研究人员发现了一种把黑洞变成发电站的新方法

研究人员发现了一种把黑洞变成发电站的新方法

Nothing can escape a black hole once it has crossed its event horizon but mathematical analysis over the last several decades has shown that there are ways to extract energy from a rotating black hole. Researchers have now revealed new work presenting an innovative way to harness energy out of a black hole, publishing their findings in Physical Review D.

一旦黑洞跨越视界，任何东西都无法逃脱，但过去几十年的数学分析表明，有办法从旋转的黑洞中提取能量。研究人员最近在《物理评论D》上发表了一项新研究，提出了一种利用黑洞能量的创新方法。

Mathematically speaking, if a black hole rotates then it has an ergosphere. This is a region outside its event horizon (the threshold where to escape the pull of the black hole you’d need to move faster than the speed of light) where it is theoretically possible to steal some of the black hole's energy. Stephen Hawking worked out ways that quantum mechanics can remove energy from black holes. Nobel physicist Roger Penrose has a more mechanical approach that requires following particular orbits. The new work focuses on magnetic fields.

从数学上讲，如果一个黑洞旋转，那么它就有一个能层。这是在黑洞视界之外的一个区域(在这个区域，你需要以比光速更快的速度移动才能逃离黑洞的引力)，在这里理论上可以偷取黑洞的一些能量。斯蒂芬·霍金发现了量子力学可以从黑洞中移除能量的方法。诺贝尔物理学家罗杰·彭罗斯有一个更机械的方法，需要遵循特定的轨道。这项新工作的重点是磁场。

The magnetic fields of complex objects often exhibit the repeated breaking and rejoining of magnetic field lines. This is seen on the Sun for example, with spectacular releases of energy. Researchers believe that this could be the case for black holes too. The right magnetic interaction could accelerate particles away from the black hole, removing some of its energy.

复杂物体的磁场常表现为磁力线的反复断裂和重新连接。例如在太阳上，能量的壮观释放。研究人员认为，这可能也适用于黑洞。正确的磁相互作用可以加速粒子远离黑洞，从而带走一些能量。

Dr Alfredo Carpineti

"Black holes are commonly surrounded by a hot 'soup' of plasma particles that carry a magnetic field," Luca Comisso from Columbia University said in a statement. "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."

哥伦比亚大学的卢卡·科米索在一份声明中说:“黑洞通常被一团热腾腾的‘汤’包围，这些‘汤’由携带磁场的等离子粒子组成。”“我们的理论表明，当磁力线以正确的方式断开和重新连接时，它们可以将等离子粒子加速到负能量，从而提取大量的黑洞能量。”

The sci-fi reason why this is exciting is that by getting energy from a black hole, you are getting a lot more energy out compared to the energy supplied. The team estimates that the process could have an efficiency of up to 150 percent, something that is unachievable on Earth. So an advanced alien civilization could decide to use a black hole as an incredible power station if it had the know-how.

这个现象之所以令人兴奋，是因为通过从黑洞中获取能量，你得到的能量比提供的能量要多得多。该团队估计，这一过程的效率可达150%，这在地球上是无法实现的。所以一个先进的外星文明可以利用黑洞作为一个不可思议的发电站，如果它有这个技术的话。

The scientific reason it's exciting is that this process might already happen in nature, without the help of intelligent aliens. There are several phenomena surrounding black holes that are not fully understood, such as black hole flares that can be detected from Earth, so it is possible that magnetic reconnection in the ergosphere could help explain what we see.

令人兴奋的科学原因是，这个过程可能已经在自然界中发生了，没有智能外星人的帮助。还有一些围绕着黑洞的现象没有被完全理解，比如可以从地球上探测到的黑洞耀斑，所以能量层中的磁重联可能有助于解释我们所看到的现象。

"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 telescope observations of black holes, such as the ones by the Event Horizon Telescope," said co-author Felipe Asenjo from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile.

“我们对黑洞附近如何发生磁重连的了解越来越多，这可能对指导我们解释当前和未来的望远镜观测黑洞(比如视界望远镜观测到的黑洞)至关重要。”来自智利阿道夫·伊巴涅斯大学的合著者菲利佩·阿森霍说。

Perhaps in the future, mining energy from black holes could be the answer to our power needs.

也许在未来，从黑洞中开采能源可以满足我们的能源需求。

"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."

康米索说:“从现在开始的数千年或数百万年，人类可能能够在黑洞周围生存，而不需要利用恒星的能量。这本质上是一个技术问题。如果我们从物理上看，没有什么可以阻止它。”