Black holes, those enigmatic cosmic vacuum cleaners, continue to fascinate scientists. Now, researchers are simulating these celestial bodies in labs to unravel their mysteries. A team in the Netherlands has created a black hole analog that has yielded surprising results, potentially bridging the gap between general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Scientists at the University of Amsterdam, led by Lotte Mertens, successfully simulated the event horizon of a black hole using a chain of atoms. This analog emitted Hawking radiation, a theoretical phenomenon where black holes release particles due to quantum fluctuations. The team observed that the black hole analog started to glow, which was unexpected.
This glow, or Hawking radiation, only occurred when part of the atomic chain extended beyond the event horizon. This suggests that particle entanglement at the event horizon is crucial for the radiation's creation. These findings, published in Physical Review Research, could pave the way for exploring fundamental quantum-mechanical aspects alongside gravity and curved spacetimes in condensed matter settings. The simulation offers a tangible way to study Hawking radiation, which is normally too faint to detect in real black holes, and could help in the quest for a unified theory of quantum gravity.