Dr. Stephen Hawking has theorized that data can escape from black holes due to zero-energy particles located in the horizon of the “eternal prisons.” The 74-year-old physicist has published a peer-reviewed paper with new findings of this mysterious places in space.

According to the National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA), black holes are places where gravity is so high that “even light can not get out”. According to Professor Hawking, this might not be true at all, since some information may be able to “return out of the black hole”.

The theoretical physicist of Cambridge said in January that he might had discovered the right key for solving the “information paradox,” as reported by the Daily Mail. He explained that black holes might liquidate and retain information at the same time.

Dr. Stephen Hawking has theorized that data can escape from black holes due to zero-energy particles located in the horizon of the “eternal prisons." Photo credit: Futurism
Dr. Stephen Hawking has theorized that data can escape from black holes due to zero-energy particles located in the horizon of the “eternal prisons.” Photo credit: Futurism

‘Soft Hair on Black Holes’ is the continuation of consistent investigation by Professor Hawking

The paper called “Soft Hair on Black Holes” was published online on arXiv. Earlier in the week, Professor Hawking made a lecture of the publication at Harvard University.  His new work is the continuation of the theories he proposed in the 1970s.

Professor Hawking said at Harvard that black holes are not eternal prisons anymore, according to the New York Times. He poetically told attendees through his robotic voice, that if they ever feel trapped into a black hole, they should not give up, because there might be a way out.

Hawking said nearly five decades ago that black holes are capable of emitting particles. The energy lost during the same process would lead black holes to reduce their size and disappear, said the Daily Mail.

Professor Hawking is now talking about ‘grey’ holes

The theoretical physicist has updated his theory, adding that “grey holes” contain energy and matter for an indefinite period, which then returns to space. Scientists have questioned during four decades if information that enters into a black hole disappears forever or not.

According to Professor Hawking, there are zero-energy  “quantum particles” lying on the horizon of black holes. They may be able to retain information left by particles entering into the same black hole.

In other words, particles may disappear while their information is held in “soft hair quantum particles.” Hawking compared the phenomenon to exploring a burned encyclopedia, said the New York Times. The information would not be extinct, but would be hard to obtain.

Researchers Stephen Hawking, Professor Andrew Strominger and others, said that they have analyzed the black hole information paradox again, due to new findings of “the infrared structure of quantum gravity.”

“An explicit description has been given of a few of the pixels in the holographic plate at the future boundary of the horizon. Some information is accessibly stored on these pixels in the form of soft photons and gravitons,” concluded researchers in the paper.

The black hole information paradox is still an open challenge

Authors have remarked that the information paradox “remains an open challenge.” However, new findings and tools presented by the team lead by Professor Hawking provide further information to understand the theory better.

The paradox was reconsidered given that new conservation laws determine the usual conception of conservation of electric charge, said Physics.org. Professor Strominger, the co-author of the study, told the Scientific American that the process would resemble a recording device.

“We show that when a charged particle goes in, it adds a soft photon to the black hole. So it adds hair to the black hole. And more generally if any particle goes in—because all particles carry mass and are coupled to gravity—they always add a soft graviton. So there’s a kind of recording device,” Strominger said.

Professor Strominger added that further investigation needs to determine if “soft hair” can retain information from every particle that enters into the black hole. If it turns out to be true, “soft hair” would be the equivalent of a signature, registering everything disappears into the mysterious region.

Other scientists are backing up Professor Hawking’s theories

Strominger hopes that new investigations about soft hair would finally solve the information paradox as reported by the Scientific American. Other scientists are supporting Hawking’s theories, saying that particles issued by black holes may contain information about what they have swallowed.

Dejan Stojkovic, professor of physics at the University of Buffalo, stated that information that enters into a black hole is not completely lost. He has explained his new findings using mathematical equations.

The team who proposed the “soft hair” is now conducting the same investigation, but taking gravity into account, instead of electromagnetic fields. Unlike Hawking, Professor Stojkovic analyzes interactions between particles, said the U.K. Daily Mail.

Black holes are a fascinating space phenomenon, which attracts thousands of scientists and astronomers. According to NASA, they are invisible, although some space telescopes with high-end technology are capable of identifying them.

A theory proposes that every galaxy has a supermassive black hole, whose masses are bigger than 1 million suns combined. The one located at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy is called Sagittarius.

Source: The Daily Mail