Mindscape 212 | Chiara Mingarelli on Searching for Black Holes with Pulsars

Patreon: / seanmcarroll
Blog post with audio player, show notes, and transcript: www.preposterousuniverse.com/...
The detection of gravitational waves from inspiraling black holes by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations was rightly celebrated as a landmark achievement in physics and astronomy. But ultra-precise ground-based observatories aren’t the only way to detect gravitational waves; we can also search for their imprints on the timing of signals from pulsars scattered throughout our galaxy. Chiara Mingarelli is a member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration, which uses pulsar timing to study the universe using gravitational waves.
Chiara Mingarelli received her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Birmingham. She is currently an assistant professor of physics at the University of Connecticut and a research scientist at the Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics. Her Ph.D. thesis was selected by Springer Nature as an Outstanding PhD thesis, and she was selected as a “Voice of the Future” by the Royal Astronomical Society. She regularly contributes to science communication, including Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls and the Science Channel’s “How the Universe Works."
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[@maisboyfriend]

Your conversations are very noticeably more warm and fluent when you're both in the room together. This was a really great listen. Thanks, as always, Sean.

[@bendavis2234]

I’ve never heard the term “gravitational radiation” used before this podcast to discuss gravitational wave phenomena. Really interesting way to think about gravity. Great podcast and guest!

[@CONNELL19511216]

Not really - ALL waves are, by definition, instances of radiation. That's the way language works. Check the dictionary for confirmation.

[@bendavis2234]

@@CONNELL19511216 That’s what I found surprising, I didn’t know that before

[@nmarbletoe8210]

@@CONNELL19511216 Standing waves don't radiate, they stand and deliver comedy to the masses

[@BarbarianMonk]

Fantastic episode. Great work.

[@drzecelectric4302]

She is great!

[@ddavidjeremy]

I had a near-religious experience last night listening to Mindscape. There I was, scribbling equations in my journal, when the GR lightbulb turned on and at the end of the podcast when Dr. Carrol spoke about the implications of Shwartzchilds solving of Einsteins equation I understood why before he said so, and I found myself in awe and my faith in humanity restored. I was moved deeply. Physics is beautiful. Thank you Professor. I am so excited about this book.

[@joshualaureano7062]

Would you say that in that moment you were euphoric because you were enlightened by your own intelligence???

[@ddavidjeremy]

@@joshualaureano7062 Maybe a little. I mean, I was educated in South Carolina. It's a tiny miracle that I can read. Lol. Probably more so that someone of my intelligence could finally grasp such a complex topic with the proper direction. Teaching is the greatest art, perhaps.

[@Czeckie]

what a lovely guest, the vibes are great

[@markzambelli]

Thankyou. Another fascinating podcast with a fascinating guest!

[@LDuranceau]

Hello Ms Mingarelli, I admire your knowledge of these incredibly complex subjects. I'm also fascinated by black holes. I'm from Rome originally, having immigrated to Toronto. Keep up the great work.

[@fathare2085]

Beautiful! Will repeat the session again to see if I miss anything.

[@horthsms7223]

One of the best inerviews ever! So good that I listened to it twice.

[@F_L_U_X]

Just saw you on StarTalk... I've been watching it for years and have never looked up one of their guests after the show until you came along... I have insomnia and the only thing that helps me sleep are the types of questions that you pose. They're the closest thing to magic and rekindling that sense of wonder we had as a child. I feel so jaded in day-to-day life most of the time. It's depressing. Anyway... Nice to meet you.

[@ugowar]

Fantastic episode, Chiara was a joy to listen to.

[@HarryNicNicholas]

really enjoyable talk, some really interesting and new ways to look at black holes, and also it's encouraging to hear about so many projects on the go - and an entertaining guest, mr carroll knows so many intelligent women.

[@jameshockridge6903]

Great episode! Love the analogy of the spider web to describe a pulsar timing array :)

[@majorpentatonic2310]

An amazing, wonderful episode.

[@MrVaypour]

32:43 - "Sorry madam, I didn't mean to kiss you. It was the high end gravitational wave that just rippled through us."

[@jonwesick2844]

Great guest! Of course, the cross section for hitting a black hole is larger than its size. I made that mistake on my classical mechanics homework when asked for the cross section of a particle hitting the moon. I naively gave the moon's cross sectional area but it was larger because gravity pulls the oncoming particle in that would have missed just by geometry.

[@bytefu]

Thinking about it now (from a layman's perspective), if a gravitational wave can change distances between particles, it should affect most quantum processes at some level - after all, we can detect them. But they don't seem to affect our consciousness even a little bit, so does it mean that Penrose's quantum consciousness hypothesis is wrong? Not that I buy it anyway, just curious. Frankly, consciousness doesn't even seem that special to me, I see it as an emergent property - a junction point of various information streams. Similarly, the perception of self naturally comes from consciousness, being a junction point of various feedback loops. Doesn't have to be biological.

[@nyrdybyrd1702]

Re 10:15: laymen's term for blackhole = dark star (Newtonian mechanics).

[@robertrippee8825]

Why do they call dark matter dark when it seems like a better description would be similar to glass or something clear. Why not clear matter?

[@Jason-gt2kx]

Novel Dark Matter Hypothesis Dark Matter is simply unaccounted for gravity. GR states that gravity is the consequence of the curvature of spacetime. Is it possible that the structure of spacetime itself could be warped without the presence of mass? Spacetime has been shown to react like a fabric by warping, twisting, and propagating independently of mass, and all have been proven with observations from gravitational lensing, frame dragging, and now gravitational waves! Fabrics can be stretched, pressured, and/or heated to the point of causing a deformation and losing its elastic nature. All of these conditions were extreme during inflation, so it is plausible that the “fabric” of spacetime analog could extend having its elastic property have hit a yield point? Therefore, if gravity is strictly the consequence of the warped of spacetime, and fabrics can be permanently overstretched, then those empty warped geodesics would create gravitational wells independent of mass. My hypothesis of DM is subatomic black hole imprints of the quantum fluctuations that popped in at the moment of inflation. The CMB shows where the hot dense regions were they created the galaxies. They would have been the initial cause and location of the warping. These imprints would be clouds of quantum sized floating fixed geodesics, so they couldn’t expand or evaporate. Perhaps nothing has been detected because there is nothing to detect. GR wouldn’t require modification because DM would just be an extension of how spacetime behaves at extreme conditions. No MOND, no WIMPs, and no parallel universes, just empty spacetime deformations that produce gravitational wells to help jump start galaxy accretion processes. Zwicky may have named is Missing Mass correctly since he detected some gravity without mass present to cause it…

[@ddavidjeremy]

I have a complaint about the N.Y.-centric comparison of pulsars to Manhattan. If I ever once heard an astrophysicist say something other than this specific comparison I would be filled with so much surprise I would probably direct collapse into a neutron star myself. Hopefully one the size of Fresno or Boise. And don't get me started on the teaspoon equals mountain thing. Scientists...please get new analogies. Also. I love this guest and I love Mindscape.

[@hokiturmix]

They must use a "semi-what" circular shaped city.

[@cmingarelli]

Well, I live in Manhattan, so I think it's fair ;)

[@ddavidjeremy]

@@cmingarelli lol

[@MarvinMonroe]

She looks super classy

[@drzecelectric4302]

So Nobel prize coming I’m assuming?

[@hokiturmix]

I must be faithful to my love Andrea M. Ghez

[@dennisstantonio9334]

First!

[@rumraket38]

False! Posts stretch infinitely and endlessly into the past.

[@michaelberg7201]

There is enough entropy in the universe already. Please stop adding more with these dumb comments.

[@mikeymike34100]

@@michaelberg7201 Oh ye of little faith. Is the youtube comments page just for people of your ilk?? I think not. Now pick your toys up , that you threw from your pram, and go play with your imaginary friends. And if your a good boy......mummy might give you more TIT you sarcastic prick!!!

[@mikeymike34100]

Chiara I luuuuuuuv you. You speak about the most complex things in the universe in such a fashion ......it's almost childs play to you. Please be my tutor lol 🤣😍