Would it be possible to modify existing neutrino emissions to carry information? It is known that matter can modify neutrino oscillations, i.e. the MSW Effect (though not sure how practical this would be for a comm system). Thoughts?

What an interesting concept. I don’t know how workable it might be, but I’m hoping others will have thoughts on the matter.

(ok, I’m a layman who watched too much ‘trek)

Neutrino trigger could reveal gravitational waves

SN 1987A: not close enoughExisting neutrino and gravitational-wave detectors can be used in concert to observe gravitational waves given off during a nearby supernova — say physicists in Italy.

Gravitational waves are vibrations of space–time predicted by the general theory of relativity. A number of experiments are trying to detect gravitational waves by measuring tiny changes in the separation of two masses that are expected to occur when the waves traverse a detector.

However, none have been successful so far and the most convincing evidence yet for gravitational waves is that the orbital period of the Hulse–Taylor binary star system is shrinking at the precise rate associated with the emission of gravitational waves.

With a little bit of luck, however, the first direct detection of the waves could happen if a supernova occurs in our own galaxy. Such a massive stellar explosion produces a vast amount of light and other radiation, which could help physicists narrow down their search to the precise moment that the gravitational waves reach Earth. This would be a great help in boosting the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors.

Full article here:

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40131

We make hypotheses, and design experiments to test them. Is this the only way to do it? For us, it may be so. But I wonder whether creatures whose ‘brains’ (for want of a better word) are built differently may have another way of progressing.

Perhaps they, like the ancient philosophers of Earth, just think really really hard about the problem, and they come up with a glorious unified theory without actually doing any experiments. Sure, I can’t actually imagine how they could do this, but who knows what they might be capable of if they’re really very clever, and perhaps conceptualize in a totally alien way.

I think the question of whether they could do this or not would depend on the nature of the universe. If the laws of physics are necessarily the way they are, then this kind of physics-by-deduction would be possible (at least in principle). If the laws of physics are contingent (or perhaps there’s a multiverse of varieties) then no-one – no matter how clever – could think their way to the answer.

Of course, there are other scenarios. Perhaps the progression of knowledge for ET follows a completely different path to ours. Again, I can’t really imagine too many major diversions from the path we took, but then I only have one example of an advanced technological civilization to play with! What I’m getting at is that certain experiments that we think are necessary might simply never occur to ET, either because they’ve worked out the answer without needing the experiment, or they’ve progressed in a completely different way.

When I brought up this idea with my colleagues, the first thing someone asked was whether we could “see” the LHC. Even a very powerful particle accelerator on our own planet turns out to be invisible.

Authors: Z.K. Silagadze

(Submitted on 4 Mar 2008)

Abstract: Intense neutrino beams that accompany muon colliders can be used for interstellar communications. The presence of multi-TeV extraterrestrial muon collider at several light-years distance can be detected after one year run of IceCube type neutrino telescopes, if the neutrino beam is directed towards the Earth. This opens a new avenue in SETI: search for extraterrestrial muon colliders.

Comments: 3 pages, ReVTeX4

Subjects: Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph); Astrophysics (astro-ph)

Cite as: arXiv:0803.0409v1 [physics.pop-ph]

Submission history

From: Zurab Silagadze [view email]

[v1] Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:53:14 GMT (6kb)

http://arxiv.org/abs/0803.0409

Authors: Rasha Abbasi, Paolo Desiati, for the IceCube Collaboration

(Submitted on 2 Jul 2009)

Abstract: We report on a study of the anisotropy in the arrival direction of cosmic rays with a median energy per Cosmic Ray (CR) particle of ~ 14 TeV using data from the IceCube detector.

IceCube is a neutrino observatory at the geographical South Pole, when completed it will comprise 80 strings plus 6 additional strings for the low energy array Deep Core. The strings are deployed in the deep ice between 1,450 and 2,450 meters depth, each string containing 60 optical sensors.

The data used in this analysis were collected from April 2007 to March 2008 with 22 deployed strings. The data contain ~ 4.3 billion downward going muon events. A two-dimensional skymap is presented with an evidence of 0.06% large scale anisotropy. The energy dependence of this anisotropy at median energies per CR particle of 12 TeV and 126 TeV is also presented in this work.

This anisotropy could arise from a number of possible effects; it could further enhance the understanding of the structure of the galactic magnetic field and possible cosmic ray sources.

Comments: 4 pages, 6 figures, to be presented at ICRC (2009)

Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

Cite as: arXiv:0907.0498v1 [astro-ph.HE]

Submission history

From: Rasha Abbasi Dr. [view email]

[v1] Thu, 2 Jul 2009 23:40:46 GMT (798kb)

http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.0498

“ljk, I would really propose to search for life that we know CAN exists (water, carbon, etc), before descending into unsupported fantasy.”

Of course – I was merely pointing out some possible reasons why SETI has not succeeded yet, among a host of others.

The whole point of this thread is that some intelligences may be using neutrinos to communicate and it may require beings way ahead of us or very different from us.