Posted on 03/23/2005 4:43:32 PM PST by LibWhacker
Black holes may define the perfect fluid, suggests a study of black holes that only exist in a theoretical 10-dimensional space. The finding may have spawned a new universal law in physics, which puts constraints on the way fluids behave in the real world.
Dam Thanh Son from the University of Washington, US, and his colleagues used string theory to model a 10-dimensional black hole as a liquid. String theory tries to explain fundamental properties of the universe by predicting that seven more spatial dimensions exist on top of the known three. While the concept is currently unproven as a cosmological model, the tools of string theory can sometimes provide answers to real quantum problems.
That means that while the "black holes" modelled by Son are not astrophysical black holes, but mathematical objects that exist in string theory, their findings may have relevance to the real world.
The fluid has two properties that relate to the black hole's surface area: viscosity, which describes how thick the liquid is, and entropy density, which is a measure of the internal disorder. Son's team found that the ratio of these two properties is a constant which can be expressed as a mixture of fundamental constants from the quantum world. Super-cooled atoms
They suggest this constant acts as a universal lower limit for the ratio of the viscosity to entropy in real fluids. This backs an argument based on Heisenberg's famed uncertainty principle suggesting that such a limit should exist.
"That is what we hypothesise. We couldn't prove that it's the case, but we couldn't find anything that is less viscous," says Son. For example, the value of this ratio for water is 400 times greater than for black hole fluid. Even liquid helium is nine times more viscous.
Fluids that could approach the limit include super-cooled clouds of atoms, or the plasmas created in particle colliders, suggests Son.
Physicists have already drawn comparisons between the fireball produced at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, US, and string-theory black holes. "I've started taking it seriously," says Peter Steinberg from Brookhaven National Laboratory, who works with one of the teams collecting data at the RHIC.
Although RHIC have not yet measured the viscosity of their fireball, this would allow an experimental test of Son's prediction. "The final word will come from the experimentalists," Son says.
you just gotta love this stuff...
everyday is humbling experience when you truly realize how little we know and how insignificant we really are...
Thanks for the post...cool info.
About time we get some respect. I buy and use silly string at parties,home and the workplace to test my own string theory. Black holes come in handy when you just need a place to get away from it all and chill out.
Jesus God, I wish I were smart. Being able to understand this kind of thing sure looks fun. (NOT sarcasm.)
I'd just be happy to understand "10-dimensional space" right now.
Sometimes I think God set up the universe to be as counterintuitive as possible . . . Hey, maybe that should be the new universal law! ;-)
oop's, I misread the title, thought this was a racist post here.......lol
a racist post by the East St Louis Times
a racist post by the East St Louis Times
oh cr## me so sorry for the double post!!!!
"The final word will come from the experimentalists," Son says.
It always does.
It's actually a fascinating article. These math types contracted a tensor and went "holy crap, that looks just like mu...".
J.B.S. Haldane already beat you to it by several decades. Haldane's Law: "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we *can* imagine."
(Actually, being both Scottish and born in the 1800's, he actually used the phrase "queerer than we suppose", but due to shifting slang terms, the language in his quote is often updated so as to avoid unnecessary confusion or hilarity.)
Yeah, but then the theorists tell the experimenters what
the experimenters "really" saw...
I don't like mathematical equations and their derivations
telling me what is "real" or not.... Isn't mathematics
derived from the "mind"?,...or are there physical numbers,
or arithmetical or mathematical operators out there in
space? Has anyone seen a physical "quadratic" equation?
How about a "physical" probability equation?. Have we seen
electron probability "clouds" around atoms, or our viewing techniques too
slow to catch the electron at any one position???
Anyway, my heads already hurting (I think, or rather, I think
I think,..or rather...oh, forget it)
Fluid or liquid? Perfect fluid? A perfect gas obeys the pv = RT state equation. I suppose that means the specific heat capacity is well behaved over a range of temperatures, which determines what R is for that gas.
Well, some people claim they've seen shimmering vectors. :-)
And I thank God it is! :-)
what is worse, to double post, or to apoligize for the double post? (Or, to be a smart a$$ and create yet another useless post about the same mistake) Okay, how many dimensions am I in now?
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