Magnetic Fields Smooth Space? Bet you never thought you would read stuff like this!!
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Magnetic field lines do not like to bend. When you try to press two magnets together the wrong way, you feel this tendency directly--the field lines resist being squashed to the sides. This magnetic "tension" may have surprising effects when space itself warps, according to a paper in the 11 June PRL. The author finds that when spacetime bends in response to matter, the magnetic field lines push back and try to flatten spacetime. This "magnetocurvature" effect would be strongest when spacetime is most strongly curved--near neutron stars and black holes, and in the very early Universe. Magnetocurvature effects might be measurable in gravitational radiation reaching Earth; they also seem to exclude some theories of the Universe's earliest moments.....................................Read on..http://focus.aps.org/story/v7/st27
Posted by Jay Roberts at 03:19 AM | Permalink
