A team of researchers has concluded that kugelblitze, black holes formed by light, are theoretically impossible. The discovery was derived from a mathematical model that incorporates quantum effects, revealing that the intensity of light required far exceeds that found in the universe. Although disappointing for theoretical physics, this finding has profound implications for understanding quantum mechanics and general relativity.
Kugelblitze, black holes formed by light, are theoretically impossible
Over the past seven decades, astrophysicists have theorized the existence of “kugelblitzes,” black holes caused by extremely high concentrations of light.
It is speculated that these special black holes could be linked to astronomical phenomena such as dark matter and it has even been hypothesized that they could serve as a source of energy for hypothetical spaceship engines in the distant future.
New theoretical physics research from a team of researchers at the University of Waterloo and the Complutense University of Madrid shows that kugelblitzes are impossible in the current universe.
“The most commonly known black holes are those caused by huge concentrations of normal matter collapsing under their own gravity,” said Eduardo Martín-Martínez, professor of applied mathematics and mathematical physics and an affiliate of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
“Since, in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, any kind of energy curves space-time, it has long been assumed that a huge concentration of energy in the form of light could lead to a similar collapse. However, this prediction was made without considering quantum effects.”
The team built a mathematical model, taking into account quantum effects, which showed that the concentration of light needed to create a kugelblitze would be tens of orders of magnitude greater than that observed in quasars, the brightest objects in our universe.
“Long before we could reach that intensity of light, some quantum effects would have occurred,” said José Polo-Gómez, a doctoral student in applied mathematics and quantum information. “Such a strong concentration of light would have led to the spontaneous creation of particles like electron-positron pairs, which would have moved away from the area very quickly.”
While the conditions needed to achieve such an effect are impossible to test on Earth using 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 power PET (positron emission tomography) scans.
“One way to understand this phenomenon is to think of the annihilation of matter and antimatter, as happens in PET scans. Electrons and their antiparticles (positrons) can annihilate each other and disintegrate into pairs of photons, or ‘particles’ of light,” Martín-Martínez said.
“Our results are a consequence of a phenomenon called ‘vacuum polarization’ and the Schwinger effect, and while it may be difficult to explain them in a few words, a useful way to think about them is this: the phenomenon we predicted that would prevent the creation of black holes from light is in many ways like the opposite of the matter-antimatter disintegration phenomenon that occurs in a PET scan: when there is a large concentration of photons, they can disintegrate into electron-positron pairs, which are rapidly dispersed, taking the energy with them and preventing gravitational collapse.”
While the impossibility of the kugelblitze may be disappointing to astrophysicists, the discovery represents a major achievement in the kind of fundamental physics research made possible by partnerships between applied mathematics, the Perimeter Institute, and the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo.
“Although these discoveries may not have any known applications at the moment, we are laying the groundwork for the technological innovations of our descendants,” Polo-Gómez said. “The science behind PET scanning machines was once equally theoretical, and now there is one in every hospital.”
The research was published on Physical Review Letters.
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