1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 501: The Mass Limit of Neutron Stars! The Most Terrifying Celestial Body in the Universe! Black Holes! A Place Beyond the Law of Physics!
When Li Qiwei said that stars have a third fate, the venue was in an uproar.

Everyone was excited and waited with bated breath.

At this moment, under the expectation of everyone, Li Qiwei slowly said:

"As mentioned earlier, if the mass of the core of a star is less than 1.44 times the mass of the sun, a white dwarf will form."

"If the core mass is higher than 1.44 times the mass of the sun, a neutron star will form."

"I guess many people have thought of this. Yes, neutron stars also have a mass limit!"

"According to my theoretical calculations, when the core mass exceeds 1.5 to 3 times the mass of the sun."

"The corresponding progenitor star mass is about 30 to 50 times the mass of the sun."

"At this point, a stable neutron star cannot form in the core region because the neutrons are also crushed."

"As the volume of the core area continues to be compressed, its radius becomes smaller and smaller."

"When the radius is smaller than the Schwarzschild radius, the core region will become a celestial body that is denser than a neutron star."

“That’s a black hole!”

Wow!
The whole audience was shocked!

Everyone was surprised.

"What Professor Bruce wants to prove is actually the third general prediction: black hole!"

Will a dying star become a black hole?
This is beyond everyone's imagination.

It’s incredible!
When everyone was still in shock, Li Qiwei continued:
"Black holes are the third prediction of general relativity."

"At the beginning, Professor Schwarzschild gave the first solution to the general phase field equation."

"This solution is called the Schwarzschild solution."

“That is, a spherically symmetrical celestial body will form a black hole when its radius is smaller than the Schwarzschild radius.”

"This is the mathematical structure of a black hole."

"But it only exists in a mathematical sense."

"Before this, we didn't know where black holes came from, and we could only assume that they existed out of thin air in the universe."

"And now, I have found a physical basis for the origin of black holes through the stellar evolution model."

"That is: black holes come from the remnants of massive stars that have died!"

"For massive stars with tens of times the mass of the sun, they will first form red supergiants at the end of their lives."

"Then, with the supernova explosion, a neutron star is formed in the core first."

"Then, as the gravitational collapse occurred, the pressure increased."

"Eventually, the neutron star is compressed into a black hole."

"For supermassive stars, hundreds of times the mass of our sun, the process is much simpler."

"After their supernova explosions, their core regions will skip the neutron star stage and collapse directly into black holes."

"Of course, the universe is so vast that there are many strange things. Perhaps there are other ways for black holes to form."

"But at least, I have proved that black holes are real celestial bodies in the universe!"

"It is not a mysterious cosmic ghost, but the end or rebirth of a star."

"That's why I dare to claim that I can prove half of the general prophecy."

"For the remaining half, I will need to trouble everyone here to actually find a strange celestial body like a black hole."

"By the way, I heard that Professor Schwarzschild has been in seclusion recently because he wants to find a black hole."

"I firmly believe that he will succeed!"

quiet!
At this moment, in the huge conference hall, it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone was stunned and stunned.

"Oh my god! Massive stars will eventually become black holes? This is incredible!"

"I don't think there's any need to look for it. Black holes definitely exist!"

"Such a perfect theory of stellar evolution, how could the results it derived be wrong?"

No one expected that the ultimate fate of a star would be a black hole.

Since they were widely predicted, black holes have been hailed as "the most terrifying celestial body in the universe."

Because not even light can escape its gravitational field.

From a distance, a black hole looks like a pitch-black celestial body, so it was figuratively named "black hole" by Professor Bruce.

Since the black hole was proposed, astronomers have always regarded it as some kind of independent and transcendent existence.

Its properties are so special that they are different from all existing celestial bodies.

And now, Professor Bruce has proved through the theory of stellar evolution that black holes come from stars.

These celestial bodies that can be seen everywhere are actually the source of black holes.

I can't believe it!
Great simplicity!

But when they thought about it the other way around, they suddenly realized and felt it was natural.

When the concept of black holes was first proposed, Professor Bruce predicted that their density would be extremely high.

The theory of stellar evolution is actually about the impact of mass on the core region.

The greater the mass, the greater the natural gravity, and the more the core of the star will be compressed.

If you keep compressing and compressing until it reaches the limit, it will become a black hole.

This logic seems very simple in hindsight.

But at the scene, few people could think of this.

This is the charm of science.

Sometimes, if you don’t have the inspiration to break through that layer of window paper, you will never be able to figure it out.

At this moment, the venue was completely boiling!

"Professor Bruce did not break his promise. He really proved half of the general prophecy."

"Compared to the hardships that Eddington and Hubble went through, Professor Bruce seemed to have succeeded with just a flick of his finger."

"This kind of strength is simply terrifying!"

Everyone was full of admiration.

The principle of black hole formation proposed by Li Qiwei shocked all the astronomers present.

No one doubts its correctness because the entire derivation logic is so rigorous and smooth.

Each step is a node, linked together.

If the black hole theory is wrong, then I'm afraid the initial nuclear fusion is also wrong.

This is obviously impossible.

Professor Bruce has actually proved the existence of black holes. The rest is as he said:

Find it!
That's why everyone is so excited.

Li Qiwei smiled slightly and pressed the air with his right hand, immediately attracting everyone's attention.

"That's all there is to my theory of stellar evolution."

"After nuclear fusion ends, stars have three possible outcomes, depending on their mass."

"They are white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes."

“I summarized a picture and put it here.”

Everyone was excited watching the content on the projector.

It’s just a small picture, but it seems to cover the entire universe.

The fate of the stars plays out on it, which is dazzling.

Everyone in the conference hall was immersed in the shock of the black hole.

Eddington looked at Hubble with envy and felt deeply moved.

The other person was the first one among everyone to guess Professor Bruce's theory.

If this were made public, I wonder how many people would be surprised.

"You are indeed worthy of being the genius that Professor Bruce has chosen."

"Hubble may achieve even greater things in the future."

Then Eddington gave a wry smile.

At today's meeting, he was full of confidence and was sure to shock everyone and become the focus of everyone's attention. However, although his mass-luminosity formula was extremely brilliant, it was of great significance to astronomy.

But compared with the law of expansion and the theory of stellar evolution, it pales in comparison.

It's not even a theory of the same level.

This was somewhat of a blow to Eddington.

However, he was not discouraged, but became even more motivated!
"This kind of astronomy is exciting enough!"

"It's worth it for me to love someone and fight for it."

Hubble was extremely excited at this moment.

He was right, what Professor Bruce wanted to prove was black holes!
Due to his frequent communication with Schwarzschild, Hubble may be the astronomer who understands black holes best besides Ridgway.

That's why he thought of this direction first.

No one could understand how he saw through Professor Bruce.

“I’m close to God!”

Even with all the excitement, Hubble remained calm.

Based on Schwarzschild's letters, he thought of a question.

So he took a deep breath to ease the excitement in his body, and then asked:

"Professor Bruce, we probably won't be able to observe the formation process of a black hole."

"Because even light cannot escape from the surface of a black hole."

Upon hearing this, Li Qiwei looked at Hubble with satisfaction.

The other party has indeed transformed.

It turns out that scientific achievements are the courage of scientists.

With the law of expansion in hand, Hubble's thinking became more agile.

Li Qiwei replied:
"Yes, there is a special range on the surface of a black hole, which I call the event horizon."

"Once you enter the event horizon, not even light can escape."

"So, after a star dies and evolves into a black hole, none of its information can be transmitted."

"We would not be able to observe the formation process of black holes."

"However, the huge gravitational pull of a black hole must have a significant impact on the surrounding space-time."

"By looking at the changes in gravity, we can study the properties of black holes."

"I guess that's the method Professor Schwarzschild used."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded slightly.

Black holes have unique properties and cannot be detected by conventional optical methods.

In real history, it was not until 2019 that humans took the first photo of a black hole.

The black hole is located at the center of the M87 galaxy, 5500 million light-years from Earth, and has a mass 65 billion times that of the Sun.

The principle of the photo is to use the light emitted by the hot plasma accreting around the black hole to form an image after being deflected by the black hole's gravity.

To put it in a more vivid way, what was photographed was not the black hole itself, but its "clothes".

After answering Hubble's question, Ridgway continued:
"Although my theory of stellar evolution proves that black holes come from the remnants of dead stars."

"But I don't know what the internal composition of a black hole is."

"What happens when neutrons are crushed?"

"If neutrons are made up of more fundamental particles, what happens when the more fundamental particles are crushed?"

"In short, if you keep pressing like this, the final result will be the composition of a black hole."

"Existing physics cannot explain this form of matter."

"In other words, black holes are currently beyond the reach of physics!"

Wow!
Everyone was shocked!
The fact that Professor Bruce could even talk about the lawless place shows how terrifying and special the black hole is.

Li Qiwei looked at everyone and felt a little emotional.

There's more to black holes than meets the eye.

Not to mention this era, even in future generations, humans still know very little about black holes.

Some people believe that the center of a black hole is a singularity, with an infinitely small volume and infinite density.

All the laws of physics break down there.

The matter that makes up black holes can no longer be understood using the concept of elementary particles.

That is an unknown way of existence.

Some people also believe that there should be a special transitional object between neutron stars and black holes: quark stars.

Quark stars, as the name suggests, are celestial bodies composed purely of quarks.

When a neutron is crushed, the quarks that make up the neutron become independent and are compressed tightly together.

Unfortunately, quark stars are only theoretical celestial bodies.

Many black holes have been discovered, but no quark stars have been found so far.

If quark stars can really be found, it will be extremely important for understanding the formation of black holes.

In addition, there are some supermassive black holes in the universe (with masses ranging from 100 million to 100 billion times the mass of the sun).

There is a question mark as to whether they evolved from stars.

The largest black hole discovered by humans so far is the Phoenix A black hole, which is 58 billion light-years away from Earth.

Its mass reaches an astonishing 1000 billion times the mass of the sun, which exceeds the definition of a supermassive black hole.

The diameter of the event horizon is equivalent to 40 times the diameter of the solar system.

Even light cannot escape from such a large area, it is a completely forbidden place.

A definite supreme forbidden zone!
Such a terrifying celestial body, its very existence is an endless unsolved mystery.

Some scientists predict that the black hole evolved from the central black hole of the galaxy where it is located through continuous devouring.

For example, at the center of the Milky Way, there is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*.

It currently has a mass 440 million times that of our Sun.

The entire galaxy is its food.

In the distant future, as the Sagittarius A* black hole continues to devour matter in the Milky Way, it may grow into a being equal to the Phoenix A black hole.

This idea is a bit too scary.

In addition, some scientists believe that supermassive black holes may be related to activities at the galaxy level.

Similar to the formation process of stellar black holes, a galaxy can also explode and then form a supermassive black hole directly at its core.

Of course, all of the above are just speculations.

In short, black holes are still full of mystery for humans.

Ridgway's theory of stellar evolution only revealed a corner of black holes to astronomers.

There are many more unknown phenomena waiting for people to discover and understand.

However, despite this, the shock he brought to everyone was great enough.

Among the nearly one thousand astronomers present, no one dared to guarantee that they had fully understood the theory of stellar evolution.

All the theories and calculations involved need to be carefully studied and pondered.

Next, everyone can already imagine that the field of astronomy will surely set off a wave of star research.

Li Qiwei breathed a sigh of relief, his expression relaxed.

His speech finally came to an end.

One of the greatest theories in 20th century astronomy: the theory of stellar evolution, was proposed by him single-handedly.

The concepts derived from it, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, supernova explosions, and black hole formation, will inevitably shock the scientific community.

Add to that the five major predictions of general relativity and the Big Bang theory, and his status in the field of astronomy can be said to be the best in the world!

And these are just the beginning!
Now, he has a new goal.

The mystery of black holes and the mystery of the origin of the universe may be closely related to the theory of everything.

But no matter how mysterious they are, they will be included in the framework of physics.

Li Qiwei is full of enthusiasm:
"There is no place outside the law in physics!"

(End of this chapter)