Mexico City /
The incredible first image of a black hole, taken in 2019, helped learn more about the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein. With this finding, a huge endorsement of that of the scientist is born. We tell you how the first photo of a black hole explains the theory of relativity Einstein.
Despite his successes, Einstein’s solid theory – the idea that gravity is matter that distorts space-time – remains mathematically incompatible with quantum mechanics, the scientific understanding of the subatomic world.
Proving the general theory of relativity is important because the ultimate theory of the universe must include gravity as well as quantum mechanics.
“We expect a complete theory of gravity to be different from general relativity, but there are many ways to adapt it. We found that whatever the correct theory is, it cannot differ significantly from general relativity when it comes to black holes. The space of possible adaptation, ”explains astrophysics professor Dimitrios Psaltis of the University of Arizona, who until recently was a scientist on the collaborative project Event Horizon Telescope.
Psaltis is the lead author of a new paper in Physical Review Letters. detailing the researchers’ findings.
“This is a new way to test general relativity using supermassive black holes,” said Keiichi Asada, a member of the EHT scientific board and an expert in radio observations of black holes for the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics. .
To conduct the test, the team used the first ever image of the supermassive black hole in the center of the nearby galaxy M87, obtained with the EHT last year.
The first results had shown that the size of the black hole’s shadow was in agreement with the size predicted by general relativity.
“At the time, we couldn’t ask the opposite question: how can a theory of gravity be different from general relativity and still be consistent with the size of the shadow?” said Pierre Christian, a member of the Arizona Administrator Theory. “We wondered if we could do something with these observations to rule out some alternatives.”
The team conducted a very comprehensive analysis of many changes in general relativity to identify the unique feature of a theory of gravity that determines the size of a black hole’s shadow.
“In this way, we can now indicate whether an alternative to the general theory of relativity matches the Event Horizon Telescope observations, without worrying about other details,” said Lia Medeiros, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies who part has been part of the EHT collaboration since her time as a graduate student of UArizona.
The team focused on the array of alternatives that had passed all previous solar system tests.
“Using the meter we developed, we have shown that the measured size of the shadow of the black hole in M87 reduces the space for adaptations to Einstein’s general theory of relativity by nearly a factor of 500, compared to previous tests in the solar system,” said Feryal Özel, professor of astrophysics in Arizona, a senior member of the EHT collaboration.
“Many ways to change general relativity fail in this new and more rigorous shadow test for the black hole.”
“The images of the black hole provide a completely new angle for testing Einstein’s general theory of relativity,” said Michael Kramer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and a member of the EHT collaboration.
“This, along with observations of gravitational waves, marks the beginning of a new era in black hole astrophysics,” said Psaltis.
Next, the EHT team is waiting for higher fidelity images to be captured by its extensive array of telescopes, including the Greenland telescope, the 12-meter telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona, and the Northern Extended Millimeter Array Observatory in France.
weapon