Posted on 03/13/2025 12:20:33 PM PDT by Red Badger
A radical new theory suggests that black holes could transition into white holes, creating a location in space where time begins by ejecting material back into the cosmos. The theory also suggests a quantum mechanics link between black and white holes, including an aspect of enigmatic dark matter.
The research team behind the new theory believes their work could represent a critical step toward reconciling quantum mechanics and gravity, potentially leading to new theories about the universe’s very nature.
Black Holes (and White Holes) Have Long Fascinated Scientists
First proposed by Albert Einstein, black holes have long fascinated scientists. Still, studying the directly has proven challenging, as Earth’s nearest black hole is over 30 light years away.
Some theories suggest a connection between black holes and dark matter. Another study suggested black holes may hold the key to dark energy, another theoretical form of exotic matter that, along with dark matter, makes up nearly all of the universe’s mass.
In 2023, Northwestern University scientists suggested that black holes devour matter faster than previously believed, potentially defying physics. More recently, supermassive black holes have perplexed scientists, who claim their very existence challenges the limits of physics.
More speculative theories suggest that black holes could be made of light. One idea even proposed that advanced civilizations could use a black hole as a weapon.
The new effort from University of Sheffield scientists says black holes may evolve into white holes, where time takes on an entirely new meaning.
“Where Time Begins”
In a press release announcing their discovery, researchers from the University of Sheffield describe the fundamental concept of white holes and how they differ from black holes.
“While black holes are often described as sucking everything, including time, into a point of nothingness, in the paper, white holes are theorised to act in reverse, ejecting matter, energy, and time back into the universe,” they explain. “Rather than a singularity signifying the end, it could represent a new beginning.”
The team used a simplified computer model of a two-dimensional black hole known as a planar black hole to explore the concept of white holes. Although typical black holes have a spherical shape, the team suggests that the same overall mechanisms they describe could also apply to typical black holes.
The team’s simulations replaced the singularity thought to be at the center of black holes with a fluctuating quantum field. Their analysis showed that these tiny changes, “where space and time do not end,” create a situation where a black hole transitions into a white hole. The resulting theoretical region of space would operate opposite to a black hole, ejecting light, matter, and even time into the universe. As such, they write, “A white hole could be where time begins.”
“Hypothetically, you could have an observer – a hypothetical entity – go through the black hole, through what we think of as a singularity, and emerge on the other side of the white hole. It’s a highly abstract notion of an observer, but it could happen, in theory,” explained Dr. Steffen Gielen, from the University of Sheffield’s School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, who co-wrote the paper with Lucía Menéndez-Pidal from Complutense University of Madrid.
Quantum Mechanics and Dark Matter
Where a traditional definition of time projects motion in only one direction, quantum mechanics have challenged this notion. Cambridge University researchers showed how quantum mechanics could allow time travel into the past with a 25% chance of actually changing events. Washington University physicists have proposed a quantum sensor that could gather data from the past.
“It has long been a question as to whether quantum mechanics can change our understanding of black holes and give us insights into their true nature,” said Dr. Steffen Gielen, from the University of Sheffield’s School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, who co-wrote the paper with Lucía Menéndez-Pidal from Complutense University of Madrid.
According to Gielen, quantum mechanics proposes that time itself cannot end. Instead, systems perpetually change and evolve as time passes. To understand the potential relationship between quantum mechanics and white holes, the research team pointed the finger at the mysterious substance known as dark energy.
“While time is, in general, thought to be relative to the observer, in our research, time is derived from the mysterious dark energy which permeates the entire universe,” Dr Gielen said. “We propose that time is measured by the dark energy that is everywhere in the Universe and responsible for its current expansion.”
“This is the pivotal new idea that allows us to grasp the phenomena occurring within a black hole,” he added.
Although the team’s work is still theoretical, they suggest it could offer a “profound connection” between the very nature of time and dark energy, which they hope to explore in the future. If correct, they believe their work could also offer a novel approach to reconciling quantum mechanics and gravity, “potentially paving the way for groundbreaking new fundamental theories and breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe.”
The study “Black Hole Singularity Resolution in Unimodular Gravity from Unitarity” was published in Physical Review Letters.
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I don’t know about that.
I’ve had to endure a lot of time that sucked............
My theory is space booms, contracts, booms again on and on.
Each boom contains smaller booms down to infinitum.
Black Holes Matter.
“...black holes are often described as sucking everything, including time, into a point of nothingness”
Thus conclusively proving the Federal Government is a supermassive Black Hole.
Racism is everywhere!
Oh let’s not bicker over whether a hole is white or black
No, No, No Everybody knows it’s blue holes.
There is a time differential in GPS satellites that has to be adjusted for because of the difference in gravity.
There is a theory favored by many biblical creationists that God created the universe through a white hole. (cf. Starlight and Time by D.R. Humphreys or Starlight, Time and the New Physics by John Hartnett.)
If you're a liberal, time begins this morning.
The beauty of being a liberal is that history always begins this morning. Every day liberals can create a new narrative that destroys the past as it occurred.
-Ann Coulter, column Tit for Tet (May 26, 2004)
-PJ
Einstein or DesertRhino. Not a difficult choice.
Black wholes turning into White holes is the gentrification of space!
Comic book physics rocks! Galactus will come out of the white hole and consume the earth!
The article includes references to numerous pop theories, dumbed down to an incredible degree so that even I might understand it.
But I believe they are referring to the “fact” that inside the black hole matter is compressed into a singularity the dimensions of which are unknown and which we can’t study, and the master within is in such a state that the laws of physics as we commonly know them no longer operate, and time for whatever is inside the singularity would also be nonexistent or in such a state as we don’t understand it.
I’m pretty sure that within the singularity the laws of time and physics break down.
The headline sounds racist.
Blacks can become white? Is this a trans thing.
I did not read the article.
They eat so much matter that they beging to belch......................
And now...about Climate Change...
That headline sounds like a pimp philosophizing about his girls after a few cans of Colt 45.
Blacks can become white? Is this a trans thing.
I did not read the article.
Only if they “evolve.” Unemployed “DEI Directors” highly triggered.
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