Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

A Hidden Crystal World Exists Inside Neutron Stars And Extreme Magnetic Fields Is Changing It

Neutron stars are among the most extreme and mysterious objects in the universe. They are the leftover cores of massive stars that exploded in powerful supernova events. Although they are only about the size of a city, they contain more mass than our Sun. Because of their incredible density, the matter inside neutron stars behaves in ways that are completely different from normal matter on Earth.

One of the most interesting parts of a neutron star is its outer crust. Deep inside this crust, atomic nuclei are packed together in a highly organized structure called a Coulomb crystal. These crystals are made of positively charged nuclei surrounded by electrons. The balance between electrical forces holds these nuclei together, creating a solid-like structure under extreme conditions.

A team of researchers led by Xia studied how powerful magnetic fields affect these unusual crystals. Their goal was to understand how the strongest magnetic fields in the universe can change the shape, strength, and stability of matter inside neutron stars.

To investigate this, the researchers created detailed three-dimensional computer models of Coulomb crystals. They focused on crystals made of carbon-12 nuclei, a common element that can exist inside neutron star crusts. The scientists used special simulation methods that allowed them to study the crystal as if it continued endlessly in all directions, similar to the real environment inside a neutron star.

Inside a neutron star, nuclei are not completely still. Even at very low temperatures, they experience tiny quantum movements called zero-point vibrations. These small movements can affect how strong or weak the crystal becomes. To include these effects, the researchers used a mathematical model where the width of the nuclear wave function, represented by the value b, describes the movement of nuclei.

The study found that when the value of b increases, the crystal becomes softer. In simple words, the nuclei become more spread out and the crystal structure becomes less rigid. This means the crystal can be more easily changed or damaged by external forces.

A major focus of the research was understanding the effect of extremely strong magnetic fields. Neutron stars can have magnetic fields billions of times stronger than Earth’s. Some neutron stars, known as magnetars, have magnetic fields reaching around 10¹⁵ gauss, making them some of the most powerful magnets in the universe.

The researchers studied how these magnetic fields influence the energy and structure of the crystal. One important measurement they examined was the Madelung constant, which represents how electrical forces are distributed inside the crystal.

They discovered that the Madelung constant changes as the magnetic field changes. At lower magnetic fields, below about 3 × 10¹⁴ gauss, the value showed fluctuations. However, when the magnetic field became stronger, the Madelung constant increased and reached its highest point around 3 × 10¹⁵ gauss. After that, it started decreasing.

This result shows that magnetic fields have a complicated effect on neutron star crystals. Stronger magnetic fields do not always make the crystal stronger. Instead, there is a certain range where the magnetic field improves the stability of the structure, while extremely powerful fields can begin to disturb it.

The researchers also compared two different types of crystal structures: the body-centered cubic (BCC) structure and the face-centered cubic (FCC) structure. These describe different ways in which nuclei can arrange themselves.

Their calculations showed that the BCC structure is slightly more stable than the FCC structure when the magnetic field is below approximately 3 × 10¹⁵ gauss. However, at higher magnetic field strengths, the FCC structure may become more stable.

This means that the internal arrangement of matter inside a neutron star may change depending on how strong its magnetic field is. Since neutron stars and magnetars can experience changes in their magnetic activity over time, their internal crystal structures may also evolve.

The scientists also studied the strength of these crystals by calculating their elastic properties. Elastic properties tell us how much a material can resist being stretched, compressed, or deformed.

Two important values, called c₁₁ − c₁₂ and c₄₄, were measured in the study. The researchers found that these values increase as the magnetic field grows between about 3 × 10¹⁴ gauss and 2 × 10¹⁵ gauss. This means the crystal becomes stronger and more resistant to deformation within this range.

However, when the magnetic field becomes even stronger, the opposite happens. The elastic strength starts decreasing and eventually approaches zero. When magnetic fields become greater than around 10¹⁶ gauss, it becomes extremely difficult for the researchers to identify a stable crystal structure.

At such enormous magnetic field strengths, the normal organization of nuclei may completely break down. The powerful magnetic forces can disturb the balance that keeps the crystal stable, creating a very different state of matter.

These findings help scientists better understand the hidden environment inside neutron stars. The crust of a neutron star is not simply a solid layer; it is a place where intense gravity, quantum effects, nuclear forces, and magnetic fields interact with each other.

The behavior of these crystals may also help explain some mysterious neutron star events. For example, sudden changes in the crust could be connected to starquakes, where the crust cracks and releases huge amounts of energy. These events may be responsible for powerful bursts of radiation observed from magnetars.

The research by Xia and his team provides important information about how extreme magnetic fields shape matter at the smallest scales. By studying these microscopic crystals, scientists can learn more about some of the most powerful objects in the universe.

Neutron stars remain one of nature’s greatest laboratories. They allow researchers to explore physics under conditions that cannot be created on Earth. Understanding their strange crystal structures brings us one step closer to revealing the secrets hidden deep inside these incredible cosmic objects.

Reference: Cheng-Jun Xia, Toshiki Maruyama, Nobutoshi Yasutake, Toshitaka Tatsumi, "Magnetized Coulomb crystals in neutron star crusts", Arxiv, 2026. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.24355


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more