Black holes remain one of the most mysterious objects in the Universe. Scientists can describe their influence on the surrounding space, but still cannot explain what happens inside the black hole itself, where, according to calculations, conditions with "infinite" density and gravity arise. The mystery could be solved by the theory of quantum gravity, which should combine two fundamental theories of physics, but so far it exists only in the form of hypotheses. Sergey Sazonov, head of the laboratory of experimental astrophysics at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, revealed the details.
Scientists are trying to connect two different worldviews
According to the specialist, it is precisely to solve this problem that physicists are developing the theory of quantum gravity. It should combine two different approaches to describing the Universe.
On the one hand, there is the general theory of relativity, created by Albert Einstein, which explains gravity through the curvature of space-time and works on the scales of planets, stars, and galaxies.
On the other hand, quantum mechanics describes the behavior of the smallest particles and processes of the microworld.
As Sazonov noted, today these two theories work successfully separately, but in the conditions of a black hole, they collide with each other - and so far scientists do not know how to combine them.
According to modern concepts, everything that crosses the boundary of a black hole must eventually fall into its central region - the singularity. It is there that mathematical calculations lead to values that are called infinite: the density of matter, the force of gravity, and the curvature of space-time.
It is now believed that everything that falls into it eventually reaches the central point, and there formally everything should be infinite: density, gravity, curvature of space. Some mixing of space and time occurs. This is something completely incomprehensible. What it is, we have no idea yet, and for this, these two theories need to be combined: general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Einstein's theory works even in everyday technologies
At the same time, the general theory of relativity has been confirmed by experiments and used in practice for more than a hundred years.
Sazonov noted that without taking into account the effects of this theory, it would be impossible to work accurately with navigation systems such as GPS and GLONASS. The fact is that the Earth's gravity affects the passage of time and the movement of satellites, so these corrections must be taken into account.