According to a recent research, black holes exhibit features similar to
quantum particles, which implies that, like the fabled Schrödinger's cat,
the mysterious cosmic objects may be both enormous and little, heavy and
light, or dead and alive.
The new study used computer modeling to search for the elusive link between
the concepts governing the behavior of the tiniest subatomic particles and
the mind-boggling time-warping physics of supermassive objects like black
holes.
The research group created a mathematical model that positioned a quantum
particle in simulation right outside of a massive virtual black hole.
According to the simulation, the black hole displayed evidence of quantum
superposition, or the capacity to exist in several states simultaneously. In
this instance, this meant that the black hole could be both massive and
non-massive at the same time.
Joshua Foo, a PhD candidate in theoretical physics at the University of
Queensland, led the work and released a
statement. "We wanted to see whether [black holes] could have wildly different
masses at the same time, and it turns out they do," Foo said. "Until now, we
haven't deeply investigated whether black holes display some of the weird
and wonderful behaviors of quantum physics."
The most well-known instance of quantum superposition is the fabled
Schrödinger's cat, a thought experiment created by scientist Erwin
Schrödinger in the early 1900s to highlight some of the main problems with
quantum mechanics. Subatomic particles live in several states concurrently,
according to quantum theories, until they interact with the outside
environment. The particle enters one of the states as a result of this
interaction, which may just be the act of being measured or watched.
The experiment was designed by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Schrödinger to
show the absurdity of quantum theory, which holds that a cat trapped in a
box may be both dead and alive at the same time due to atoms' random
activity, until an observer breaks the superposition.
As it proved out, a quantum particle may in fact exist in a double state,
but a cat in a box may still be dead regardless of what an observer does.
Furthermore, the latest research suggests that a black hole does as
well.
Theoretical physicist Jacob Bekenstein of Israel and the United States was
the first to propose that black holes may have quantum features. Given that
the mass of a black hole is what defines it, its quantum superposition must
imply that this peculiar gravitational portal can have various masses
falling into certain ratios.
"As predicted by Bekenstein, our modeling demonstrated that these
superposed masses were, in fact, in certain determined bands or ratios," a
statement from Magdalena Zych, a physicist at the University of Queensland
and co-author of the work, read. "We didn't assume any such pattern going
in, so the fact we found this evidence was quite surprising."
Not that we're getting any closer to comprehending the inner workings of
black holes. That being said, it's probably even more amazing than we could
have imagined.
