Could black holes be portals to other parts of the universe? Is it possible that they are wormholes linking different parts of the universe? The answers to these questions are a resounding no, according to a recent study. Black holes are complex creatures. They have continually defied physics, and studying them has made us realize how limited our understanding is. The Information Paradox is a critical issue. Because matter cannot escape black holes, once something enters, its information is lost forever.
In physics, that is a massive no-no. One of the topics on which the late Stephen Hawking concentrated was the Information Paradox. His and others’ research led to the realization that black holes vanish but the information is maintained in some way. Understanding how this happens could key in the search for a theory of gravity that unifies quantum mechanics and gravity. String theory is one method that this titanic effort is being attempted. The fundamental components of the universe, according to string theory, are vibrating strings. Although there is no proof that this is the ultimate theory of nature, its ability to solve significant unresolved questions in physics has piqued the interest of many.
There have been several proposals in string theory to answer the Information Paradox, including the hypothesis that black holes are wormholes, a hypothetical construct prominent in science fiction. Wormholes are a hypothetical link between two points in space-time, however, there is no proof that they exist. In string theory, black holes are viewed as “fuzzballs,” or untidy structures that exude energy, according to another theory (and thus information). According to this theory, black holes are mostly empty, with their entire mass concentrated in a singularity at their center. They are stringy structures with a lot of complexity.
Professor Samir Mathur of Ohio State University noted in a statement that “what we found from string theory is that all of a black hole’s mass does not get pulled towards the core.” “The black hole tries to push things to a point, but the particles are stretched into these strings, and the threads stretch and grow, and it becomes this fuzzball that expands to fill the black hole entirely.” Professor Mathur, who proposed the concept of black holes as fuzzballs 18 years ago, tested both the fuzzball hypothesis and the wormhole paradigm. Mathur and colleagues decided the wormhole strategy does not work in their research published in the Turkish Journal of Physics.
“We found that the physics was inconsistent in each of the variations proposed for the wormhole approach,” Mathur added. “The wormhole paradigm seeks to show that the black hole might still be thought of as effectively empty with all the mass in the core in some fashion. And the theorems we present prove that such a whole picture isn’t possible.” The research is exciting, but whether string theory is the correct approach to describe reality is still up for debate. Therefore, unlike wormholes and fuzzballs, black holes may more strangers, alternatively maybe not.
