Supermassive black holes, which are found at the centers of most galaxies,
have been linked in an unexpected way by scientists to thick barriers of
gluons, a type of subatomic particle.
They couldn't be more dissimilar in terms of size: While color glass
condensates (CGCs), which are extremely thick walls of gluons, are less than
a billionth of a mile in circumference, supermassive black holes can be
billions of miles across.
Yet it has been found by a group of researchers from the Ludwig Maximilian
University of Munich, the Max Planck Institute for Physics, and the
Brookhaven National Laboratory that supermassive black holes and CGCs are
similar in that they are composed of densely packed, fundamental force
carrier particles known as bosons.
These bosons are gluons for CGCs, which are particles that bear the strong
nuclear force in charge of "gluing together" quarks to create protons and
neutrons, the atomic nuclei of all common matter. The hypothetical
gravitons, which convey the force of gravity, are the tightly packed
particles that make up supermassive black holes.
The bosons are set up in the most space- and energy-efficient way in both
systems. With both systems storing the most quantum information about their
individual bosons, including their spatial distribution, velocity, and group
forces, this generates the high degree of order that is characteristic of
both CGCs and black holes.
Researchers can gain more insight into one system of densely packed bosons
by analyzing another due to the universality of the constraints put on
quantum information.
As a consequence, by studying CGCs in laboratories on Earth, it may be
possible to learn more about faraway and inaccessible supermassive black
holes. To learn more about the gravitational shock waves generated when two
black holes meet and combine to make an even more massive black hole,
scientists could examine the "gluon shock waves" produced in CGCs during
particle collisions.
When atomic atoms are propelled to speeds close to the speed of light and
then collide, CGCs are produced. The CGCs "melt" following these impacts,
carried out at establishments like the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in
Upton, New York, to create a nearly ideal liquid of quarks and gluons. The
team discovered that gluons appear to arrange themselves in a manner that
adheres to a global limit on the amount of entropy, or chaos, that can exist
in a system while studying this process to learn more about the strong
nuclear force. It is also thought that the vast collections of gravitons
that make up black holes organize themselves within this bound.
This mathematical resemblance implies a connection between nuclear
explosions at near-light velocities and the birth of black holes, their
thermal balance with their surroundings, and even how they may ultimately
decline.
This resemblance relates to a crucial aspect of quantum information science
(QIS) known as maximal information packing, which places a ceiling on
entropy. Therefore, scientists must look to QIS to learn more about the
relationship between black holes and gluon barriers. To create quantum
computers, which rely on closely packed cold atoms to conduct computations,
the study of these systems may eventually prove helpful.
The team's research is published in the journal
Physical Review D
