Feb 11 2016
Ripples in Space-Time
Many of you have read the news by now about LIGO reading ripples in space-time caused by a violent black hole merger, which were likely giant phononic pulses. The Coulomb force is transmitted faster than the speed of light by phonons transmitting through a gravitational field. Similarly, what LIGO read would have been phononic pulses of immense dimensions.
An interesting aspect of this black hole event is that it probably happened much more recently than scientists think it did. Phonons can travel much faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.