The proposed, if far-off, Square Kilometer Array is discussed in this
ToSeek post.
The SKA website is
here.
One of the fascinating, IMO, papers about the science that may be possible with the SKA is
Strong-Field Tests of Gravity Using Pulsars and Black Holes.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by J. M. Cordes, et al,
The sensitivity of the SKA enables a number of tests of theories of gravity. A Galactic Census of pulsars will
discover most of the active pulsars in the Galaxy beamed toward us. In this census will almost certainly be pulsar-
black hole binaries as well as pulsars orbiting the super-massive black hole in the Galactic centre. These systems
are unique in their capability to probe the ultra-strong field limit of relativistic gravity. These measurements can
be used to test the Cosmic Censorship Conjecture and the No-Hair theorem.
The large number of millisecond pulsars discovered with the SKA will also provide a dense array of precision
clocks on the sky. These clocks will act as the multiple arms of a huge gravitational wave detector, which can be
used to detect and measure the stochastic cosmological gravitational wave background that is expected from a
number of sources.
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(emphasis added)
The Cosmic Censorship Conjecture asserts, AFAIK, that every black hole has an event horizon around its singularity: IOW, a distance from the singularity which, if you pass it, you're history. The SKA could potentially discover if "naked singularities" exist.
This is just one of the fascinating tests discussed in this paper. There's a fair bit of math, but much of it is readable whilst skipping the math. I just hope the SKA gets built. Apologies if the paper itself has been ToSeeked, I tried to search as best I could.
I found the reference to the paper in
this Einstein@Home Message Board post.
19-July-2005, 09:40 PM
Testing gravity with the Square Kilometer Array
Linear Mode
