By generating a quantum tornado using superfluid helium, scientists were able to reproduce certain conditions similar to the environment of a black hole.
To better understand black holes, what’s better than generating a quantum tornado, after all? This is what physicists report in their study published on March 20, 2024.
By “quantum tornado,” we mean more precisely a giant whirlwind in superfluid helium cooled to the lowest possible temperatures — at -271 degrees Celsius (which is close to absolute zero). Why are these conditions favorable for the study of black holes?
A quantum tornado to study black holes
Under these extreme conditions, the wave dynamics on the surface of superfluid helium are close to gravitational conditions in the region of a rotating black hole. And as is often the case, to study black holes, you must first be interested in what is around them — and in particular the way in which they influence the space-time that surrounds them.
“ Superfluid helium contains tiny objects called quantum vortices, which tend to move away from each other “, explains Dr Patrik Svancara, the lead author of the study. “ In our facility, we have succeeded in confining tens of thousands of these quanta in a compact object resembling a small tornado, thus obtaining a swirling flow of record strength in the field of quantum fluids. »
A first similar experiment, carried out in 2017, demonstrated to these physicists that they were on the right track. This new laboratory installation, based on helium, “ takes this research to the next level » explain the authors.
This study, based at the University of Nottingham, therefore creates a new experimental platform to continue to unravel the mysteries of black holes, and “ understand some of the bizarre phenomena that are often difficult, if not impossible, to study otherwise “. This comes, for example, in addition to the very first photos taken of these strange cosmic objects.
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