Black holes are the most mysterious objects in the Universe. They absorb even light, but is there any trace of what once fell into their gravitational trap? The answer to this question may lie in the entangled structures – supermazes – that a new string theory study tells us about.
What’s inside the supermazes?
According to M-theory (an extension of string theory), our Universe has 11 dimensions instead of four. In this model, the basis of reality is vibrating multidimensional objects, or branes. Supermazes are complex weaves of two-dimensional and five-dimensional branes in the heart of black holes. They resemble an infinite quantum puzzle where each piece stores information about the absorbed matter.
“Imagine a maze with hundreds of rooms, intersections and walls, where each layer interacts with the others. In such a place, two-dimensional things can meet five-dimensional things. When they meet, they reach for each other and bend,” explains Nicholas Warner, co-author of the study from the University of Southern California.
According to the hypothesis, the microstructure of a black hole looks like an interweaving of different dimensions with each other. The matter inside these gravitational monsters is so compressed that it turns into fuzzy balls of vibrating branes that have the features of black holes but no event horizon – they have been called fuzzballs.
Why are fuzzballs important?
The traditional model of black holes contradicts quantum mechanics because of the “information paradox”: according to Stephen Hawking, the evaporation of holes due to radiation destroys information about their contents, which is impossible according to the laws of physics. Fuzzballs avoid this paradox. Because they have no singularity, their internal structure can “record” data about absorbed objects and transmit it through emitted particles.
“The supermaze has an enormous storage capacity. It solves the paradox,” Warner emphasizes.
Critique of the hypothesis
The study, published in the Journal of High Energy Physics, received mixed reviews. Samir Mathur, author of the fuzzball concept, calls supermazes an “elegant step” in creating new models. However, physicist Don Marolf notes: although the structures have mass and charge like ordinary holes, their correspondence to basic properties (such as entropy) has not been proven yet.
Supermazes are another attempt to bring the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics closer together. Studying them will help not only to understand black holes, but also to get closer to the Theory of Everything – a unified description of the fundamental forces of nature.
Although supermazes are still a hypothetical model, they open new horizons in physics. Perhaps in these multidimensional structures lies the key to unlocking the major mysteries of the Universe.
Previously, we explained whether it was possible to survive in a black hole and come out the other side.
According to scientificamerican.com
