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Physicists at Sussex University found in the first scientific way that black holes put pressure on their surroundings.



In 1974 Stephen Hawking found that black holes generate heat radiation. Previously, black holes, the last steps of a massive dying star, were supposed to be inactive.



The experts from the University of Sussex have shown that they are even more complicated thermodynamic systems with a temperature and a pressure.



Professor Xavier Calmet and Folkert Kuipers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sussex discovered a fortuitous discovery published today in the Physical Review D.

 

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Calmet and Kuipers were puzzled by another figure who presented in mathematics that they were correcting the entropy of a black hole using quantum gravity.



During a discussion of the odd outcome on Christmas Day 2020, you realized that what you saw was acting like pressure. They verified their intriguing discovery after additional simulations that quantum gravity may cause anxiety in black holes.



Xavier Calmet, University of Sussex Professor of Physics, commented: "Our conclusion that Schwarzschild black holes contain pressures and temperatures is even more thrilling since it was a complete surprise. I am pleased that the study we are doing at the University of Sussex on quantum gravity has helped scientists understand black holes' nature more broadly.



"Hawking's seminal insight that black holes are not black but have a range of radiation which is remarkably close to that of a black body makes black holes a perfect laboratory for research into the interaction of quantum, gravity and thermodynamics.



"If you examine black holes inside general relativity, you may demonstrate that they are unique in their cores where physics rules must break apart, as we know them. It is anticipated that we may discover a novel explanation of black holes when the quantum field theory is integrated into general relativity.



"Our work is a step in that direction, and although the pressure of the black hole we studied is little, the fact that this is there opens up many new possibilities, including the study of astrophysics, particle physics and quantum physics."



Folkert Kuipers, the doctorate researcher at the University of Sussex's Mathematical and Physical Science School, said: 'It is thrilling to develop a finding that promotes our knowledge of black holes, particularly as a research student.



"After many months of struggling, the pin-drop moment when we discovered that the mysterious result in our calculations told us that the black hole we studied was thrilling.



"Our discovery is a product of our state of the art research on quantum physics at Sussex University and sheds a fresh light on the quantum nature of black holes"