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The incredible first image of a black hole, which was captured in 2019, has helped to learn more about the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein. With this finding was born a huge support to that of the scientist. We tell you how the first photo of a black hole supports the theory of relativity of Einstein.
Despite his successes, Einstein’s solid theory – the idea that gravity is matter deforming space-time – remains mathematically irreconcilable with quantum mechanics, the scientific understanding of the subatomic world.
Proving general relativity is important because the ultimate theory of the universe must cover both gravity and quantum mechanics.
“We expect a complete theory of gravity to be different from general relativity, but there are many ways to modify it. We discovered that whatever the correct theory is, it cannot be significantly different from general relativity when it comes to holes. blacks. We really reduced the space for possible modifications, “says Dimitrios Psaltis, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona, who until recently was a scientist for the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration project.
Psaltis is the lead author of a new article in Physical Review Letters. which details the findings of the researchers.
“This is a new way to test general relativity using supermassive black holes,” said Keiichi Rostida, a member of EHT’s scientific board and an expert on black hole radio observations for the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics Academy. Sinic.
To perform the test, the team used the first image ever taken of the supermassive black hole in the center of the nearby galaxy M87 obtained with the EHT last year.
Early results had shown that the shadow size of the black hole was consistent with the size predicted by general relativity.
“At this point, we couldn’t ask the opposite question: How different can a theory of the gravity of general relativity be and still be consistent with the size of the shadow?” said Pierre Christian, a member of Arizona administrator theory. “We wondered if there was anything we could do with these observations to rule out some of the alternatives.”
The team did a very broad analysis of many modifications to the theory of general relativity to identify the unique feature of a theory of gravity that determines the size of the shadow of a black hole.
“In this way, we can now point out whether any alternative to general relativity agrees with the observations of the Event Horizon Telescope, without worrying about any other details,” said Lia Medeiros, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study that has been part of the EHT collaboration since his time as a graduate student at UArizona.
The team focused on the range of alternatives that had passed all previous tests in the solar system.
“Using the meter we developed, we showed that the measured size of the black hole shadow in M87 reduces the room for maneuver by modifications to Einstein’s theory of general relativity by almost a factor of 500, compared with previous tests in the solar system, ”said Feryal Özel, an Arizona astrophysics professor who is a senior member of the EHT collaboration.
“Many ways to modify general relativity fail in this new and stricter test of black hole shadows.”
“Black hole images provide a whole new angle to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity,” said Michael Kramer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and a member of the EHT collaboration.
“Along with gravitational wave observations, this marks the beginning of a new era in black hole astrophysics,” Psaltis said.
The EHT team then expects more accurate images to be captured by its expanded range of telescopes, which includes the Greenland Telescope, the 12-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona and the Northern Extended Millimeter Array Observatory in France. .
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