WITH a pull so strong not even light escapes, a black hole is defined by its gravity. But now a model that ignores gravity is proving surprisingly useful.
Black holes are where big ideas in cosmology, such as gravity and quantum mechanics, collide. That makes them great for testing new theories. 鈥淎 black hole is a bit like the hydrogen atom of quantum gravity,鈥� says of the University of York, UK.
His team modelled a minimal black hole, defined only by having an inside and an outside. To their surprise, this object reproduces a lot of the features of real black holes that are thought to rely on gravity, including Hawking radiation 鈥� via quantum mechanics ().
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This chimes with suggestions that gravity is not a fundamental component of the universe but an emergent property of quantum mechanics, just as waves are an emergent property of water molecules. The toy black hole also dodges the recently discovered black hole firewall paradox, an inconsistency between quantum mechanics and general relativity that arises in most models. 鈥淚nstead of being a cutesy picture, it鈥檚 a fantastic contender for the real physics,鈥� says Braunstein.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淕ravity-less black hole works wonders鈥�
