June 25, 2017
WE ARE ALL DESIGNIST NOW:
TWO CONJECTURES COLLIDE, ENDANGERING THE NAKED SINGULARITY (NATALIE WOLCHOVER, 06.25.17, Wired)
PHYSICISTS HAVE WONDERED for decades whether infinitely dense points known as singularities can ever exist outside black holes, which would expose the mysteries of quantum gravity for all to see. Singularities--snags in the otherwise smooth fabric of space and time where Albert Einstein's classical gravity theory breaks down and the unknown quantum theory of gravity is needed--seem to always come cloaked in darkness, hiding from view behind the event horizons of black holes. The British physicist and mathematician Sir Roger Penrose conjectured in 1969 that visible or "naked" singularities are actually forbidden from forming in nature, in a kind of cosmic censorship. But why should quantum gravity censor itself?Now, new theoretical calculations provide a possible explanation for why naked singularities do not exist--in a particular model universe, at least.
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 25, 2017 8:19 AM