Simulation: Black holes can speed up to 10% of the speed of light

A black hole created by the collision of two black holes could ideally be accelerated to nearly 10 percent of the speed of light in the process. Two mathematicians from the USA determined this with the help of computer simulations and spoke of a theoretical upper limit of 26677 ± 470 km/s. This is much higher than a previously determined maximum value of about 5,000 kilometers per second, and corresponds to about 9 percent of the speed of light (299.792 kilometers per second), write James Healy and Carlos Lusto of the Rochester Institute of Technology in California, US. New York.

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The greatest recoil is in a head-on collision

Because it was determined on the basis of simulations that the recoil from the merger of two black holes could fling the resulting objects away at huge speeds, the researchers wrote that examples were sought. Such events have been researched for years with the help of gravitational wave detectors. Meanwhile, theorists are busy determining the extremes of such collisions. It was soon assumed that the spin speed of the two black holes in particular had a decisive role in the force of the recoil. This has been confirmed, but he is not alone.

Healy and Lustow simulated just over 1,300 collisions with the most diverse conditions and angles of influence. In contrast to previous work, they focus on direct collisions rather than mergers preceded by a period in which they orbit each other. So the greatest rebound was in frontal collisions, which were particularly close. Such a scenario is conceivable, for example, when two black holes orbit a third black hole in opposite directions and meet there, Lousto Science News explains. Her work has been published In the journal Physical Review Letters.

(hoo)