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from the ripples-in-the-fabric-of-space-time dept.
Gravitational wave echoes may confirm Stephen Hawking's hypothesis of quantum black holes:
Research from the University of Waterloo reports the first tentative detection of these echoes, caused by a microscopic quantum "fuzz" that surrounds newly formed black holes.
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, caused by the collision of massive, compact objects in space, such as black holes or neutron stars.
"According to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, nothing can escape from the gravity of a black hole once it has passed a point of no return, known as the event horizon," explained Niayesh Afshordi, a physics and astronomy professor at Waterloo. "This was scientists' understanding for a long time until Stephen Hawking used quantum mechanics to predict that quantum particles will slowly leak out of black holes, which we now call Hawking radiation.
"Scientists have been unable to experimentally determine if any matter is escaping black holes until the very recent detection of gravitational waves," said Afshordi. "If the quantum fuzz responsible for Hawking radiation does exist around black holes, gravitational waves could bounce off of it, which would create smaller gravitational wave signals following the main gravitational collision event, similar to repeating echoes."
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday January 24 2020, @11:07AM (7 children)
As opposed to non-quantum particles?
(Score: 2) by einar on Friday January 24 2020, @01:35PM (3 children)
The particles making up my desk do not show any "quantumness". Although, I was told they could...
More seriously, the assumption that everything on small scale shows a quantum behavior is just an assumption. In the case of Hawking radiation it is true. Since it is the uncertainty principle allowing the radiation to happen. So, the particles do display a quantum behavior.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @02:19PM (1 child)
It is an assumption that is backed up by a century of evidence (that is people doing experimentation that relies on the Heisenberg principle), or what we now call a Theory (previously this was called a Law).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 25 2020, @07:07AM
You misread.
is correct - and it's a false assumption. Show me the quantum behaviour of bacteria (as bacteria, not as "well a bit of them deep down exhibits"). Could it be described by its quantum state? Yes but that degree of fineness would not in itself describe any higher level - ie. "bacterial" attributes. Do parts of the bacteria? Yes sure, ion channels, photon absorbtion, electrical signalling, etc ad nauseum. But there are few bacteria-sized "things" that exhibit quantum behaviour as such - "crystals" and laser cavities come to mind, ultracold things, B-E condensates, etc.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday January 27 2020, @09:36AM
> The particles making up my desk do not show any "quantumness". Although, I was told they could...
Particle implies quantum
Wave implies non-quantum
There is no way a particle cannot be "quantum", because "quantum" means quantised i.e. particulate, as opposed to non-quantised i.e. continuous (as in a field).
I was being pedantic, apologies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @04:16PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday January 27 2020, @09:38AM
I was being pedantic. Quantum means quantised i.e. particulate. Non-quantised implies continuous i.e. field-like (as in EM waves).
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday January 26 2020, @01:02AM
I wonder if it's a bad paraphrase of virtual particles. If memory serves, they are the origin of Hawking radiation, with the end result being real particles.