The existence of black holes caused by extremely high concentrations of light, theorized for the last seven decades, is impossible in our current universe.
It had been speculated that these special black holes, called kugelblitze, could be related to astronomical phenomena such as dark matter, and have even been suggested as the power source for hypothetical spacecraft engines in the distant future. However, theoretical physicists from the universities of Waterloo and Complutense of Madrid have warned that the quantum effects that prevent this have not been taken into account. They publish their findings in Physical Review Letters.
“The best-known black holes are those caused by enormous concentrations of regular matter collapsing under its own gravity,” Eduardo Martín-Martínez, who is a professor of applied mathematics and mathematical physics and an affiliate of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, said in a statement. “Since, in Einstein’s theory of general relativity, any type of energy bends space-time, it has long been speculated that a huge concentration of energy in the form of light could lead to a similar collapse. However, “This prediction was made without taking into account quantum effects.”
The team built a mathematical model, taking into account quantum effects, which showed that the concentration of light needed to create kugelblitze would be tens of orders of magnitude greater than that observed in quasars, the brightest objects in our universe.
“Long before that light intensity could be reached, certain quantum effects would occur first,” said José Polo-Gómez, a doctoral candidate in applied mathematics and quantum information. “Such a strong concentration of light would lead to the spontaneous creation of particles such as electron-positron pairs, which would move very quickly away from the area.”
Although the conditions necessary to achieve such an effect are impossible to test on Earth with current technology, the team can be confident in the accuracy of their predictions because they are based on the same mathematical and scientific principles that drive positron emission tomography (PET) scans. ).
“One way to understand this phenomenon is to think about the annihilation of matter and antimatter, like what happens during PET scans. “Electrons and their antiparticles (positrons) can annihilate each other and decay into pairs of photons, or ‘ particles’ of light,” Martín-Martínez said. “Our results are a consequence of the phenomenon called ‘vacuum polarization’ and the Schwinger effect, and although explaining them in a few words can be complicated, a useful way to think about it is the following: The phenomenon that we have predicted and that would prevent the creation of black holes from light is, in many ways, the opposite of the phenomenon of matter-antimatter decay that occurs in a positron emission tomography: when there is a large concentration of photons, these can disintegrate into electron-positron pairs, which disperse quickly, taking the energy with them and avoiding gravitational collapse.”
While the failure to perform a kugelblitze may be disappointing to astrophysicists, the discovery is a major achievement in the kind of fundamental physics research that enables collaboration between applied mathematics, the Perimeter Institute, and the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo.
“While these discoveries may have no known applications at this time, we are laying the foundation for the technological innovations of our descendants,” Polo-Gómez said. “The science behind PET scanning machines was once simply theoretical, and now there is one in every hospital.”
