adbobe stock/Erika Eros/Alamy/collar Ryan Wills
Deep inside a black hole, the universe is warped beyond comprehension. Here, at a minimum of infinite density, the fabric of the universe becomes ludicrously warped, and Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which explains how mass curves space-time, becomes meaningless. At the singularity, our understanding breaks down.
As terrifying as singularities are, each one is at least safely hidden inside the black hole’s event horizon, the boundary beyond which we cannot see. This not only hides the singularity from view, but also prevents the unknown effects that it heralds, the horror of unpredictability, from spreading throughout the universe. But what if singularities existed outside of black holes?
This question has received new impetus in recent years from the demonstration that general relativity makes this possible, leading theorists to explore singularities from a deeper perspective, incorporating insights from the latest research into the quantum foundations of gravity. They are already beginning to find that this new approach “turns” how we think about singularities, says Dr. Netta Engelhardt At Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
To be honest, this work takes us into labyrinthine physics. But by tackling singularities in this way, Engelhardt and his colleagues unravel a mysterious connection between the quantum realm and classical gravity, reinforcing a revolutionary idea…
