Unique study tests fundamental laws of physics

As the Talkshop reaches the milestone of 5 million visits, do we hear echoes of Scotty of Star Trek fame: ‘Ye cannae change the laws of physics’? Does fundamental mean universal – or could some ‘laws’ depend on where you look in the universe? Meanwhile Tallbloke is boldly going…somewhere…

A study that will ‘test our understanding of how the Universe works, particularly outside the relatively narrow confines of our planet’ is being undertaken by an international team of researchers led by the University of Leicester, reports Phys.org.

The research probes whether the fundamental laws of physics are the same everywhere in the universe.

In their new study, the Leicester-led team assesses whether these laws are the same within the hot, dense conditions in the atmosphere of a dying white dwarf star as here on Earth.

These stars have masses around half that of the Sun compressed into a radius similar to that of the Earth, leading to extreme gravity within the atmosphere of the star.

The preliminary analysis, led by the research group of Professor Martin Barstow, Pro-Vice-Chancellor; Strategic Science Projects Director, Leicester Institute of Space & Earth Observation; Professor of Astrophysics & Space Science, Department of Physics & Astronomy, features on the cover of the online journal Universe.

Postdoctoral researcher Matthew Bainbridge is the lead author of the early-stage study titled “Probing the Gravitational Dependence of the Fine-Structure Constant from Observations of White Dwarf Stars.” The study involved Matthew Bainbridge, Martin Barstow and Nicole Reindl from Leicester along with colleagues from the U.S., France, The Netherlands, Australia and collaborators in the U.K.

The researchers use the light of white dwarf stars observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Dr Nicole Reindl, leading the observations, says: “These particular stars contain metals, such as Iron and Nickel, floating within the surface layers of their atmospheres. The light generated within the depths of the star passes through the heavy metals, leaving behind a “fingerprint” in the stars’ light that we can study.”

Continued here.