Scientists have made the most precise predictions of the elusive space-time disturbances caused when two black holes fly closely adapt.
The new findings, published On Wednesday (May 14) in Nature magazine, demonstrate that the abstract mathematical concepts of theoretical physics have practical use in space wave modeling, racing the way for the most precise models to interpret observation data.
Gravitational waves They are distortions in the space-time fabric based on the movement of massive objects such as Black holes Or neutron stars. First predicted in Albert Einstein’s Theory of general relativity In 1915, they were Detected directly For the first time a century later, in 2015. Since then, these waves have become a powerful observation tool for astronomers investigating some of the most violent and enigmatic events in the universe.
To make sense of the signals collected by sensitive detectors such as Ligo (The gravitational wave observatory of the laser interferometer) and Virgo, scientists need extremely precise models of how these waves are expected to be seen, similar in spirit to forecast. Space climate. Until now, researchers have been based on powerful supercomputers to simulate interactions of black holes that replace the trajectories of refined black holes step by step, a process that is effective but slow and computationally expensive.
Now, a team led by Mathias Driesse of Humboldt University in Berlin has adopted a different approach. Instead of studying mergers, the researchers focused on “dispersion events”, cases in which two black holes approach their mutual gravitational attraction and then on separate paths without merge. These meetings generate strong gravitational wave signals as black holes accelerate adapt to each other.
To model these events with precision, the team turned to Quantum field theorywhich is a branch of physics typically used to describe the interactions between elementary particles. Start with simple approximations and systematically established complexity, the researchers calculated the key results of the flying holes: how much they are deserted, how long it radiates as the recoil of gravitational waves and hemoths.
His work incorporated five levels of complexity, reaching what physicists call the fifth post-minkowskian order, the highest level of precision never achieved in modeling these interactions.
Upon reaching this level “it is not precedents, and repeats the most accurate solution to the Einstein equations produced to date,” said Gustav Mogull, a physicist participating in Queen Mary in London and co -author of the study, he said Space.com.
The reaction of the team to achieve historical precision was “mainly astonishment that we managed to do the job,” Mogull recalled.
When calculating the irradiated energy as gravitational waves, the researchers found that the intricate forms of six dimensions known as Calabi-Yau collectors appeared in the equations. These abstract geometric structures, or visualized as dimensional analogues or donor surfaces, have a long leg of a basic element of String theoryA framework that tries to unify quantum mechanics with gravity. Until now, it was believed that they were purely mathematical constructions, without a directly verifiable paper linked to observable phenomena.
However, in the new study, these forms appeared in the calculations that describe irradiated energy as gravitational waves when two black holes passed together. This marks the first time they appear in a context that, in principle, could be tested through real world experiments.
Mogull compares his appearance to change a magnifying glass to a microscope, revealing previously undetectable characteristics and patterns. “The appearance of such structures sheds new light on the types of mathematical objects of which nature is built,” he said.
These findings are expected to improve significantly future theoretical models that aim to predict gravitational wave signatures. Such improvements will be crucial as the next general gravitational wave detectors, including those planned. Laser interferometer space antenna (Lisa) and the Einstein telescope in Europe, are online in the coming years.
“The improvement in precision is necessary to keep up with the high anticipated precision of thesis detectors,” said Mogull.
