There is a saying in astrophysics that goes like this:black holes have no hair” The general theory is that theory of relativity, A black hole is a very simplified object. All we need to describe a black hole is its mass, charge, and spin rate. These three numbers alone tell you everything there is to know about black holes. In other words, they’re bald – they don’t have any extra information.
This aspect of black holes is extremely frustrating for astrophysicists who desperately want to understand how these massive universes work. However, because black holes have no hair, there is no way to learn more about black holes and why they move. Unfortunately, black holes remain some of the most mysterious and mysterious objects in the universe.
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However, this concept of a “hairless” black hole relies on our current understanding of general relativity, which was originally formulated by humans. albert einstein. This theory of relativity focuses on the curvature of spacetime. Entities with mass or energy bend spacetime around them, and that bending tells those entities how to move.
However, this is not the only way to construct a theory of relativity. There is a completely different approach that focuses on the “twist” rather than the curvature of spacetime. In this diagram, an entity with mass or energy twists spacetime around it, and that twisting directs other objects to move.
The two approaches, one based on curvature and the other based on torsion, are mathematically equivalent. However, it is more widely used because Einstein first developed a curvature-based language. The torsion approach is known as “teleparallel” gravity because of its mathematical use of parallel lines, and there is a lot of scope for gaining interesting theoretical insights that are not obvious with the curvature approach.
As an example, a team of theoretical physicists recently studied how teleparallel gravity could approach the hairy problem of black holes.They detailed their research in a paper published in a preprint database arXiv In July. (This study has not yet been peer-reviewed.)
The research team considered possible extensions to general relativity using what are called scalar fields, quantum objects that exist throughout space and time. A famous example of a scalar field is: higgs particle, plays a role in giving mass to many particles. There may be additional scalar fields in the universe that subtly change the way gravity works, and physicists have long used these scalar fields in attempts to explain mysterious properties of the universe, such as: I did. dark matter and dark energy.
General relativity, which is based on ordinary curvature, has limited ways of adding scalar fields. But with teleparallel gravity, there are many more options. The research team has discovered a way to add scalar fields to general relativity using a teleparallel framework. They then used that approach to investigate whether these otherwise invisible scalar fields appear near black holes.
The end result: A scalar field was added to general relativity, and when probed through a telephoto lens, the black hole grew hairs.
The “hair” in this case is the strong scalar field that exists near the event horizon of the black hole. Importantly, this scalar field contains information about the black hole inside, allowing scientists to understand more about the black hole without diving into it.
Now that the researchers have identified a way to fur the black hole, they must now address the observations of these results. For example, future gravitational wave observations may reveal subtle signatures of these scalar fields in black hole collisions.