When a black hole is active, we tend to focus on its impact on the material from which it filters. It makes sense to do that; it is difficult to study black holes themselves. But the interaction between the black hole and the material should affect the black hole as well – as it gets stuff, it should win too.
Such small reactions – especially the previously unrecognized ones – are called small reactions – and scientists have just seen an analog of one that is specific to black holes, and can be seen in water going down a drain.
It is a discovery that could help study black hole onions that are too fragile for our conventional instruments, such as Hawking radiation that is thought to be emitted by black holes. This is a theoretical type of black body radiation that would eventually – after a very long time – see a black hole completely empty, while it was not growing at all.
To study cosmic objects in more detail than we can over the vast distances of space, scale-down versions, or analogues, can be created in a laboratory. For example, a recent experiment to reproduce white heart weights.
Black hole analogues are a great way to learn more about these enigmatic substances, and different types can help reveal their secrets in a number of ways.
Fiber optic and Bose-Einstein concentrations were used to learn more about Hawking radiation. But one of the simplest things to do with how to feed black holes is: the drainage bathtub vortex.
Black hole contamination can be compared to water moving down a drain. Treating an issue as a ripple in a field, the water can stand in for its own space-time, or a field counteracts quantum activity.
By measuring the responses of the ripples as the water descends down a swirling drain there is perhaps something to be said about energy waves disappearing in a black hole.
Analog black hole vortex bathtub. (University of Nottingham)
From such analogues, we have learned a great deal about the effect of black holes on the space and the material around them. But with an outdoor water pump keeping the background of the system stable, it was not clear whether a black hole analog would be free to be able to handle waves.
This set of tests is the first time a drainage bathtub fortune has shown an effect on the black hole itself.
“We have proven that analog black holes, like their gravitational counterparts, are retroactive systems,” said physicist Sam Patrick of the University of Nottingham in the UK.
“We have shown that moving waves in a drainage bath push water down the plug hole, significantly changing the drainage speed and thus altering the effective gravity pull of the analog black hole.”
When waves were fed into the system towards the drain, they pushed in extra water, speeding up the “generation” process so much so that the water levels in it dropped. the tub visibly, even though a pump maintained the same level of incoming water.
This change in water level corresponds to a change in the properties of the black hole, the researchers said.
This could be very useful information, partly because an increase in mass changes the gravitational force of a black hole – it changes the way the black hole warms space. around it, as well as the effect of the black hole on the generation disk. In addition, it offers a new way to study how waves affect the dynamics of black holes.
“What was really interesting to us is that the background is big enough that it causes the water level throughout the entire system to drop so much that you can see it with a glance! This was very unexpected, “said Peter.
“Our study experimentally paves the way for interactions between waves and the space times they pass through. For example, this type of interaction will be crucial for studying the evacuation of holes. in the laboratory. “
The team ‘s research was published in Corporate Review Letters.