News summary produced by Claude AI
A team of physicists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center has successfully conducted an experiment validating theoretical concepts about energy extraction from rotating black holes that were proposed decades ago. The work, published in Nature, represents a significant step in translating abstract astrophysical principles into practical laboratory demonstrations.
The theoretical foundation for this research dates back over 50 years to physicist Sir Roger Penrose’s proposal that energy could be extracted from a rapidly spinning black hole through particle interactions in its ergosphere, a region where spacetime itself is dragged by the object’s rotation. Physicist Yakov Zel’dovich later expanded these ideas, predicting that waves encountering sufficiently fast-rotating objects could gain energy and become amplified. Until now, these concepts remained largely theoretical due to experimental limitations.
To overcome these constraints, the research team developed an innovative approach using synthetic rotation rather than mechanical spinning. They constructed a radio frequency device incorporating a ring of electronic resonators whose properties were rapidly adjusted in precisely synchronized patterns. Although the physical hardware remained stationary, these timed adjustments created a traveling wave pattern that caused electromagnetic waves to behave as though encountering an object rotating at ultrafast speeds. This method achieved rotational velocities far exceeding what conventional mechanical systems could generate.
The experiment confirmed that electromagnetic waves with appropriate rotational properties could extract energy from the system and become amplified, successfully reproducing the essential physics underlying the Penrose-Zel’dovich mechanism. The researchers note that this synthetic rotation approach enables investigation of physical regimes that would otherwise be impossible to study in laboratory settings.
Beyond fundamental science applications, the team identifies potential implications for wireless communications, optics, photonics, and quantum technologies. They indicate that additional development will be required before these concepts translate into practical devices, and they are exploring how similar principles might apply to photonic and quantum systems. The research received support from the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the Simons Foundation.