Audio Edition: Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes
5/28/202613 min
According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, black holes have only a small handful of distinguishing characteristics. Quantum theory implies they may have more. Now an experimental search finds that any of this extra ‘hair’ has to be pretty short.
The story Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes first appeared on Quanta Magazine.
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSusan Valot· Host0:00
[instrumental music] Welcome to the Quanta Audio Edition. In each of these biweekly episodes, we bring you a story direct from the Quanta website about developments in basic science and mathematics. I'm Susan Valot. Why are physicists interested in whether black holes have hair or no hair? The answer to this question will reveal whether Einstein's theory of gravity is correct. That's next. [instrumental music] Check out this feed every Tuesday for the Quanta Podcast. That's where editor-in-chief Samir Patel talks to our writers and editors about more of Quanta's most popular, interesting, and thought-provoking stories. [instrumental music] According to Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, the behavior of a black hole depends on two numbers: how heavy it is and how fast it's rotating, and that's it. Black holes are said to have no hair, meaning no features that distinguish them from other black holes with the same mass and spin. With new data, it started to become possible to test this no-hair conjecture. Astronomers have detected hundreds of signals from colliding black holes over the past decade. In these dramatic events,