Weblog
14 September 2021
ESO/L. Calçada
Within the classical idea of normal relativity, black holes are comparatively easy objects. They are often described by simply three properties: mass, cost, and rotation. However we all know that normal relativity is an incomplete idea. Quantum mechanics is most obvious within the habits of tiny objects, but it surely additionally performs a job in giant objects equivalent to black holes. To explain black holes at a quantum stage, we’d like a idea of quantum gravity. We don’t have an entire idea but, however what know to this point is that quantum mechanics makes black holes extra advanced, giving them properties equivalent to temperature and even perhaps strain.
Temperature is maybe the perfect identified quantum property of a black gap. Due to the fuzziness of quantum particles, power can’t be fully certain by a black gap’s occasion horizon. Typically power can escape its gravitational jail by way of a course of referred to as Hawking radiation. The quantity of power that escapes is tiny, but it surely implies that black holes have a (very chilly) temperature. And which means black holes may be described when it comes to the legal guidelines of thermodynamics. For normal matter, thermodynamics describes not simply the temperature of an object, but additionally properties equivalent to strain. That’s the place this new research is available in.
Jacob D. Bekenstein
The staff was taking a look at a thermodynamical property referred to as entropy. Entropy is a delicate idea, usually described as a measure of the dysfunction of a system or the quantity of data wanted to explain a system. It pertains to the temperature of an object by way of the second legislation of thermodynamics. In black holes, entropy is said to the floor space of an occasion horizon. Physicists research black gap entropy as a result of it may assist us reply elementary questions in quantum gravity, equivalent to whether or not a black gap can destroy info.
So the staff was making use of entropy equations to a easy black gap, making an attempt to determine what occurs whenever you lengthen Einstein’s equations into quantum idea, which is a standard trick referred to as the semi-classical method. Once they did this, they stored getting unusual further phrases of their equations that they didn’t count on. These phrases didn’t make sense till the staff checked out them when it comes to strain. It seems the additional phrases act like strain for a black gap in the identical means that gasoline atoms in a container create strain. In different phrases, whenever you apply quantum idea to a black gap, you get each temperature and strain.
As with Hawking temperature, this quantum strain for a black gap is extraordinarily tiny. It’s far too small to have an effect on the sorts of black holes we see within the universe. However the truth that it exists may have actual penalties for essentially the most excessive areas of the cosmos, equivalent to the massive bang. This specific mannequin is simply too easy to use to actual methods, however it’s an attention-grabbing clue towards a extra full idea of quantum gravity.
