Kenneth Glad
Modern physics has long struggled with a contradiction at the heart of black holes. The laws governing the very large and the very small appear to clash under extreme conditions. A new theoretical proposal does not resolve that tension outright. Instead, it suggests the problem may lie in how reality itself is described.
Stephen Hawking’s discovery that black holes emit radiation reshaped scientific thinking in the 20th century. Over time, that process would cause them to evaporate completely.
According to the Daily Mail citing a study published in General Relativity and Gravitation, this creates a fundamental issue. If a black hole disappears, the information it once contained seems to vanish with it, contradicting quantum theory.
Other ideas have attempted to bridge this gap. Concepts such as the holographic principle suggest information is preserved on a boundary, while the firewall hypothesis questions what happens at the event horizon. None has settled the matter, and debate continues.
Twists in spacetime
The new study, developed by researchers in Denmark and Slovakia, approaches the problem from a different angle. The authors propose that spacetime may have additional structure beyond what is عادة assumed.
Before introducing extra dimensions, the model emphasizes a lesser-known feature: torsion. Unlike curvature, which describes how spacetime bends, torsion refers to a kind of twisting that could emerge under extreme gravitational conditions.
Within this framework, the researchers then extend spacetime to seven dimensions. Three of these would be compact and effectively hidden.
Co-author Richard Pinčák of the Slovak Academy of Sciences said:
“We experience three dimensions of space and one of time – four dimensions in total. Our model proposes that the universe actually has seven dimensions: The four we know, plus three additional tiny dimensions, curved so tightly that we cannot perceive them directly.”
According to the authors, this combination of extra dimensions and torsion changes how black holes evolve at very small scales.
A possible outcome
The model suggests that complete evaporation may never occur. Instead, as a black hole shrinks, these underlying geometric effects could halt the process.
Pinčák offered an analogy: “Imagine throwing a book into a fire. The book is destroyed, but, in principle, you could reconstruct every word from the smoke, ash and heat – the information is scrambled, not lost.”
In this context, the comparison highlights the expectation in quantum theory that information persists, even if transformed.
Applied to black holes, the authors propose that a tiny remnant could remain. This object, theoretically far smaller than an electron, may retain the information that fell into the black hole. Whether that idea holds up is another question.
The same framework has been tentatively linked to other open problems, including the origin of particle mass and the nature of dark matter.
The connection is speculative, but it points to a broader ambition: a unified explanation rooted in spacetime geometry.
For now, the theory remains untested. Researchers are examining indirect signals, from cosmic background radiation to primordial gravitational waves.
If confirmed, the implications would be far-reaching. If not, it will join a long list of attempts to reconcile gravity with quantum mechanics.
Sources: Daily Mail, General Relativity and Gravitation
