Hypothetical gravitons may be left-handed

[Robh (Rob)]

Hi all,

The article's heading suggests that the graviton's spin may be left-handed but it may be right-handed or ambidextrous. That's of course if gravitons exist at all.
I found this hypothesis rather interesting as it makes an observable prediction that could lead us in new directions in the quest to unify gravity with quantum mechanics. Looks like the CMBR is becoming even more significant. Guess we are going to have to wait.

New Scientist article ... http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ef=online-news

Regards, Rob

[renormalised (Carl)]

Lucky some of the nuns that used to teach me in primary school didn't know about this....I mean, left handed!!!!

Seriously, interesting article.

[CraigS]

Originally Posted by renormalised

Lucky some of the nuns that used to teach me in primary school didn't know about this….

OMG !!!

That explains it all !!

Cheers

[CraigS]

Gravitons are also a dark Matter candidate too, eh ?

Looks like we'll have to wait for the Planck data in 2013 the check this one out, too.

Interesting.

Cheers

[CraigS]

This effect sounds similar to the boost the low energy CMB photons get from higher energy electrons with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.

Polarization is one of the flow-on effects as a result of such collisions.

I guess a collision with a graviton, (of zero mass), would result in a much smaller degree of photon polarisation, eh ?

(Might have to read their paper to understand what they reckon might be going on).

Cheers

[Robh (Rob)]

The remarkable thing to me is that the CMBR has the signatures to swing a model one way or the other and we're looking at radiation which dates back to 300000 years after the Big Bang!

Regards, left-hand Rob

[CraigS]

Originally Posted by Robh

The remarkable thing to me is that the CMBR has the signatures to swing a model one way or the other and we're looking at radiation which dates back to 300000 years after the Big Bang!

Amazing isn't it, Rob ?
I personally think its very much like tea-leaf gazing … until they can demonstrate that any patterns actually have statistical significance !

Originally Posted by Robh

Regards, left-hand Rob

I read something recently that they reckon the chirality of DNA had its origins in space (somehow .. I'll see if I can dig up the article).

Cheers right handed and therefore boring, Craig.

[CraigS]

Here you go Rob;

A little off topic, but slightly related …

Life's asymmetry may come from space

Processes taking place in outer space, and not on Earth, are likely to have led to the biological molecules found exclusively in either a left-handed or right-handed form. That is the conclusion drawn from recent experiments carried out at the SOLEIL synchrotron facility near Paris in which a number of simple molecules found in star-forming regions exposed to polarized radiation created amino acids with an imbalance of left- and right-handed molecules.

They put forth a proposition that circularly polarised light can explain the asymmetry of chiral molecules .. like DNA.

Interesting.

Cheers