Scientists use black hole quantum computing to understand the holographic universe

In a recent study, scientists have suggested that understanding what happens inside a black hole and even other dimensions of the universe may be possible through quantum calculations on the particles around the black hole.

What happens inside a black hole? And how does what happens inside a black hole relate to the world outside it? This is a mystery that scientists have not answered for decades. A secret that could redefine the way we think about the nature of the universe.

In a paper published February 10 in the journal PRX Quantum, physicists used quantum computers and machine learning, the computing technology at the core of facial recognition and natural language processing software, to test the possible connection.

Black holes operate based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which describes the universe at large scales. But the tiny particles outside the black hole operate according to the laws of the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes the universe at the smallest scale.

There is little overlap and many differences between these two descriptive systems. Enrico Rinaldi, a physicist at the University of Michigan and Japan‘s RIKEN Research Institute and lead author of the paper, said: “The connection between these two different theories is a long-standing problem in physics, something that people have been trying to solve since the last century. “

One hypothesis that might link the two theories is the idea that the motions of particles in the two-dimensional plane above the black hole are almost like a holographic projection of the black hole’s three-dimensional motions. A concept known as holographic duality.

To visualize this, think of the effect of a black hole, which distorts space-time due to its enormous mass. A black hole’s gravity, which exists in three dimensions, is mathematically coupled to the particles moving above it in two dimensions. So a black hole exists in a three-dimensional space, but we predict it through the two-dimensional motion of particles.

In this way, “Holographic Duality” is actually a mathematical conjecture that connects the theories of particles and their interaction with the theory of gravity. This conjecture shows that the theory of gravity and the theory of particles are mathematically equivalent and what happens mathematically in gravity also happens in the theory of particles and vice versa.

Researchers hope to test this. First, they use a quantum computer to simulate the particles that represent a black hole, and then use machine learning to analyze the way the particles interact with each other. The researchers hope that this process will give them insight into how particles and black holes work. “We hope to learn something about gravity by understanding the properties of this particle theory through numerical experiments,” Rinaldi said.

Quantum matrix models are representations of particle theory, and considering that holographic duality shows that what happens in one system is also effective in another, solving such quantum matrices can reveal information about gravity.

This is important because holographic duality can even go beyond three dimensions. Some scientists even suggest that the universe could be a hologram, in fact an image of something larger. It seems like a complicated topic, but the new method can be a way to know more about it.

Cover photo: a graphic design of a black hole
Credit: Interstellar/Paramount Pictures

Sources: Space, Futurity