Physicists say aliens may be using black holes as quantum computers

If life is common in our Universe, and we have every reason to suspect that it is, why don’t we see evidence of it everywhere? This is the essence of the Fermi Paradox, a question that has plagued astronomers and cosmologists almost since the birth of modern astronomy. It is also the reasoning behind the Hart-Tipler conjecture, one of many (many!) proposed resolutions, which claims that if advanced life had arisen in our galaxy at some point in the past, we would see signs of their activity wherever they went. let’s look Possible indications include self-replicating probes, megastructures, and other activities similar to Type III.

On the other hand, several proposed resolutions challenge the notion that advanced life would operate on such massive scales. Others suggest that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations would be involved in activities and places that would make them less noticeable. In a recent study, a German-Georgian team of researchers proposed that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) could use black holes as quantum computers. This makes computational sense, and offers an explanation for the apparent lack of activity we see when we look out at the cosmos. The research was carried out by Gia Dvali, a theoretical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and professor of physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, and Zaza Osmanov, professor of physics at the Free University of Tbilisi and a researcher at the National Astrophysical Observatory for Georgia Kharadze and the SETI Institute. The paper describing their findings recently appeared online and is being revised for publication in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

The first SETI survey (Project Ozma) was conducted in 1960 and was led by famed astrophysicist Dr. Frank Drake (who proposed the Drake Equation). This survey relied on the Green Bank Observatory’s 85-foot (26-meter) radio telescope to listen for radio transmissions from the nearby Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani star systems. Since then, the vast majority of SETI projects have focused on searching for radio technosignatures, due to the ability of radio waves to propagate through interstellar space. As Dvali and Osmanov explained to Universe Today via email: “Currently, we mainly look for radio messages, and there have been several attempts to survey the sky to find so-called Dyson sphere candidates: megastructures built around stars. On the other hand, the SETI problem is so complex that one must try all possible channels.

For many researchers, this narrow focus is one of the main reasons SETI has been unable to find any evidence of technology signatures. In recent years, astronomers and astrophysicists have recommended broadening the search by looking for other technology signatures and methods, such as Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI). These include directed energy (lasers), neutrino emissions, quantum communications, and gravitational waves, many of which are explained in detail in the NASA Technosignature Report (published in 2018) and the TechnoClimes 2020 workshop.

For their study, Dvali and Osmanov suggest looking for something entirely different: evidence of large-scale quantum computing. The benefits of quantum computing are well documented, including the ability to process information exponentially faster than digital computing and being immune to decryption. Given the speed at which quantum computing is advancing today, it is entirely logical to assume that an advanced civilization could adapt this technology on a much larger scale. Dvali and Osmanov said: “No matter how advanced a civilization is or how different its particle composition and chemistry is from ours, we are unified by the laws of quantum physics and gravity. These laws tell us that the most efficient stores of quantum information are black holes. “Although our recent studies show that, theoretically, there may be devices created by non-gravitational interactions that also saturate information storage capacity (so-called ‘saturons’), black holes are the clear champions. Consequently, any sufficiently advanced ETI is expected to use them for the storage and processing of information”.

This idea is based on the work of Nobel Prize winner Roger Penrose, who proposed that unlimited energy could be extracted from a black hole by tapping into the ergosphere. This space lies just outside the event horizon, where infalling matter forms a disk that accelerates to nearly the speed of light and emits enormous amounts of radiation. Several researchers have suggested that this may be the ultimate power source for advanced ETIs, either by powering an SMBH with matter (and harnessing the resulting radiation) or simply by harnessing the energy they already emit. Two possibilities for the latter scenario involve harnessing the angular momentum of their accretion disks (the “Penrose Process”) or capturing the heat and energy generated by their hypervelocity jets (perhaps in the form of a Dyson Sphere). In their subsequent paper, Dvali and Osamov suggest that black holes could be the ultimate source of computing. This is based on the notions that: a) the advancement of a civilization is directly related to its level of computational performance, and b) that there are certain universal markers of computational advancement that can be used as potential technological signatures. for SETI.

Using the principles of quantum mechanics, Dvali and Oomanov explained how black holes would be the most efficient capacitors for quantum information. These black holes are likely to be artificial in nature and micro in size rather than large and natural (for the sake of computing efficiency). As a result, they argue, these black holes would be more energetic than naturally occurring ones: “By analyzing the simple scaling properties of information recovery time, we show that optimization of information volume and processing time suggests that it is highly beneficial for ETI to invest energy in creating many microscopic black holes instead of just a few. big. . “First, microblack holes radiate at a much higher intensity and in the higher energy spectrum of Hawking radiation. Second, such black holes must be made by high-energy particle collisions in accelerators. This fabrication necessarily provides a high-energy accompaniment.” energy radiation signature. Hawking radiation, named after the late, great Stephen Hawking, is theorized to be released just outside the event horizon of a black hole due to relativistic quantum effects. The emission of this radiation reduces the mass and rotational energy of black holes, theoretically resulting in their eventual evaporation.