In 1993, Canadian physicist Matthew Choptuik demonstrated black holes can form spontaneously critical collapseduring this time the space-time curvatures are arranged in a defined, repeating crystal-like pattern. But researchers have not been able to describe it well in a formal language so far.
A team of theoretical physicists says they have found a long-sought formula for how space-time crystals can collapse into black holes, and they recently reported their work. Physical review letters paper. To be clear, hard mathematical research will need further testing through empirical studies. However, the theoretical results offer astronomers more precise parameters to explore an intriguing alternative to how black holes formed, particularly in the early days of the universe.
“Depending on the desired accuracy, we can systematically improve our formulas using additional approximation methods,” said study co-author Florian Ecker, a theoretical physicist at TU Wien in Austria. statement. “This gives us a new way to study phenomena associated with black holes that could not be analyzed analytically before.”
Small waves, big results
Albert Einstein general relativity sees gravity as a curvature of space-time. As one of the most successful theories in physics, this idea has been confirmed by observation, especially by distant, massive objects that only make themselves visible to us. gravitational lensingwhich bends and magnifies their light.
“However, smaller masses also create curvature in space to a lesser extent,” said Christian Ecker, first author of the study and a theoretical physicist at Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany.
Daniel Grumiller, co-author of the study and a theoretical physicist at TU Wien, added that the smallest changes in physics can lead to big changes. For example, the slightest change in temperature can transform disordered water molecules into crystalline ice structures at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius).
Critical crash!
Similarly, relatively small relativistic effects allow to induce a rearrangement of the space-time curvature of relatively small objects. According to Choptuik’s 1993 simulations, spacetime falls into a repeating pattern—a kind of spacetime crystal—and the process leading to this state is called critical collapse. According to the statement, these states are believed to have existed shortly after the Big Bang, meaning that space-time crystals may even be responsible for primordial black holes.
“This space-time crystal is a very unique and fascinating object,” Grumiller said. “It’s kind of an intermediate state, an unstable point that can develop in two different directions.”
This may mean that the crystal may simply melt. But a tiny drop of energy can create something completely different — the formation of a black hole, he added. This story is quite different from the typical origin stories for black holes, which most often arise from “spectacular” events such as supernovae.
Implementation of theory
However, theoretically, arbitrarily small black holes could exist. According to the paper, the team behind the latest study is betting on that possibility, entertaining a multidimensional approach “encoded in a unitary function of time.” The researchers found that when applied to critical collapse structures, they nicely provided “systematic analytical control” of a hypothesis that physicists had long struggled to describe mathematically.
For now, everything is in the realm of theory. The team said in a statement that the goal from here is to scale their solutions down to a smaller number of dimensions that better reflect the observable universe. Despite everything we’ve learned about black holes, there’s arguably more we don’t know.
So once again, we’ll have to see if astrophysicists decide to try the new framework. But if the framework could indeed empirically confirm Choptuik’s hypothesis that some black holes emerge from more “tamed” conditions, it would be huge for black hole astronomy.
