Could we harness energy from black holes?

我们可以利用黑洞中的能量吗？

by Carla Cantor, Columbia University

哥伦比亚大学卡拉·坎特

Plasma close to the event horizon about to be devoured by a rotating black hole. Credit: Classical And Quantum Gravity, 2015. Reproduced By Permission of IOP Publishing

接近事件视界的等离子体将被旋转的黑洞吞噬。图片来源：Classic and Quantum Gravity，2015年。

A remarkable prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity—the theory that connects space, time, and gravity—is that rotating black holes have enormous amounts of energy available to be tapped.

爱因斯坦的广义相对论（将空间，时间和引力联系起来的理论）的一个杰出预言是，旋转的黑洞有大量可利用的能量。

For the last 50 years, scientists have tried to come up with methods to unleash this power. Nobel physicist Roger Penrose theorized that a particle disintegration could draw energy from a black hole; Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes could release energy through quantum mechanical emission; while Roger Blandford and Roman Znajek suggested electromagnetic torque as a main agent of energy extraction.

在过去的50年中，科学家们试图想出释放这种力量的方法。诺贝尔物理学家罗杰·彭罗斯（Roger Penrose）提出了一种理论，即粒子崩解可能会从黑洞中吸收能量。史蒂芬·霍金（Stephen Hawking）提出黑洞可以通过量子机械发射来释放能量。而罗杰·布兰福德（Roger Blandford）和罗曼·扎纳克（Roman Znajek）则建议将电磁转矩作为能量提取的主要手段。

Now, in a study published in the journal Physical Review D, physicists Luca Comisso from Columbia University and Felipe Asenjo from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile, found a new way to extract energy from black holes by breaking and rejoining magnetic field lines near the event horizon, the point from which nothing, not even light, can escape the black hole's gravitational pull.

现在，在《物理评论D》（Physical Review D）杂志上发表的一项研究中，哥伦比亚大学的物理学家Luca Comisso和智利阿道夫·伊巴内斯大学的Felipe Asenjo找到了一种新的方法，可以通过打破并重新结合事件视界附近的磁场线来从黑洞中提取能量。 ，一点，甚至没有光都无法逃离黑洞的引力。

"Black holes are commonly surrounded by a hot 'soup' of plasma particles that carry a magnetic field," said Luca Comisso, research scientist at Columbia University and first author on the study.

哥伦比亚大学研究科学家，该研究的第一作者卢卡·科米索（Luca Comisso）表示：“黑洞通常被带有磁场的等离子颗粒的热'汤'包围着。”

"Our theory shows that when magnetic field lines disconnect and reconnect, in just the right way, they can accelerate plasma particles to negative energies and large amounts of black hole energy can be extracted."

“我们的理论表明，当磁场线以正确的方式断开和重新连接时，它们可以将等离子体粒子加速为负能量，并且可以提取出大量的黑洞能量。”

This finding could allow astronomers to better estimate the spin of black holes, drive black hole energy emissions, and might even provide a source of energy for the needs of an advanced civilization, Comisso said.

Comisso说，这一发现可以使天文学家更好地估计黑洞的自旋，驱动黑洞的能量排放，甚至可以为先进文明的需求提供能量来源。

Comisso and Asenjo built their theory on the premise that reconnecting magnetic fields accelerates plasma particles in two different directions. One plasma flow is pushed against the black hole's spin, while the other is propelled in the spin's direction and can escape the clutches of the black hole, which releases power if the plasma swallowed by the black hole has negative energy.

Comisso和Asenjo建立理论的前提是重新连接磁场会在两个不同的方向上加速等离子体粒子。一种等离子流被推向黑洞的自旋，而另一种则沿自旋的方向推进，可以逃离黑洞的离合器，如果黑洞吞下的等离子具有负能量，则释放动力。

"It is like a person could lose weight by eating candy with negative calories," said Comisso, who explained that essentially a black hole loses energy by eating negative- energy particles. "This might sound weird," he said, "but it can happen in a region called the ergosphere, where the spacetime continuum rotates so fast that every object spins in the same direction as the black hole."

Comisso说：“就像一个人通过吃负热量的糖果可以减轻体重一样。”他解释说，黑洞本质上是通过吃负能量粒子而失去能量的。他说：“这听起来可能很奇怪，但是它可能发生在一个称为“遍及地球”的区域，在该区域中，时空连续体旋转得如此之快，以至于每个物体都以与黑洞相同的方向旋转。”

Inside the ergosphere, magnetic reconnection is so extreme that the plasma particles are accelerated to velocities approaching the speed of light.

在人体工圈内部，磁性重新连接非常极端，以致等离子体粒子被加速到接近光速的速度。

Asenjo, professor of physics at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and coauthor on the study, explained that the high relative velocity between captured and escaping plasma streams is what allows the proposed process to extract massive amounts of energy from the black hole.

阿道夫·伊巴涅斯大学的物理学教授，该研究的合著者阿森霍解释说，被捕获和逃逸的等离子体流之间的高相对速度是使拟议的过程能够从黑洞中提取大量能量的原因。

"We calculated that the process of plasma energization can reach an efficiency of 150 percent, much higher than any power plant operating on Earth," Asenjo said. "Achieving an efficiency greater than 100 percent is possible because black holes leak energy, which is given away for free to the plasma escaping from the black hole."

“我们计算出，等离子体通电过程的效率可以达到150％，远高于地球上运行的任何发电厂，” Asenjo说。 “由于黑洞会泄漏能量，因此有可能获得大于100％的效率，而能量会免费释放给从黑洞逸出的等离子体。”

The process of energy extraction envisioned by Comisso and Asenjo might be already operating in a large number of black holes. That may be what is driving black hole flares—powerful bursts of radiation that can be detected from Earth.

Comisso和Asenjo设想的能量提取过程可能已经在大量黑洞中运行。这可能是造成黑洞耀斑的原因-可以从地球探测到的强大的辐射爆发。

"Our increased knowledge of how magnetic reconnection occurs in the vicinity of the black hole might be crucial for guiding our interpretation of current and future

“我们对黑洞附近如何发生磁重新连接的了解增加，对于指导我们对当前和未来的解释至关重要。

telescope observations of black holes, such as the ones by the Event Horizon Telescope," Asenjo said.

望远镜观测黑洞，例如事件地平线望远镜的黑洞。”

While it may sound like the stuff of science fiction, mining energy from black holes could be the answer to our future power needs.

虽然这听起来像是科幻小说，但从黑洞中开采能量可能会满足我们未来的电力需求。

"Thousands or millions of years from now, humanity might be able to survive around a black hole without harnessing energy from stars," Comisso said. "It is essentially a technological problem. If we look at the physics, there is nothing that prevents it."

科米索说：“从现在起的数千年或数百万年中，人类可能能够在不利用恒星能量的情况下在黑洞附近生存。” “这本质上是一个技术问题。如果我们看物理学，没有什么可以阻止它的。”

The study, Magnetic reconnection as a mechanism for energy extraction from rotating black holes, was funded by the National Science Foundation's Windows on the Universe initiative, NASA, and Chile's National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development.

这项名为“磁重连接作为从旋转黑洞中提取能量的机制的研究”，是由美国国家科学基金会的“宇宙之窗”计划，美国国家航空航天局和智利国家科学和技术发展基金会资助的。

Vyacheslav (Slava) Lukin, a program director at NSF, said the Foundation aims to catalyzes new theoretical efforts based on frontier observations at facilities such as the EHT, bringing together theoretical physics and observational astronomy under one roof.

NSF的项目主管Vyacheslav（Slava）Lukin表示，基金会的目标是基于EHT等设施的前沿观测，促进新的理论工作，将理论物理学和观测天文学融合在一起。

"We look forward to the potential translation of seemingly esoteric studies of black hole astrophysics into the practical realm," Lukin said.

卢金说：“我们期待着将黑洞天体物理学似乎深奥的研究潜在地转化为实际领域。”

"The ideas and concepts discussed in this work are truly fascinating," said Vyacheslav (Slava) Lukin, a program director at the National Science Foundation. He said NSF aims to catalyze new theoretical efforts based on frontier observations, bringing together theoretical physics and observational astronomy under one roof.

国家科学基金会项目负责人维亚切斯拉夫（Slava）卢金说：“这项工作中讨论的想法和概念确实令人着迷。”他说，国家科学基金会的目的是基于前沿观测，促进新的理论工作，将理论物理学和观测天文学融合在一起。

"We look forward to the potential translation of seemingly esoteric studies of black hole astrophysics into the practical realm," he added.

他补充说：“我们期待将似乎深奥的黑洞天体物理学研究转化为实际领域。”

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来源于：phys