SAPKOTA AMRIT

17012786
Question 1

Observation of GW detected by LIGO in 2017 produced by merger of neutron stars revealed that gravity
speed and light speed appear to be identical that rules out some theories of quantum gravity. [1] I guess
it is because being a wave GW is massless thus potentially can travel as fast as light.

Question 2

Ice Cube Neutrino Telescope is more sensitive to neutrinos coming through the Earth because Earth
itself acts as a neutrino filter that prevents neutrinos from space to come inside earth surface. [1]

Question 3

Summery – Why neutrinos Matter

 Neutrino
o Ghost particles
o Elementary particles that can’t be subdivided
o Highly penetrative – million times less massive than electron
o Electrically neutral
o Barely interacts with matters which information about their origin stored on them will be
preserved for billions of years.
o Highest energy neutrinos are born deep inside unknown environment in space, may be
super massive BHs, or cosmic dynamo that are still undiscovered.

 Origin/Production:
o Radioactive decay of potassium in the human body
o Collision of cosmic rays with the atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere
o Nuclear reaction inside the sun
o Radioactive decay inside the Earth
o Nuclear reactors and Particle accelerators
 Detection:
o Using huge volume of pure transparent material, when neutrino collide with nucleus of an
atom while passing via that material they can be detected.
 Neutrino Telescope and :
o World largest neutrino telescope is located in Antarctica
o Set up is a cubic kilometer of ice purified by the pressure build from the years of
accumulated ice and snow resulting one of the clearest solid on Earth.
o Ice cube is shot through with boreholes consisting of over 5000 detectors
o About 10 times a year a single high energy neutrino collides with a molecule of ice creating
sparks of charged subatomic particles that travels faster than the light in ice
o Subatomic sparks generate blue lights in a similar way how a supersonic jet produces a sonic
boom and thus are detected by the detectors
 o Photomultiplier inside detector amplifies the signals and the data are observed by
astrophysicists to predict their origin

Neutrinos are so rare that scientist even has given them names. Neutrino can give new outlook of
universe just like x-rays, gamma rays and infrared rays have given.

As far as I understood, neutrino astronomy could be the future of astronomy because instead of relying
on information on light that has finite speed, neutrino which barely interacts with any matters and even
travels faster than light in some medium can have much clearer and precise information about deep
mysteries of the universe.

Question 4

Summery – Is this the fastest thing in the universe?

 Ionizing radiation:
o Unlike lower power electromagnetic radiation, it can remove electrons from atoms to form
ions thus called ionizing radiation.
o Decay of unstable atoms in such way releases particles and electromagnetic radiation
o Are highly harmful that can damage our DNA
o About ten minutes of contact with this radiation can rip off our cells and kill us in about a
day or less
o Can affect modern electronics, corrupting data and causing glitches and destruction
o Neutrons released by the reactors core are just like tiny bullets with varying power
o Weakest particles released will have less energy and strongest particles will have huge
amount of energy that is measured in EV(electron volt)
 Large Hadron Collider(LHC):
o it is a particle accelerator where protons, ions and other particles are accelerated around a
27 km tunnel using extremely high-power magnets.
o these particles are collided to produce high energy particles
o most energetic particle produced by LHC is about 1PeV or 10 15 electron volts
 OMG Particles:
o In the universe there are some particles that are enormously accelerated which is a way
powerful than the biggest supernova. These particle are also the parts of nuclei of an atom
just like protons and neutrons. They travels with the speed of light though they have mass.
Fly’s Eye Detector had detected it for the first time which was almost as fast as light which is
why they are termed as OMG particles.
o If a OMG particle and a photon races, photon will take 250 thousand year to get lead of just
1 cm.
o It had 3*1020 eV or a 100 billion billion times more energy than photon.
o They must be generated via acceleration by abundantly intense magnetic fields and active
galactic nuclei or super massive black hole or accretion disk of matter that surrounds it
could be one of them.
o The cosmic microwave background radiation leftover from big bang that still pervades every
cubic centimeter of space would be blue shifted to gamma ray with much higher energy.
 o They are so rare that only 1 OMG particle is detected per square kilometer of space per year
and only 72 have been detected since 1991.
o when it travels via human body it created atomic hole in our body and atoms it interacted in
a way to our body will cause same phenomenon that would happen when cancer cells are
removed via radiation.

In a nutshell, OMG particle are nothing but highly energized subatomi particles just like neutrino but are
electrically charged. [2]

References:

[1] Jeff Hodgson, S 2021, A History of Multi-Messenger astronomy, Lecture 13b, lecture recording,
Introduction to Astronomy 008890, Sejong University, delivered 27 th May 2021.

[2] Sutter, Paul. “High-Energy Whodunit: The Origins of the ‘OMG Particle.’” Space.Com, 13 Aug. 2018,
www.space.com/41458-omg-particle-cosmic-ray-mystery.html#:%7E:text=Paul%20Sutter%20is%20an
%20astrophysicist,scientist%20at%20COSI%20science%20center.&text=These%20cosmic%20particles
%20are%20trouble,)%20they’re%20electrically%20charged.