On the resolution of a weak Fermi paradox

TL;DR

This paper explores a potential resolution to the weak Fermi paradox by analyzing the stability and detectability of hypothetical megastructures built by super-advanced extraterrestrial civilizations around pulsars and stars, suggesting observational strategies for detection.

Contribution

It introduces a stability analysis of extraterrestrial megastructures and proposes observational methods to detect their spectral variability across the galaxy.

Findings

Oscillation timescales differ between pulsars and main sequence stars.

VLT can detect megastructures with small oscillation amplitudes.

Variability of megastructures may mimic other variable phenomena.

Abstract

In this paper we consider the Fermi's paradox (FP) and propose a possible resolution in the context of super-advanced alien civilizations. In this sense it can be regarded as to be the weak Fermi paradox (WFP). By assuming that superadvanced extraterrestrials (ET) exist and are capable of constructing a huge ring-like megastructure around a pulsar or a main sequence star (MSS) to consume its emitted energy, we consider the stability problem of the ring, studying the out of plane dynamics. It has been shown that for normal pulsars the oscillation timescale, thus the timescale of the spectral variability is of the order of several days, whereas for MSS it can vary from minutes up to hundreds of years. We have shown that by means of the high resolving power and sensitivity, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope can detect either cold ($T=300$ K) or hot ($T=4000$ K) megastructures throughout the whole galaxy even for very small oscillation amplitudes of rings. As it is shown the observed variability can have characteristics similar to those of some other variables, which can be considered as one of the resolutions of the WFP.