In December, Jennifer found out that Poe had been accepted into the premed program she’d applied for. Jennifer was happy for her friend but was incredibly busy with her own studies. The day arrived to defend her dissertation.
However, Jennifer was thrown a curve that she could not hit as Professor White questioned the math in her computer model. Jennifer had worked for weeks to try to answer these questions but she could not derive the equations she remembered from her first course in physics from Zexton Ho. If only she could answer these questions. If only Zexton were here with her. She was unable to answer on the spot, so they postponed her graduation until she could derive the new equation she used. That night, in tears, Jennifer struggled to derive undergraduate first semester physics as taught in the thirtieth century.
* * *
Weeks later she contacted a Professor Block in applied mathematics at Brown University. He was an ancestor of the greatest mathematician in the twenty-third century, when this theory was first proposed. It was known as the White-Block derivation in the thirtieth century. An idea occurred to her: how about facilitating a collaboration between Professors White and Block to solve her problem by having them derive the equation she needed? After days spent convincing Professor White to collaborate with one of the top math experts in the world, Professor White agreed to a conference call with Professor Block. Now she had to convince him.
“Professor Block, my name is Jennifer Heros. I want to ask your help on a problem I cannot solve.”
“Good morning, Jennifer. I’m a busy man, but I’ll give you five minutes to describe the problem.”
Jennifer explained that she was a student of Professor White’s. She failed to derive an equation that could solve the dark energy mystery, which she needed to complete her degree. “I believe you and Professor White can solve this derivation working together and it will be known as the White-Block equation for all time.”
“I recently started to study the mathematics of a black hole,” he said. “Therefore, I will agree to one conference call next week on Friday. I’ll talk with you at four in the afternoon Eastern Time, which is ten in the morning in Honolulu.”
“Agreed.”
Jennifer then called her advisor. “I think you and Professor Block can assist with the equation that eludes me. He will call at ten a.m. on Friday next week.”
“I’ve tried working to solve this derivation with you. What makes you think Adam Block can help?”
“Professor Block has developed a number of new solutions to non-linear differential equations by simplifying them and then applying his new math. He recently published a paper in the Journal of Mathematics that derived several new equations for the formation of black holes from supernovas. However, this math only works until it becomes a singularity. This is the next step. He needs your physics of the inside of a black hole to address this derivation. With your new singularity physics and his math, it is a natural fit.”
“You need to write up what you think we can derive for you so he knows about your concept and how this could help you get a PhD. Email to both of us what you tried and failed so we can think about it before Friday.”
“Roger that, Captain.”
* * *
After the conference call, the two had not decided to work together on the problem, although they were both interested in dark energy and black holes. Jennifer hopped on a plane to Boston and then a connecting flight to Providence Rhode Island.
The next day Jennifer was up early waiting for Professor Block. At eight a.m. she spotted him coming up the stairs. She knew his looks from his picture she had obtained from the internet. He was a tall man with gray hair and an olive complexion. She approached him.
“Hello, Professor, I am Jennifer Heros, and I am not giving up on making you famous for eternity.”
He first scowled. “Hello, Jennifer. What are you doing in Providence?”
“I want to explain the importance of the derivation and convince you to work on this problem with Professor White.”
“I must prepare for a class, but I can meet you in my office at four today.”
Jennifer worked on the problem all day, hopeful she would get lucky. Just before four she walked rapidly to Professor Block’s office.
“Hello, Professor, thank you for seeing me,” she said.
“Let’s talk about black holes and how we got here.”
“Roger that. I am trying to show that inside black holes, energy is converted to space that explains the current acceleration of the expansion of the universe. It could also explain the loss of information paradox called the conservation of information in a black hole; space produced by the back hole can contain information if it can be converted to energy and mass.”
He tipped back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “Let me review a few key historical facts. In 1915, Einstein published his general theory of relativity, which predicted the black hole. Schwarzschild found the solution of the Einstein equations that describes the gravitational field of a spherical body known today as a black hole.
“In the 1960s, Kerr came up with a solution that included rotation. Einstein didn’t like the idea of a black hole because it contained a singularity. According to his theory the heart of a black hole is an object called a singularity, a point of zero size and infinite density.”
“Relativity cannot explain this unrealistic physical object, so there is a need for quantum relativity to come up with a solution,” Jennifer said, leaning forward. “The White-Block equation I sent you can; however, it needs to be derived and you can do this with help from Professor Kala White. She is my advisor and a brilliant cosmologist.” Jennifer got down on her knees and begged, “Please help me.”
“Please get up, young lady, begging isn’t dignified. However, you have now given me an idea. I will visit Honolulu to see my brother soon. I will start the collaboration with Professor White via email.”
“Can I give you a hug?”
“Yes, I think you’re on to something.”
Jennifer hugged him. “Thank you, Professor Block!”
* * *
After two months of collaboration, the equation was still not derived and the paper she sent to Physical Review was rejected; one hard professor who reviewed her work called it junk science. Jennifer was crushed but not surprised. This professor called her work “another cold fusion and more confusion.” This professor was a well-known and respected physicist. Jennifer felt deep pain in her psyche but she would not give up. She knew she was correct but so did Galileo.
In June, Professor Block came to Honolulu to visit Kala White’s office. Jennifer watched him from a distance. The time went by slowly for Jennifer. It seemed like an eternity. As the sky grew dark, she ordered several pizzas and salads and drinks and had them delivered. Kala texted Jennifer, “thank you we are close.”
Professor Block left at midnight. Jennifer ran to ask Professor White, “How did it go?”
“We are close. I am going to work on it tomorrow and Sunday. I am hooked. Professor Block needs to spend time with his family. He will be back on Monday. I am excited. But I could lose my job, as we are likely to take a lot of heat from the stodgy academics.”
Kala White made the breakthrough over the weekend. Professor Block agreed; they went over their work all of Monday and Tuesday then wrote a short paper online. They worked on the detailed paper and sent it to Nature and Science. Both journals declined. They then sent it to several journals of applied mathematics and were accepted after a peer review. At last, Kala approved Jennifer’s dissertation as it quoted the journal and noted unpublished.
* * *
Jennifer made her presentation in front of a committee of four faculty members of the department and a small audience.
After the presentation was complete, Professor White called on the committee, “Who on the committee would like to ask the first question?”
“What gave you the insight into the idea of transmutation of energy to space?” Committ
ee Member One asked.
“Einstein’s most well-known equation is E = mc2, which relates energy to matter in a way that allows them to be transformed from one to the other interchangeably. Thus, we can conclude that they are merely different forms of the same thing. The sun and stars are examples of this process that converts matter to energy. The Big Bang may be an example of matter and space being created from energy.
“If positron and electron collide, we create pure energy. Dirac, who predicted antimatter, believed that a positron and an electron pair can come into existence in space, thus space is converted to mass and energy because of the anti-matter and matter created from space, that is mass has been transformed from space. If the antimatter and matter collide, they form pure energy. Thus my hypothesis was suggested by Dirac and other great minds of the twentieth century. The alternative is to accept God’s creation or that something is created from nothing, which I choose not to believe. This led me to extend similar concepts to black holes, where the density of photon and photon collision can be thought of as similar to the collision of hydrogen isotope nuclei in a star. Therefore, I applied the Dirac equation to the black hole that existed in my mind at the time.” Jennifer pointed to the slide with her right arm.
“Thank you,” Committee Member One replied.
Committee Member Two asked, “Why did you pick dark energy for your dissertation topic?”
“The mystery of dark energy is exciting because it illustrates limits to our current understanding regarding the main source of energy or forces that govern this universe. But I looked at this mystery as an opportunity beckoning me to come explore this new realm of physics. It is possible that the new evidence can be explained in other ways, but in any case, we should continue to develop new space telescopes with better sensors and increase capability to determine what forces govern the fate of our universe. Dark energy shows us there is much more to learn. Perhaps we stand today on the precipice of a great discovery in science. We need to model the universe and determine what parameters best fit the models. We always need scientists to think of new hypotheses to test. This must continue; I just took one step to open this door and found a new bridge. Now it is time to explore the new concepts holding this bridge up.”
“Thank you for your humble answer,” Committee Member Two replied.
After a pause, Professor White asked, “Can we have the next question?”
“Can you explain dark energy in layman’s terms?” Committee Member Three asked.
“I will put forth a simple explanation of why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate or ‘dark energy’ without the use of any math. This, of course, is difficult for a theoretical physicist.”
A small burble of laughter ran through the committee members.
Jennifer hit her stride in her explanation. She thought of how these concepts had been explained when she was a child. “How black holes do this is not known exactly clear in detail, but we will put forth a hypothesis; if photons cannot escape a black hole, the density of the photons will increase to some critical density like what happens in a plutonium implosion for an atomic bomb, creating a chain reaction. At this point photons break up and form components, parts of which combine to form space. After much more space is formed, space is pushed out of the black hole because it has no mass or momentum; therefore, it is allowed to escape the intense gravity field of the back hole that created it. More and more space drives the galaxies apart and expands the universe.
“As the number of black holes has increased much more since the first seven and one-half billion years—currently a black hole is formed every second—as the universe expands, dark energy can grow to power our current thirteen point seven-billion-year history and further expansion can be predicted. As more space is created, the universe can accelerate its expansion for at least two reasons: one, as galaxies get farther apart gravity is weakened and two, as the universe evolves, more and larger black holes are produced, eventually reaching a maximum and then decreasing.
“The new hypothesis is that space, energy and mass are all the same thing and can be transformed, i.e., interchanged from one form or another by some relationship, which still needs to be defined.
“Space may be related to the mass, gravity, and energy density within the black hole.”
Committee Member Three nodded and smiled. “Thank you for avoiding the equation!”
Committee Member Four asked, “What makes scientists think space is not the absence of matter and energy as we were taught in Physics 101?”
“According to Einstein, space may be made up of something, as it has energy and acts like a fabric that can be bent and warped by gravity. We will need to try to define a quantum of space with these properties, but that is the math trip, so I repeat my answers as before and the fact that something is needed to transmit waves such as light and gravity waves; space is the medium. One can correlate the similarity of how air acts to transmit the sound of your voice on Earth. We accept now that air is not empty although its components are invisible to us.”
Professor White asked, “What new questions has your research posed to you?”
“Well, I am forming and analyzing hypotheses to answer the mechanism of such a transformation. Is it possible that in an extreme gravity field, light or electromagnetic energy, photons, break down into even smaller components? If so, what do they look like? Also in this hypothesis, is space emitted by the back holes proportional to their mass and energy or is some other factor involved? Is space made from photon components or rather the most fundamental of all particles such as fermions and bosons as proposed by others? How was the Big Bang expansion related to the formation of space? In a dense enough structure can the transformation into space be energetically favored to such an extent that it causes the Big Bang? That implies another question: what was before the Big Bang? This hypothesis suggests that before the bang we may have had many black holes that eventually collided to form the critical size causing very rapid transmutation in the form of the Big Bang. There are many more questions than answers. We do not know many answers, but with time and technology we will learn more in the future.”
“Thank you, Jennifer,” Professor White said. “Now I’ll take questions from the audience.” She motioned to a woman. “You were first.”
“How do you calculate the rate of space formation if we assume your dark energy hypothesis is correct?”
Jennifer was confident in the scientific methods and in the facts she had learned in two semesters of physics in Zexton’s class but before she could not understand his math. Now she felt closer to him as she began to understand the physics he taught her so long ago. “The basic mathematical relationship between energy, mass, and space may be estimated by the following calculations.” Jennifer brought up a slide. “This is the mass of the estimated one hundred million black holes in the Milky Way, which we assume is an average galaxy. There are about one hundred billion galaxies in this universe.” She changed to the slide that read:
100 x 1017 black holes in the universe
“We multiply the average mass times the estimated number of black holes to get the total back hole mass. If we divide by the rate of expansion, we may be able to estimate the amount of space created per solar mass equivalent for a black hole.
“To make this calculation we use the following:
“Our sun has one solar mass, represented by the symbol shown here.” She pointed to her slide where a capital M sat next to a circle with a dot in the center. “The mass of the sun is one point nine-eight-nine times ten to the twenty-fourth kilograms. According to the website consulted and cited in my paper and at the bottom of the slide, scientists have established that the core of the Milky Way contains a supermassive black hole of about four point three million solar masses.”
Professor White signaled for the next question.
“Can you relate this phenomenon to the Big Bang?” a man asked.
“Total amount of space created by black h
oles equals S to the q, which equals the size of the universe minus the space created by the Big Bang, which may have been a super-duper massive black hole that was converted into a white hole by a rapid conversion of energy and mass to space. Another possible side benefit of the hypothesis is that could explain the creation and end, that is, the endless re-creation of this and other universes.”
“Thank you,” the man said.
Professor White waved to another woman with her hand up.
“How does your dissertation relate to the old concept of aether?”
“Let’s review an old idea that keeps coming back to explain the properties of space. If we look at the work of Einstein, Dirac, Bell, Polyakov, ’t Hooft, Laughlin, de Broglie, Maxwell, Newton, and other theorists, they suggested there might be a medium with physical properties filling so-called ‘empty’ space, also known as an aether, which was long rejected as unnecessary. We now find it may be necessary because space has properties, which means the aether; however, in my theory we are talking about an aether with zero mass and zero momentum.”
“One last question” Professor White pointed to Professor Block in the back of the room.
“What does this new concept imply about the end and the beginning of the universe?” Block asked.
“That will take much more study but eventually I expect trillions of years with only black holes as the stars will be burned out in this universe. The continuous expansion may flatten the universe to a thin membrane in shape. One hypothesis is that eventually the remaining black holes will end their lives. Another is that most of the black holes will combine; however, if we assume the first hypothesis, vast amounts of our universe will become mainly space, perhaps forming a membrane-like shape. If two membranes collide, a new Big Bang forms another universe. I do not know what existed before the universe or after but quantum theory implies that we should have an infinite number of universes. This might be an interesting topic for another PhD.”
“No more questions, please, we’re out of time,” Professor White announced.
30th Century: Escape (30th Century Trilogy Book 1) Page 34