Sunday, October 13, 2024

Are black holes really frozen stars? A new theory supports this

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They swallow and prey on everything within their reach, including light. They are so dense and dense, that their density does not even have a finite value, but they diverge at what scientists call a “singularity,” the point at which quantities escape to infinity and the laws of “ordinary” physics cease to exist. He deserves. In short: however you look at them, that is: however you look at them Black holes They are complex and mysterious entities that modern physics has not yet been able to understand and describe except through hypotheses that can be verified in one way or another. The latest fascinating theory about the nature of black holes comes from one A recently published study In the magazine Physical review d By a group of scholars Ben Gurion Universityin IsraelHe hypothesizes that black holes may actually be a strange quantum object that can be described as a “frozen star.” If this is true – and the hypothetical period is a must, because at the moment it is an interesting hypothesis and nothing more – some problems and paradoxes associated with “classical” black hole models will suddenly be solved, including, specifically, the existence of a singularity and the so-called. Hawking’s paradoxIt was first proposed by a British physicist in the mid-1970s and remains unsolved until now.

Exclusivity and information destruction

Before examining the proposed hypothesis, let us pause for a moment on the two problems we have just mentioned. First, that UniquenessIt represents a question that physicists don’t really like, an unresolvable rift between theory and evidence. Equations General theory of relativity to Albert Einsteinwhich describes the behavior of gravity, predicts with great accuracy the geometry of space-time due to the presence of masses that distort it, but when it is “pushed to the limit”, i.e. when dealing with sufficiently high masses, it gives The result is a gravitational collapse which tends to concentrate space-time at a single point. , with infinite curvature and density, its limit is called the “event horizon” (a black hole, specifically). The problem is that the concept of “infinity” is purely mathematical, because nothing truly infinite can exist in nature: which is why scientists have long been searching for an alternative theory that would put infinities back in their rightful place. the Hawking’s paradox It is even more complex, and it appeared when the British physicist tried to “integrate” quantum mechanics into models of black holes: from his calculations it emerged that, precisely due to quantum effects, some particles can sometimes escape the event horizon, giving rise to the appearance of a very slow loss ( But constant) energy, in the form of radiation, by the black hole, which over a (long) period may lead to its loss. evaporation. The paradox appears when we consider that this radiation does not carry any information about the matter that originally formed the black hole: therefore, if this information evaporated, information about its nature would be lost forever, which contradicts the principle of quantum mechanical theory, which assumes that information cannot be destroyed. For this reason, it is also called Hawking’s paradox The paradox of information loss.

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Black holes? No, frozen stars

The “frozen star” model, according to the scientists who proposed it It will allow both problems to be solved It has just been described while still providing a description of black holes that is consistent with experimental evidence. “Icy stars are objects very similar to black holes – Ha He explained to Live sciences Ram Brusteinone of the authors of the work just published – But without all its features ‘uncomfortable’ Such as the singularity and the event horizon. “If they did exist and were black holes, Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity would need a major and fundamental modification.”. The model is clearly very complex and technical: by simplifying many things, the authors imagine very compact objects made of very solid material (Frozenspecifically) with properties inspired by String theory (a theory that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity) which seems like an excellent candidate to fill the role of black holes. “We showed – Brustein says again – These icy stars behave like almost perfect absorbers, despite having no event horizon, and are capable of emitting gravitational waves. They can absorb almost anything that approaches them, and just like black holes, they have the same outer geometry predicted by models ‘normal’ Black holes and even reproduce their thermodynamic properties.”.

To beta test

As we said at the beginning, this is all fair for now A good premise or little more than that. It will first be necessary to imagine, and then perhaps carry out, experiments and observations to understand whether the frozen star model can work. Possible candidates for distinguishing between “classical” models and frozen star models are Gravitational wavesWhich could bring with it information about the internal structure of icy stars. “We still need to study the internal structure of these objects – The world is saved – How it would differ from other cosmic objects such as neutron stars, but in principle it could be done. “Confirmation of any of the predictions of the frozen star model would have a revolutionary impact on physics.”.

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