Ripples in space-time could provide clues to missing components of the universe

UChicago scientist lays out how LIGO gravitational waves could be scrambled, yielding information. There's something a little off about our theory of the universe. Almost everything fits, but there's a fly in the cosmic ointment, a particle of sand in the infinite sandwich. Some scientists think the culprit might be gravity-and that subtle ripples in the fabric of space-time could help us find the missing piece. A new paper co-authored by a University of Chicago scientist lays out how this might work. Published Dec. 21 in  Physical Review D , the method depends on finding such ripples that have been bent by traveling through supermassive black holes or large galaxies on their way to Earth.