Posted on 12/08/2020 12:12:10 PM PST by Red Badger
==============================================================
Little-understood black hole phenomena could be string-theory "fuzzballs," scientists say.
The math is still emerging, but the right instruments could maybe detect the fuzzballs.
Black holes are enigmatic and require a different kind of thinking in the first place.
============================================================
What if string theorists have been right all along, and black holes are just balls of yarn? These celestial rat kings, scientists say, represent a place where a huge bunch of fundamental strings have tangled together and can’t be extricated.
This sounds far out, but we don’t understand a great deal about how black holes work to begin with. Positing a tangled string idea instead doesn’t even require much more of an ideological buy-in.
Space.com’s Paul Sutter explains the big mental “tangle” with black holes:
“Black holes appear in Einstein's theory of general relativity, and by all rights they simply shouldn't exist. [I]f a clump of matter crunches down into a tiny enough volume, then gravity can become overwhelmingly strong. Once a certain critical threshold is reached, the clump of matter just squeezes and squeezes, compressing down into an infinitely tiny point. Of course, there's no such thing as an infinitely tiny point, so this picture seems wrong. But in the mid-20th century astronomers began to find objects that looked like black holes, acted like black holes and probably smelled like black holes too.”
For decades, scientists thought what went into a black hole stayed there and didn’t go anywhere else—itself a scientific pickle. Now, new research shows aging black holes cough the information back out, which has made the picture more complicated, not less.
This, Sutter explains, is why the time was right for string theory to offer a new suggestion. This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
String theory has always positioned itself as a theory of everything, meaning a unified mathematical and scientific system that seamlessly flows through all matter at all scales. That sounds like a huge job, because it is—particle physics and quantum physics spend as much time trying to reconcile their differences as they do pushing the boat out with new math and experiments.
Fuzzballs might be separate from black holes, or they might be a subset that’s contained within the field of black holes—scientists aren’t sure. There are different mathematical models that haven’t coalesced into one emerging majority yet. But they come from the same one idea, at least.
“In string theory, black holes are neither black nor holes,” Sutter explains. Instead, they’re like neutron stars, which are well, almost black holes. He continues:
“Inside a neutron star, matter is compressed into its highest density state possible. [I]n a neutron star, atomic camaraderie breaks down and dissolves, leaving behind just neutrons crammed together as tightly as possible. With fuzzballs, the fundamental strings stop working together and simply crowd together, becoming a large, well, ball of strings. A fuzzball.”
Researcher Daniel Mayerson has a new, sweeping survey (updated with the peer-reviewed journal link) of the existing body of knowledge about fuzzballs. Mayerson also suggests next steps for instruments and finer measurements that could reveal evidence for the “fuzzball paradigm,” drawing out a roadmap for the near future.
“The area of fuzzball and microstate geometry phenomenology is a budding new field where many exciting insights and observations lie ready for the picking,” he concludes.
This is exactly why we need a Unified Theory of Everything...................
WaS THIS PROVED BY FUZZY MATH? My cat is a big proponent of string theory and obsesses about it almost every day. To get a second opinion I searched for Schrodingers cat. He’s a zombie cat (neither dead nor alive). But he’s across the quantum field.
Might be a pic of Kamel-toe’s whu-whu from Willie’s stash??
They didn't mention any of that in my eighth-grade physics class, dern it.
Pluck my magic twanger, Froggie!
Pluck my magic twanger, Froggie!
Well, if all matter, from all directions, are caught in the gravity of the singularity accelerating towards the center, wouldn't the hole then be an orb? The event horizon would would be evenly defined around the surper-gravity point.
Wrong topic. String theory is a religion.
“Wrong topic. String theory is a religion”
Is that like Pastafarianism? ... The worship of Spaghetti Monster?.......................
... Their High Priest...............
... Their Deity................
“Might be a pic of Kamel-toe’s whu-whu from Willie’s stash??”
No, it can’t be. A black hole is not wide or deep enough.
“ String theory is a lot of yarn. Scientists have yet to shed light on dark matter.”
We need to organize a “Dark Matter Matters” to punish light matter for a long history of light privilege and keeping dark matter from getting ahead. Any idea what we could demand as reparations? Perhaps 40 lightyears of space and a nebula?
Physics flipped on its head again?
Wow...that is really good.
I always know what is actually happing 100’s 1000’s of light years away.
I saw what you did there.
The incredibly ugly galactic Christmas sweaters knitted with that yarn.
“Andromeda is probably going to win again this year. But Sombrero is going with a really tacky “Feliz Navidad” that is in the running.”
Science says! Discussion not allowed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.