56-year-old theory is proven right as 'Black Hole bomb' explodes in a lab

In a huge breakthrough, physicists have created and exploded the first-ever black hole bomb in a laboratory. This comes after it was first proposed by renowned physicist Roger Penrose over 50 years ago. He suggested in 1969 that energy could be pulled from a rotating black hole. The experiment is only a “toy model,” but scientists involved in it say that it works under the same physical laws as a real black hole.

Penrose proposed that if energy were injected into the ergosphere—the area just outside a black hole's event horizon—particles could split. One fragment carrying negative energy could fall into the black hole, while the other could exit, stealing some of the black hole's energy.

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"The trick to obtain this result is that the black hole absorbs negative energy, which leads to a reduction in its mass-energy, which translates into a decrease in its rotational speed," Jorge Pinochet, professor in the physics department of the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, wrote in a recent preprint paper. 

"In other words, we have extracted rotational energy from the black hole."

The black hole bomb builds on Penrose's theory, leading to an explosive event, albeit one that is controlled and safe.

In 1971, Belarusian physicist Yakov Zel’dovich proposed mimicking the real action of a black hole in a lab. He theorised that a rotating metal cylinder could amplify waves like a real black hole. When a wave hits a fast-spinning cylinder, it could get reflected back stronger and steal a little energy. 

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He also proposed surrounding the cylinder with a mirror for a runaway feedback loop. This mirror set-up would create a black hole bomb. 

Researchers at the University of Southampton, led by Hendrik Ulbricht and including Marion Cromb, have achieved what Zel’dovich proposed. The scientists built a rotating system using a simple aluminium cylinder that was similar to a spinning black hole in space. They also made a three-phase magnetic field. It helped create conditions wherein the cylinder’s rotation could amplify electromagnetic waves.

They added an electromagnetic "mirror" around the cylinder, which triggered something extraordinary. The electromagnetic waves began to grow stronger and stronger, and the runaway growth replicated the scene near a real black hole bomb.

“We’re basically generating a signal from noise, and that is the same thing that happens in the black hole bomb proposal,” said Ulbricht.

The creation of a black hole bomb on Earth will help scientists learn about the mysterious behaviour of spinning black holes.