Black Hole "Information Leaks" Hint Gravity May Not be a Fundamental Force of Nature

 

                


Back in 2011, ground-breaking research by scientists at the University of York provided  a new perspective on the physics of black holes. Black holes are objects in space that are so massive and compact they were described by Einstein as "bending" space.  Conventional thinking asserts that black holes swallow everything that gets too close and that nothing can escape its "event horizon," but the study suggested that information could escape from black holes after all. The implications could be revolutionary, suggesting that gravity may not be a fundamental force of Nature.

"Our results support to recent proposals that space, time and even gravity itself may be emergent properties within a deeper theory," said Samuel Braunstein. "Our work subtly changes those proposals, by identifying quantum information theory as the likely candidate for the source of an emergent theory of gravity."

But quantum mechanics is the theory of light and atoms, and many physicists are skeptical that it could be used to explain the slow evaporation of black holes without incorporating the effects of gravity.
The research, which appears in the Physical Review Letters, used the basic tenets of quantum mechanics to give a new description of information leaking from a black hole.

 "Our results actually extend the predictions made by well-established techniques that rely on a detailed knowledge of space time and black hole geometry," added Braunstein.

 "We cannot claim to have proven that escape from a black hole is truly possible, but that is the most straight-forward interpretation of our results," concluded. "Indeed, our results suggest that quantum information theory will play a key role in a future theory combining quantum mechanics and gravity."

The Daily Galaxy via eurekalert.org and prl.aps.org  

Comments

[KSW]

how is this new? isn't this what the Hawking/Susskind black hole war was all about?

[Dean Curtis]

I suppose because of the continuing difficulties of trying to describe the property of gravity, considering it via quantum theory makes as much sense as anything.

[Holographicgalaxy]

They cannot ruin their reputation as famous scientists by kissing up in this way to conventional gravity "scientists" who are paid authorities like beuracrats. Instead of showing at telling everybody that black holes are an electromagnetic phenomena,they admit that gravity is secondary to this other unknown force they want to ignore, which is electromagnetism itself. Many black holes are modeled in labs as optical photonic light traps and carbon nanotubes absorbing all radiation.

[Marshall Eubanks]

This is pure theory, with no actual experimental confirmation at all. I don't see how it establishes anything.

[xray]

didn't someone say that gravity is a property of space-time? does that make it a force?

[Narendra Nath]

I also wonder like other commentators that there is something missing about gravity as it is understood today. The first is the evolution of the Universe from a point that it took place too quickly on time scale, as if the force involved was too strong than anything we know today. Also, the dominance of dark matter over visible matter has been left unattended as to how primordial matter got converted to visible baryonic and non-baryonic dark matter. The mystery lies in the nature of dark matter, what constitutes it? Then there is a larger question regarding homogeneity of space and time eversince the universe came into being, Big bang wise or steady state wise!

[Jacob Singer]

Gravity is a result of gluon energy. In the same way that static electricity forms, so does gravity Gluon energy is the 'glue' that holds atoms together to form molecules. They create a force around themselves, which is gravity. This explains why gravity is constant attraction irrespective of the weight of an object. Also explainns why a gravitational particle can not be found.