Quantum gravity is important in those situations where gravity is so extremely strong that it has effects on the quantum scale, where the other forces are ordinarily much stronger. The early universe was such a place, but black holes are another. The first significant connection between gravity and quantum effects was made by the Russian physicist Yakov Zel’dovich in 1971, and other significant advances followed from the British physicist Stephen Hawking. (See
[link] .) These two showed that black holes could radiate away energy by quantum effects just outside the event horizon (nothing can escape from inside the event horizon). Black holes are, thus, expected to radiate energy and shrink to nothing, although extremely slowly for most black holes. The mechanism is the creation of a particle-antiparticle pair from energy in the extremely strong gravitational field near the event horizon. One member of the pair falls into the hole and the other escapes, conserving momentum. (See
[link] .) When a black hole loses energy and, hence, rest mass, its event horizon shrinks, creating an even greater gravitational field. This increases the rate of pair production so that the process grows exponentially until the black hole is nuclear in size. A final burst of particles and
rays ensues. This is an extremely slow process for black holes about the mass of the Sun (produced by supernovas) or larger ones (like those thought to be at galactic centers), taking on the order of
years or longer! Smaller black holes would evaporate faster, but they are only speculated to exist as remnants of the Big Bang. Searches for characteristic
-ray bursts have produced events attributable to more mundane objects like neutron stars accreting matter.
This Hubble Space Telescope photograph shows the extremely energetic core of the NGC 4261 galaxy. With the superior resolution of the orbiting telescope, it has been possible to observe the rotation of an accretion disk around the energy-producing object as well as to map jets of material being ejected from the object. A supermassive black hole is consistent with these observations, but other possibilities are not quite eliminated. (credit: NASA and ESA)The control room of the LIGO gravitational wave detector. Gravitational waves will cause extremely small vibrations in a mass in this detector, which will be detected by laser interferometer techniques. Such detection in coincidence with other detectors and with astronomical events, such as supernovas, would provide direct evidence of gravitational waves. (credit: Tobin Fricke)Stephen Hawking (b. 1942) has made many contributions to the theory of quantum gravity. Hawking is a long-time survivor of ALS and has produced popular books on general relativity, cosmology, and quantum gravity. (credit: Lwp Kommunikáció)Gravity and quantum mechanics come into play when a black hole creates a particle-antiparticle pair from the energy in its gravitational field. One member of the pair falls into the hole while the other escapes, removing energy and shrinking the black hole. The search is on for the characteristic energy.
