Time Reversal in Gamma-Ray Bursts Linked to Faster-Than-Light Speeds

Time-Reversing Events in Gamma-Ray Bursts May Be Caused by Superluminal Waves

Scientists have found time-reversing signals in gamma-ray bursts that can be due to waves traveling faster than light in the jets of these explosions. It could make object display this superluminal motion up to the effect of time reversal where the event seems to reverse in time. A Gamma-Ray Burst is one of the most energetic events in the universe and may originate from massive star collapse or neutron star merging, and produce material that travels at close to the speed of light. This article raises the possibility that gamma-ray bursts, these time reversing events, could be attributed to waves exceeding the speed of light.

Traditionally, there is no such thing as time flow in reverse in the lack of a time ‘backwards’ button. Still, there are certain observations of events in some of the pulses of gamma-ray bursts which appear to change their order and run in reverse for some time.

Recent studies suggest that there could be an explanation for this temporal anisotropy The first one is the so called ‘reversibility hypothesis’. If the waves penetrating through the relativistic jets which emit gamma-ray bursts move at such velocity which is higher than the velocity of light, time reversal effects could be observed.

This can happen without violating the relativity if a wave within this gamma-ray burst jet moves at superluminal velocities. To understand this let us track the roots of jogging jet.

A gamma-ray burst is the most brilliant flash of energy that goes on from milliseconds to several hours and the cause of which is still unknown.

Research has established the fact that collision of neutron star results into gamma-ray bursts. These bursts happen astronomers say when a large spin–off star turns into a black hole and blows its covers off in a hypernova.

The black hole is enveloped in a cloud of accretion material and if it rotates fast enough, initially expelled material returns after explosion and jets shoot out from the polar regions in the form of gamma-ray bursts as they pierce through the outer layers of the star.

Now, returning to waves which move with the speed greater than the light one.

Indeed, there are experiments which show that particles move faster than the speed of light within certain materials, for example, resulting in such well-known effects as Cherenkov radiation, which causes blue glow. A “luminal boom” happens when charged particles, such as electrons move through water at a speed which is in excess of the phase velocity of light.

Jon Hakkila of the College of Charleston and Robert Nemiroff of Michigan Technological University have theorised that the same mechanism might work within gamma-ray burst jets. According to the mathematical modeling of Coulon et al. , this is true.

Here, an impactor wave within an expanding gamma-ray burst jet, moves from sub relativistic to super relativistic speeds or the other way round, their study defines it.

When the impactor wave goes faster than the speed of light in this medium, it interferes with the surrounding medium to produce Cherenkov and or other collisional radiation When the impactor wave goes slower than light, other mechanisms such as thermalized Compton or Synchrotron shock radiation are produced.

These transitions give rise to both forward and reversed time features of gamma-ray bursts light curves via mechanism termed relativistic image doubling.

This relativistic image doubling is thought to occur in Cherenkov detectors, where a near-light-speed charged particle moving through water can appear in two places at once: that one image advances in time and the other retreats.

While such doubling has yet been absent from experimental detections, if it is present, it may be the cause of time-reversibility observed in the light curves of gamma-ray bursts when the impactor wave is accelerating to supere luminal velocity and later loses speed.

Further research is needed. The actual body that the researchers suggest has caused the gamma-ray burst should be a large-scale wave to density or magnetic field that deserves more research. However, if, for example, the plasmas concerned are opaque to superluminal radiation, the model in question may not stand.

Still, the researchers point out their model provides more comprehensive description of properties of gamma-ray burst light curves than those based on models that do not take into account time reversibility.

‘To my knowledge, time-reversible light curve properties have not been considered in standard gamma-ray burst models’, Hakkila said. Superluminal jet motion accounts for the existence of these properties; however, it retains many characteristics of conventional models.

The research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

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