British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is respected by the fact that not only many years of resisting a fatal disease, but also solve complex of intellectual problems.
But respect does not mean that the views of Hawking always true.
About black holes and a series of scientific controversies related to their theory, the ambiguity of artificial intelligence, and the discovery, which cost the Hawking of $ 100.
“It’s like catching a black cat in a dark room”
“Black hole” is constantly portrayed by artists as the coal-black area, surrounded by a swirl of matter. It’s beautiful, but it is incorrect: although a custom size of black holes can be very considerable, externally, it looks literally “nothing.”
It can gravitationally distort the light of galaxies behind it – about the same as a bubble in the glass distorts the image of what is behind the glass. But the bubble at least has the size and the apparent size of a black hole is infinitely small.
anything that crosses the event horizon of a black hole, as it is in the well of the space-time continuum, which is not visible from the outside. Black holes can be computed, but they can be found only on a number of indirect signs, which, according to the conclusions of mathematicians and astrophysicists, associated with a black hole.
the debate about the Swan
In the early 1970-ies one of the candidates for black holes have been the object of Cygnus X-1. Presumably, it is a double star in which one component being a black hole that gradually sucks out a lot of other bright stars. The result of this process leads to heavy-duty x-ray radiation, in which Lebed X-1 was discovered in 1964.
In 1975, Hawking and other renowned astrophysicist Kip Thorne made a bet about the nature of Cygnus X-1. Hawking, in spite of his theories, insisted that the object is not a black hole.
In the early 1990-ies, when the existence of a black hole in the Cygnus X-1 have no doubt, Hawking admitted defeat and as a “winner” signed thorn on erotic magazine Penthouse (which greatly angered the progressive wife of thorn).
From the information paradox by the information deadlock
But since then, the problem with black holes has just begun.
Thermodynamic theory of black holes in the early 1970-ies Hawking first brought fame, has created “the information paradox”, which still is not found.
the Mathematics that describe a black hole, implies that all its characteristics are derived strictly from its mass, regardless of particle (or antiparticle) she swallowed. According to this model, in a black hole all physical information disappears (which violates the law of conservation).
In 1974, Stephen Hawking proposed his solution to the paradox known as “Hawking radiation”. In simplified form, he suggested that on the event horizon of a black hole are so-called “entangled pairs” of elementary particles. Subsequently, the couple is divided, and then one “half” goes into a black hole (and either stays there forever or goes to a “parallel universe”), and the second returns to our universe in the form of thermal “Hawking radiation”, in fact, carrying the “new” information. According to this theory, the “old” information, on the one hand, forever disappearing into a black hole, but the law of its conservation is not violated.
In 1997, this assumption served as the basis for a new, more serious bet between Hawking and Kip Thorne against the theoretical physicist John Priscilla. Preskill it on the fact that information in a black hole still does not disappear. In 2004, Hawking officially conceded defeat from Priscilla, and proposed a new concept of “apparent event horizon” in which a black hole can still give the absorbed information.
In 2014, Hawking was forced to go back to the development of information in a black hole, this time in connection with what other researchers on the basis of his calculations concluded that the possible existence of the event horizon of a so-called “firewall” zone with specific properties of space in which formed particles with enormous energy. But the firewall was also contrary to the foundations of quantum mechanics, and Hawking tried to remove the paradox.
To this end he published an article on two pages, in which he announced that the event horizon of a black hole may not be clear, but blurred, and delay information is not forever, but only for a while. According to the publication, the information does not disappear but returns with “Hawking radiation” in the “split” and mixed together, which cannot be decrypted. So, black holes in the usual sense do not exist. A month later, the Swedish physicist Sabine Hossenfelder returned shaken astrophysics in equilibrium, assuming that “Hawking radiation” is due to the birth of pairs of particles two at a time, but it was a month of great stress for the scientific community.
the Hypothesis of randomly Hawking about the nature of radiation the black hole also in a short time, was disputed.
“Evaporating” black holes and weight loss
Three years ago, the theory of Hawking received a blow from the other side.
According to the assumptions of physics, “Hawking radiation” is gradually depleting the black hole, taking her weight, and in the end, any black hole evaporating into the global space, faster and more intense, and then explodes. Side consequence of this theory was the conclusion that a black hole can become not any body, but only an astronomical scale.
the lifetime of a black hole in proportion to the cube of its mass, and say, a black hole with a mass of 1000 tons can exist only 84 seconds. And if microscopic black holes existed at the dawn of the universe, that they no longer exist.
But in 2014, the American cosmologist Laura Mersini-Chaton demonstrated the possibility that the loss of mass due to “Hawking radiation” would be so high that the black hole collapses not into a singularity, and “evaporate” before his appearance. The emergence of black holes “generally accepted” – via gravitational collapse – in this case, it becomes impossible.
In January and December 2016, Hawking and his co-authors Malcolm Perry and Andrew Strominger published two articles, which attempted to resolve the accumulated contradictions, suggesting, in particular, new conservation laws.
But in an organized Mersini-Haton in the summer of 2015 conference on “information paradox” (where including spoke and Hawking) the scientific community could not come to any General opinion, not only about ways of solving problems, but about the nature of the problems of the theory of black holes, and Hawking’s article only reinforced the impression, developed over the last half century the theory of “black holes” is at an impasse.
And if black holes still be a figment of mathematical imagination, before the scientific community will face an even more serious question – what, then, are all those objects that we thought of black holes, including the quasars and the center of our own Galaxy.
Dangerous artificial intelligence?
Stephen Hawking has also for many years was known as a strong supporter of research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and how alarmist warning about a possible “revolt of cars”.
In January 2015, he signed an open letter calling for a tremendous increase in research in the field of artificial intelligence (the letter was made funded by Elon musk holding a non-governmental organization Future Life). However, on October 19, 2016 Hawking made a statement in a completely different tone. Simultaneously with Hawking almost in the same vein spoke and his co-signatory Elon Musk.
“Economic” concerns of the former advocates of artificial intelligence were associated with unfolding in 2015-2016 massive discussion about the possibility of complete automation and algorithmization of production.
Fears that billions of people remain without work – that’s about it really cautious Hawking. But for the leaders of scientific progress is more appropriate to speak not about how the robots will leave people without work, and about how to change the structure of society based on these features, and how to engage people in the new world when robots take over most of the usual tasks. It’s not the first and not the second time in history, when progress saves millions from old forms of labor.
Opening worth $ 100
the Higgs Boson (or “quantum Higgs field”) of an elementary particle, whose discovery had been predicted by physicist Peter Higgs in 1964.
Hawking for some unknown reason did not like the theory of the Higgs, when she was still pure theory, and at some point made a bet with physicist Gordon Kane $ 100 that the Higgs boson would never be discovered experimentally.
Kane was engaged in search of ways to detect the Higgs boson. The method of Kane (and his colleagues) worked on the Large hadron Collider on March 14, 2013. Higgs received the Nobel prize, Kane – $ 100, and frustrated Hawking said that physics has become far less interesting and that the Higgs boson carries the threat of annihilation from the collapse of the quantum vacuum.
In these concerns he is not alone, but fortunately, if the universe dies, she will die at the speed of light, and we won’t notice his own death.
Author: Yuri Ammosov
* editorial opinion may not coincide with the opinion of the author
In the preparation of this article was used the information from the following sources: physicsworld.com, nature.com, iflscience.com, futureoflife.org, livescience.com, cosmosmagazine.com
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