Physicists have successfully recreated some of the extreme physics of black holes inside a laboratory by building a stationary device that can copy the effects of impossible rotational speeds.The achievement confirms a theoretical idea suggested more than half a century ago by Sir Roger Penrose, who proposed that energy could be taken from a rapidly spinning black hole. Instead of using moving parts, researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) used artificial rotation to recreate this cosmic energy process in a controlled laboratory setting.The discovery, published in the journal Nature, takes a long-standing idea from science fiction into practical physics. The laboratory model avoids the physical limits of mechanical machines and could help create new technologies in wireless communication, advanced optics and quantum computing.
Breaking the speed limits of materials
In 1969, Penrose suggested that if a particle entered a black hole’s ergosphere, a strange region where the black hole’s rotation pulls space and time around with it, the particle could split into two parts. One part would fall beyond the point of no return, while the other could escape with more energy than the original particle had.Physicist Yakov Zel’dovich later expanded this idea by showing that light and radio waves could also gain energy and become stronger if they bounced off an object rotating at extremely high speeds.For decades, scientists could not test this idea in a laboratory using real movement because solid materials would break apart under the extreme forces needed to copy black hole-like rotation. To overcome this problem, the CUNY ASRC team created a completely still radio frequency ring made from specially designed metamaterials.Instead of physically spinning the device, researchers used carefully timed changes in the electrical properties of electronic components placed around the ring. This controlled timing created a moving wave pattern that copied the physics of an object rotating faster than the speed of light.“Our approach facilitates a new method of wave-matter interaction in which waves with selected rotational properties extract energy from synthetic time-engineered rotation, producing a form of broadband selective amplification,” said principal investigator Andrea Alù, Distinguished Professor and Einstein Professor of Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center and founding director of the CUNY ASRC’s Photonics Initiative.
CUNY physicists recreate black hole energy extraction in a historic lab experiment
Creating energy through artificial motion
The main part of the experiment depended on how electromagnetic waves reacted inside this artificial environment. When radio waves with certain rotational features entered the stationary ring, they interacted with the changing pattern created by the researchers. The waves gained energy from the artificial motion of the system and became stronger.“Waves with the appropriate rotational characteristics extracted energy from the system and became amplified, reproducing the essential physics of the Penrose-Zel’dovich process,” said co-lead author Hady Moussa, a former PhD student with the CUNY ASRC Photonics Initiative. “Our approach relies on engineered metamaterials that are designed to control how waves propagate.”By removing the need for actual physical rotation, this experiment gives scientists a safe way to study natural laws that normally occur near the edges of black holes.“This successful experiment moves ideas about extreme rotational dynamics from theory to practice and creates a versatile experimental platform for exploring a broad range of phenomena at the intersection of astrophysics, wave physics, and quantum science,” said lead author Hadiseh Nasari, a post-doctoral researcher with the CUNY ASRC’s Photonics Initiative. “The work has implications for advances in fundamental science and in communications, optics and photonics.“
Real-world uses of Black Hole physics
Although the experiment helps astrophysicists understand extreme space conditions, the technology behind it could also have practical uses on Earth. The ability to amplify specific waves using motionless artificial rotation could help engineers create more efficient parts for future wireless communication systems and radar technology.The research team plans to make the technology smaller and test how it works with light-based photonic devices and quantum systems. If successful, the method could allow engineers to control how light moves through computer chips, potentially creating faster data processing systems.The project received support and funding from the US Department of Defence (DOJ), the US National Science Foundation, and the Simons Foundation. More improvements to the metamaterial rings will be needed before the technology can be used in commercial communication devices.
