Tech

Physics professor advances research on black hole paradox

By Kate Blackwood |December 9, 2020  Do black holes emit information? For decades, physicists have theorized on this high-stakes question. At the heart of the so-called “black hole information paradox” is a fundamental incompatibility between the two pillar theories of theoretical physics: general relativity and quantum mechanics. But in the past two years, a series of breakthrough calculations by researchers – including Tom Hartman, associate professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences – have led to proclamations in the field of theoretical physics that “the most famous…

Read More
Tech

Klarman fellow models black hole collisions, studies effects

By Kate Blackwood |October 13, 2020 -  New and extremely sensitive instruments are allowing scientists to use a novel source of information – gravitational waves – to understand fundamental principles of nature. “Gravitational waves are the signals that carry information about gravity,” said Vijay Varma, a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in physics, in the College of Arts and Sciences. “If two black holes are orbiting each other, for example, gravitational waves carry information about the masses and spins of the black holes and how the black holes may have formed.” Varma…

Read More
Tech

An unexpected origin story for a lopsided black hole merger

By Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office A lopsided merger of two black holes may have an oddball origin story, according to a new study by researchers at MIT and elsewhere. The merger was first detected on April 12, 2019 as a gravitational wave that arrived at the detectors of both LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory), and its Italian counterpart, Virgo. Scientists labeled the signal as GW190412 and determined that it emanated from a clash between two David-and-Goliath black holes, one three times more massive than the other. The…

Read More