| Oct 31, 2022 |
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(Nanowerk News) Bizarre quantum properties of black holes – including their mind-bending ability to have different masses simultaneously – have been confirmed by University of Queensland physicists.
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A UQ-led team of theoretical physicists, headed by PhD candidate Joshua Foo, ran calculations that reveal surprising black hole quantum phenomena (Physical Review Letters, “Quantum Signatures of Black Hole Mass Superpositions”).
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| An illustration of a mass-quantised black hole. (created using NightCafe Creator AI)
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“Black holes are an incredibly unique and fascinating feature of our universe,” Mr Foo said.
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“They’re created when gravity squeezes a vast amount of matter incredibly densely into a tiny space, creating so much gravitational pull that even light cannot escape.
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“It’s a phenomenon that can be triggered by a dying star.
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“But, until now, we haven’t deeply investigated whether black holes display some of the weird and wonderful behaviours of quantum physics.
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“One such behaviour is superposition, where particles on a quantum scale can exist in multiple states at the same time.
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“This is most commonly illustrated by Schrödinger’s cat, which can be both dead and alive simultaneously.
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“But, for black holes, we wanted to see whether they could have wildly different masses at the same time, and it turns out they do.
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“Imagine you’re both broad and tall, as well as short and skinny at the same time – it’s a situation which is intuitively confusing since we’re anchored in the world of traditional physics.
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“But this is reality for quantum black holes.”
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To reveal this, the team developed a mathematical framework allowing us to “place” a particle outside a theoretical mass-superposed black hole.
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Mass was looked at specifically, as it is a defining feature of a black hole, and as it is plausible that quantum black holes would naturally have mass superposition.
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Research co-supervisor, Dr Magdalena Zych, said that the research in fact reinforces conjectures raised by pioneers of quantum physics.
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“Our work shows that the very early theories of Jacob Bekenstein – an American and Israeli theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics – were on the money,” she said.
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“He postulated that black holes can only have masses that are of certain values, that is, they must fall within certain bands or ratios — this is how energy levels of an atom works, for example.
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“Our modelling showed that these superposed masses were, in fact, in certain determined bands or ratios – as predicted by Bekenstein.
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“We didn’t assume any such pattern going in, so the fact we found this evidence was quite surprising.
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“The universe is revealing to us that it’s always more strange, mysterious and fascinating than most of us could have ever imagined.”
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