Triple Star System May Help Perfect Theory of Gravity

[Xamonas Chegwé]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25598051

A ternary star system comprising a pulsar along with two white dwarfs may be able to shed light on the extreme edges of gravitation - the point at which General Relativity and Quantum Theory clash. I am looking forward to hearing what they find.

[JimC]

Even aside from general relativity and quantum theory, I gather that 3 body gravitational interactions are extremely complex. I have a memory of reading that they are essentially unstable, in the sense that chaotic effects can eventually come into play. This may, of course, take a long time...

[FBM]

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Even aside from general relativity and quantum theory, I gather that 3 body gravitational interactions are extremely complex. I have a memory of reading that they are essentially unstable, in the sense that chaotic effects can eventually come into play. This may, of course, take a long time...

Definitely. The "three body problem" is known to be unsolvable in general - ie. there is no stable, repeating trajectory for such a system.

[cronus]

Even aside from general relativity and quantum theory, I gather that 3 body gravitational interactions are extremely complex. I have a memory of reading that they are essentially unstable, in the sense that chaotic effects can eventually come into play. This may, of course, take a long time...

Definitely. The "three body problem" is known to be unsolvable in general - ie. there is no stable, repeating trajectory for such a system.

No natural one, this might be a interesting discovery.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Even aside from general relativity and quantum theory, I gather that 3 body gravitational interactions are extremely complex. I have a memory of reading that they are essentially unstable, in the sense that chaotic effects can eventually come into play. This may, of course, take a long time...

Definitely. The "three body problem" is known to be unsolvable in general - ie. there is no stable, repeating trajectory for such a system.

No natural one, this might be a interesting discovery.

You're not saying aliens but.... ALIENS!

[cronus]

Even aside from general relativity and quantum theory, I gather that 3 body gravitational interactions are extremely complex. I have a memory of reading that they are essentially unstable, in the sense that chaotic effects can eventually come into play. This may, of course, take a long time...

Definitely. The "three body problem" is known to be unsolvable in general - ie. there is no stable, repeating trajectory for such a system.

No natural one, this might be a interesting discovery.

You're not saying aliens but.... ALIENS!

I'm saying if it shouldn't exist and it does exist it might be a product of computational intelligence. Having three stars supply a Dyson Sphere, invisble on account of size, is a sensible longterm strategy. One bulb goes and you've got two whilst looking for a new one.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Nobody's saying it shouldn't exist, just that the orbits of the three bodies will necessarily be chaotic and unpredictable in the long-term.

[JimC]

Nobody's saying it shouldn't exist, just that the orbits of the three bodies will necessarily be chaotic and unpredictable in the long-term.

I suspect that in the case of 2 of the objects in a tight orbit, with their system orbiting another body a fair way away, the time it takes for chaotic perturbations to arise might be fairly lengthy...

[HomerJay]

Why would the Theory be Perfect?

Is triple star a rating or something?

What about a four star rating, could that be better than perfect?

[PsychoSerenity]

The pulsar's inner white-dwarf companion has an orbital period of less than two days, while the outer dwarf has a period of almost a year.

Pretty epic forces involved there.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Nobody's saying it shouldn't exist, just that the orbits of the three bodies will necessarily be chaotic and unpredictable in the long-term.

I suspect that in the case of 2 of the objects in a tight orbit, with their system orbiting another body a fair way away, the time it takes for chaotic perturbations to arise might be fairly lengthy...

The pulsar rotates hundreds of times a second. This is why the system is important. Any fluctuation in the periodicity of the radio emissions due to gravitational forces should be (relatively) easy to spot.