The physics of the early Universe remains a mystery to scientists
Three European researchers believe they have found a way to see Hawking radiation. Black hole mergers have been predicted a long time ago, but have never been observed. The theory showed that these radiations should generate powerful gravitational waves.
In their research brief, the scientists note that these mergers provide a window into Hawking radiation (HR). When black holes merge, they can form what are called shallow black holes, the size of asteroids, which are ejected into space. Their small size should allow their HR to be determined.
The radiation emanating from these small BHs generates gamma rays with a special “fingerprint” of their origin. from high energy photons.
“In this letter, we explore the observational consequences of the production of a large number of small black hole particles during a catastrophic event, such as the merger of two astrophysical black holes,” — scientists explain.
The fact is that when black hole particles evaporate, they emit particles in a spherically symmetrical manner. As long as the larger combined black holes do not block the view, the HR particles should reach Earth. The photon energy from the bursts exceeds a trillion electron volts.
The researchers note that the energy level of gamma-ray bursts from these small holes can be detected using atmospheric telescopes such as the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory. HAWC observes photons in the range from 100 GeV to 100 TeV.
The authors indicate that these particles will emit the most energy near the time they evaporate. But when the particles are viewed under the intense gravity of a black hole merger, their Hawking radiation may be affected.
“There are times in the standard model of particle physics when, due to our lack of understanding, something goes wrong. Some new physical phenomena that have not been observed before may also distort the spectra of small black holes, making them difficult to observe,” — astronomers say.
These small asteroid-sized black holes have another really interesting aspect. According to experts, since physics was different in the very early Universe, it is possible that they appeared then. If so, and if they have not evaporated by now, they could form dark matter.
«Observing Hawking radiation from black hole particles could shed light not only on the production of such particles, but also on physics elementary particles with energies inaccessible to current and future collider experiments, which bear the imprint of new physics based on supersymmetry, complex dynamics or extra dimensions, to name a few,” — the authors conclude.
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