Superstrings could add gravitational cacophony to universe's chorus

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Cosmic superstring loops wiggle and oscillate producing gravitational waves then slowly shrink as they lose energy until they disappear. Credit: Matt DePiesUW
Cosmic superstring loops wiggle and oscillate, producing gravitational waves, then slowly shrink as they lose energy until they disappear. Credit: Matt DePies/UW

Albert Einstein theorized long ago that moving matter would warp the fabric of four-dimensional space-time, sending out ripples of gravity called gravitational waves. No one has observed such a phenomenon so far, but University of Washington researchers believe it is possible to detect such waves coming from strange wispy structures called cosmic superstrings.


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