Physicists Propose Cheaper Alternative to Particle Colliders: Supermassive Black Holes

A new study by Johns Hopkins University suggests that supermassive black holes – these cosmic giants are hidden in galaxies centers – can already generate the types of high -energy particle collisions that researchers have spent decades trying to recreate here on earth.

Published today in Physical examination lettersThe study proposes that certain black holes in rotation can serve as accelerators of natural particles, competing or even exceeding the capacities of the great collision of Hadrons (LHC). This is a big problem, especially since fundamental research in physics is becoming increasingly rare in the United States, and the plans for new generation colliders extend far in the future.

For about a decade, experts have theorized that the supermassive black holes could do so, told Gizmodo, co-author Andrew Mummery, theoretical physicist of the University of Oxford. But his study tried to validate this theory by looking for naturally accessible scenarios that would give birth to the behavior of the supercollider type of a black hole. Understand how this could provide a new avenue for research on dark matter and other elusive particles.

“One of the great hopes for particle collides like the great collision of Hadrons is that he will generate particles of dark matter, but we have not yet seen any evidence,” explain The co-author Joseph Silk, astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, at the University of Oxford and the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris, in a version of Johns Hopkins. “This is why there are discussions in progress to build a much more powerful version, a new generation supercollider,” said Silk. “But while we invest $ 30 billion and wait 40 years to build this supercollider – nature can give an overview of the future in super massive black holes.”

At LHC, Protons are broken together at light speeds To discover the constituent elements of reality – and hope it, to have an overview of dark matter, the mysterious things which represent around 85% of the mass of the universe. But it turns out that black holes could already produce these elusive particles in nature.

Some supermassive black holes run so quickly that They can launch plasma jets at astonishing speeds. In their new study, Mummery and Silk have modeled what is happening near these turning point, where violent gas flows can whip the particles in chaotic collisions, a bit like a collision built by humans.

“Certain particles of these collisions descend into the throat of the hole and disappear forever,” said Silk, “but because of their energy and their momentum, some are also going out, and it is those that are accelerated in unprecedented energies.”

These ultra-energy particles zipping into space could, in theory, be picked up by earth-based observatories like Icecube in Antarctica or the km3net telescope under the Mediterranean Sea, which already detect ghostly particles called Neutrinos. Earlier this year, KM3NET researchers announced the detection of Neutrino most energetic to dateA step forward potential in understanding the behavior of these ephemeral and energetic particles.

Equipped with a deeper understanding of the way in which these high energy particles could form on the edges of supermassive black holes, Mummery now aims to study their nature. To determine what, exactly, escapes from these cosmic empty could offer a profitable and natural complement to traditional colliders. The approach could give a new path to the discovery of the nature of dark matter.