Bronzwaer, Moscibrodzka, Davelaar and Falcke/ Radboud University
Thanks to the atomic model created in the laboratory, the researchers were able to understand the origin of the Hawking radiation produced by these cosmic bodies.
Researchers at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) created a ‘synthetic black hole’, with which they studied the underlying mechanism through which these celestial bodies emit thermal radiation, known as Hawking radiation, reported the institution.
As detailed by the university, for years the hypothesis that the mass of black holes is so great that nothing, not even light, can escape their field of gravitational influence has been accepted. However, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking discovered that, due to tiny quantum fluctuations around their event horizon – the area of influence from which there is no way out – these cosmic objects emit a small amount of thermal radiation.
However, current technology is not sensitive enough to detect this type of radiation, so to unravel the mechanism behind its emission, scientists developed a model based on a one-dimensional chain of atoms, in which electrons can ” “jump” from one atomic site to the next, thus mimicking the space-time warp caused by a black hole.
According to his research, published in the journal Physical Review Research, when an electron moves from one end of the chain to the other, it describes the same behavior as matter approaching the horizon of a black hole. This model, they explain, allowed them to quantify the thermal radiation emitted during atomic ‘jumps’.
The results obtained, the experts point out, suggest that Hawking radiation occurs when there is a change in the deformation of space-time and that this can only be purely thermal under certain circumstances.
They also determined that the existence of thermal radiation is intrinsically related to the quantum-mechanical property of entanglement between objects inside the event horizon of the black hole and outside it.
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Moscow, November 16, 2022
Digital Chronicle/actualidad.rt.com