According to a new study, researchers are suggesting black holes have “hair.” Not actual hair but scientists do have a sense of humor and the proclamation is meant to poke fun at a previous conclusion about identifying a black hole’s physical traits.
Researchers from the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, and IST, Lisbon believe there needs to be some changes in the traditional models used to define black holes. According to the research, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, black holes are defined by two properties, mass and angular momentum, and are virtually identical in terms of appearance.
According Thomas Sotiriou, from SISSA Trieste, the hair comment is in response to a statement made by John Wheeler. Wheeler, deceased in 2008, was a theoretical physicist and is credited for coining terms such as “black hole,” “wormhole” and the “no-hair” theorem.
According to Wheeler’s theorem, black holes had no distinguishing physical features and could be defined by their mass, angular momentum and charge. Two black holes with the same mass, angular momentum and charge could, in theory, be made up of totally different matter but to observers outside of the event horizon, “the point of no return,” they are completely identical.
Sotiriou and his team performed a series of calculations that indicate a black hole’s classification may not be as simple and that black holes may, in fact, have hair, or different traits that can be identified. “This is why we have carried out a series of new calculations that enabled us to focus on the matter that normally surrounds realistic black holes, those observed by astrophysicists. This matter forces the pure and simple black hole hypothesized by Kerr to develop a new ‘charge’ (the hair, as we call it) which anchors it to the surrounding matter, and probably to the entire universe.”
The researchers say the “bald” theory, first explained by Roy Kerr, works with Einstein’s theory but may not be consistent with scalar-tensor theories, recent extensions of Einstein’s theory that include a scalar field and a tensor field. These fields interact and cause gravity to become variable, notes Universe Today.
The new calculations are just a beginning and new data will be needed to test out this theory. According to the researchers, interferometers, which are used to record gravitational waves, may be used to measure the gravitational wave associated with this charge. “The growth of the black hole’s hair is accompanied by the emission of distinctive gravitational waves. In the future, the recordings by the instrument may challenge Kerr’s model and broaden our knowledge of the origins of gravity,” said Sotiriou.
Black Holes Have ‘Hair,’ Say Scientists: Wait, What? Explaining The Hairy New Developments
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