Einstein’s Twist: Princeton astrophysicist unveils mystery of black hole jets and galactic lightsaber

A team of Princeton University astrophysicists has now finally determined that the energy is close to black hole The M87* is pushing outward, not inward, a long-standing debate in the field.

One thing everyone knows about black holes is that anything nearby gets sucked in.

almost As it turns out, that’s all true.

“Although a black hole is defined as an object from which nothing can escape, one of the astonishing predictions of Einstein’s theory of relativity is that black holes actually lose energy,” said astrophysicist Elliot, the Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University. Eliot Quataert said. Basic Class of 1897. “They can spin, and just like a spinning top slows down over time and loses energy as it spins, a spinning black hole loses energy to its surroundings.”

This model has been widely accepted by scientists since the 1970s. They knew magnetic fields might extract energy from spinning black holes—they just didn’t know how.

A team of Princeton University astrophysicists has now conclusively determined that energy near the event horizon of black hole M87* is being pushed outward, not inward. (M87 is the name of the galaxy Messier 87, so the black hole at its center is designated M87*.) The researchers also created a method to test the prediction that the black hole loses rotational energy and determine its production of this energy, Quataert said. The extremely powerful jets we see are called jets.”

The animation shows how the magnetic field crossing the black hole’s event horizon distorts as the black hole spins faster. A faster-spinning black hole will “wrap” the magnetic field faster, causing the black hole to lose more energy to its surroundings. A team of Princeton University astrophysicists observed the entanglement of magnetic field lines in linearly polarized images of black holes taken by the Event Horizon Telescope.Image source: Video by George Wong, Institute for Advanced Study Princeton University

These energy outflow jets are “basically like a million-light years“Long Jedi lightsabers,” says Alexandru Lupsasca, a former Princeton University postdoc, can be 10 times longer than a Jedi lightsaber. Milky Way galaxy.

The results of their work were recently published in this The Astrophysical Journal. Andrew Chael, associate research scholar in astrophysics, is the paper’s lead author. He and co-author George Huang, both members of the Event Horizon Telescope team, played a key role in developing models used to explain black holes. Chael, Wong, Lupsasca and Quataert were all theorists on the Princeton Gravity Project.

The team praised Char for an important insight at the heart of the new paper: that the direction of the spiral of magnetic field lines reveals the direction of energy flow. From that point on, “the rest fell into place,” Quartart said.

The black hole M87* (the asterisk indicates the black hole in the center of the M87 galaxy) attracted worldwide attention when it was first detected by the Event Horizon Telescope. Since then, astrophysicists at Princeton University have discovered that the twisted magnetic field surrounding a black hole determines the polarization helix observed in images of the black hole. In particular, the direction of energy flow (from hole to field or vice versa) determines how polarization is distorted. By measuring the direction of the polarization helix, we can infer whether the magnetic field extracts spin energy from the hole or pumps spin energy into it.Image credit: Model by Andrew Chael, George Wong, Alexandru Lupsasca, and Eliot Quataert, Princeton Gravity Project

“If you turned all of the Earth into TNT and blew it up 1,000 times a second for millions of years, that’s the energy we’d get from M87,” said Wong, a research associate. Member of the Princeton Gravity Program and the Institute for Advanced Study.

Scientists have known for decades that when a black hole begins to spin, it drags the fabric of space-time around it with it. Magnetic field lines passing through the black hole are dragged along, slowing down the rotation, causing a release of energy.

“Our new, sharp prediction is that every time you look at an astrophysical black hole, if it has magnetic field lines attached to it, there’s going to be an energy transfer—really crazy energy transfer,” said former associate research scholar Lupus Saska explain. Princeton University, currently an assistant professor of physics and mathematics at Vanderbilt University, received the 2024 New Horizons Award in Physics from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation for his research on black holes.

While the flow of energy near M87*’s event horizon is flowing outward, the team says the flow could theoretically flow inward in another black hole. They are confident in the connection between energy flow and the direction of magnetic field lines, and their prediction that the energy flow comes from the black hole will be tested by the launch of the still theoretical “next generation” Event Horizon Telescope.

Huang said that for the past year and a half, black hole researchers around the world have been coming up with specifications for future instruments. “Papers like ours can play a vital role in identifying our needs. I think this is an incredibly exciting time.”

The four researchers stressed in their paper that they have not yet conclusively proven that the black hole’s rotation “actually powers the extragalactic jets,” although the evidence certainly leans in that direction.Although their model showed energy levels commensurate with those required by the jet, they could not rule out the possibility that the jet could be powered by spinning plasma Outside the black hole. “I think it’s very possible that black holes are powering jets, but we can’t prove it,” Lupusaska said. “However.”

Reference: “Black hole polarization measurements I. Characterization of electromagnetic energy extraction,” by Andrew Chael, Alexandru Lupsasca, George N. Wong and Eliot Quataert, November 14, 2023 The Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acf92d

The research was supported by the Princeton Gravity Program, a Taplin Fellowship, the National Science Foundation (grant 2307888), and a Simons Foundation Investigator Award.