, and that time might flow fluidly and precisely at 
intervals infinitely smaller than Planck time.

"If time doesn't become 'fuzzy' beneath a Planck interval, this 
discovery will present problems to several astrophysical and 
cosmological models, including the Big Bang model of the universe," 
said Lieu. "The Big Bang theory supposes that at the instant of 
creation, the quantum singularity that became the universe would need
to have infinite density and temperature. To avoid that sticky 
problem, theorists invoked the Planck time. They said if the instant 
of creation was also a quantum event, when space and time were both 
blurry, then you don't need infinite density and temperature at the 
start of the Big Bang.

"If time moves along like business as usual even at Planck scales, 
however, you have to reconcile the Big Bang model with an event that 
isn't just off the scale, it's infinite!"

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