{"id":87287,"date":"2018-12-10T13:21:47","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T23:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=87287"},"modified":"2020-05-21T08:19:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T18:19:11","slug":"antarctica-physics-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/12\/10\/antarctica-physics-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> professor\u2019s Antarctica discovery may herald new model of physics"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_28161\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BUOd_oJYF2I?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Â鶹´«Ã½professor\u2019s Antarctica discovery may herald new model of physics\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p><strong>May 21, 2020 editor&#8217;s note<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/21\/media-incorrectly-connects-uh-research\/\">Media incorrectly connects <abbr>UH<\/abbr> research to parallel universe theory<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa<\/a> Professor of physics <strong>Peter Gorham<\/strong>, along with a team of researchers, discovered new evidence that suggests some Antarctic particles do not fit the standard model of physics. The particles were detected with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/04\/28\/listening-for-neutrinos\/\">Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (<abbr title=\"Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna\">ANITA<\/abbr>)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>ANITA<\/abbr>, a stratospheric balloon payload flying over the Antarctic, was designed to detect cosmic-ray air showers through radio-wave signals on their way down or back up after bouncing off the ice. During flights in December 2006 and December 2014, <abbr>ANITA<\/abbr> detected a fountain of high-energy particles erupting from the ice that resembles an upside-down cosmic-ray shower.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_88634\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-88634\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-anita-peter-gorham.jpg\" alt=\"Peter Gorham.\" width=\"250\" height=\"350\" class=\"size-full wp-image-88634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-anita-peter-gorham.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-anita-peter-gorham-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-88634\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peter Gorham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;What we saw is something that looked just like a cosmic ray, as seen in reflection off the ice sheet, but it wasn\u2019t reflected,&rdquo; said Gorham. &ldquo;It was as if the cosmic ray had come out of the ice itself. A very strange thing. So we published a paper on that, we just suggested that this was in pretty strong tension with the standard model of physics.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Scientists analyzed the particle and thought it could be a secondary particle produced by a neutrino interaction. Neutrinos are fundamental particles of the universe, born in the energy of the Big Bang. They can tell us everything from the birth of the universe to the nuclear reactions that power cities.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It could indicate that we\u2019re actually seeing a new class of sub-atomic particle that\u2019s very penetrating,&rdquo; said Gorham. &ldquo;Even more penetrating than a neutrino, which is pretty hard to do. This particle would be passing through almost the entire earth. So this could be an indication of some new type of physics, what we call beyond the standard model of physics.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The detections suggest that signals came from upward-moving particles that tunneled through the earth before erupting from the ice. But cosmic rays are not predicted to do that in large numbers. One possibility is that cosmic rays from a bright supernova blasted all the way through the earth.<\/p>\n<h2><abbr>ANITA<\/abbr> bringing in best minds and research dollars<\/h2>\n<p>The <abbr>ANITA<\/abbr> project continues to attract some of the best minds, as well as research dollars, to <abbr>UH<\/abbr> to do cutting edge research at the vanguard of science. The project received funding from <abbr>NASA<\/abbr> for three flights in Antarctica. <abbr>ANITA<\/abbr>\u2019s first flight was $8.1 million and the second and third flights were $4.1 million and $4.6 million. Results from the third flight were reported in 2017 and recently published by the American Physical Society.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As physicists we\u2019re often, like many other scientific fields, we tend to go and look under the streetlights that are already on when we\u02bbre trying to search for answers or greater understanding,&rdquo; said Gorham. &ldquo;But when you do a new experiment, something completely different like <abbr>ANITA<\/abbr>, very often you can turn on some brand new streetlights out there in the dark wilderness. It gives us a chance to look for new types of models and theories and evidence in places that we never got to look before.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-antarctica-anita-balloon.jpg\" alt=\"balloon flying in Antarctica\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-88631\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-antarctica-anita-balloon.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-antarctica-anita-balloon-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa&#8217;s Peter Gorham, along with a team of researchers, discovered new evidence that suggests some Antarctic particles do not fit the standard model of physics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[1363,124,545,9,56],"class_list":["post-87287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-video","tag-manoa-research","tag-physics","tag-physics-and-astronomy","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87287"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119106,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87287\/revisions\/119106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}