A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London (UK) have shown how an oddly shaped black hole could pulverize the backbone of modern physics: Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. The study has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Using the COSMOS supercomputer , the most powerful shared memory system on the European continent and an essential instrument for understanding the universe, scientists were able to carry out a total simulation of Einstein’s theory in its highest dimensions: a ring-shaped black hole, very fine , which gives rise to a series of “lumps” connected by chains that in turn become finer over time; so much so that they end up tearing apart into a fan of miniature black holes. This is the first time that it has been possible to recreate the dynamics of these black holes that were first proposed in 2002.
Computer simulation has confirmed that these black rings are extremely unstable but become so unstable that they can cause a “naked singularity” after these initially connected protrusions detach. This singularity would decompose the equations of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. And it is that one of the limitations of this century-old theory is precisely the existence of singularities (that moment in which gravity is so strong that space, time and the laws of physics decompose).
“As long as singularities remain hidden behind an event horizon, they do not cause problems and general relativity holds. The Cosmic Censorship Conjecture says this is always the case, ”says study co-author Markus Kunesch.
However … what if there are naked singularities outside the event horizon?
“ If there are naked singularities, general relativity breaks down . And if general relativity breaks down, everything would be turned upside down, because it would no longer have any predictive power and could no longer be considered as an independent theory to explain the universe ”, clarifies Saran Tunyasuvunakool, co-author of the work.
This approach would have as its fundamental axis the dimensions of which the universe would be composed. We usually think of it in three dimensions, to which we add the fourth dimension, time or space-time; but in physics theory it is stated that the universe could be composed of up to 11 dimensions. Not even Einstein’s theory describes how many dimensions can exist, a circumstance for which it is studied whether at more extreme levels, cosmic censorship remains or falls. In this case, the discovery of ring-shaped black holes in a five-dimensional (or larger) universe has resulted in the proposition that if the black hole is fine enough, it can lead to the formation of naked singularities. .
