The Strange “Spacetime Crystal” That Can Suddenly Turn Into a Black Hole

Key Points:

• Researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt and TU Wien have derived the first exact formula describing critical collapse, a process at the boundary between ordinary spacetime and black hole formation, providing an analytical explanation previously only seen in simulations.
• Critical collapse represents a delicate tipping point where a spacetime crystal, an ordered pattern in spacetime curvature, can either dissolve back into normal spacetime or evolve into a microscopic black hole with a small addition of energy.
• The breakthrough was achieved by examining the problem in a hypothetical setting of infinitely many dimensions, where gravitational equations simplify, allowing the discovery of hidden mathematical relationships.
• This new mathematical approach offers a stable and systematically improvable method to study black-hole-related phenomena analytically, potentially advancing understanding of gravitational physics beyond current computational methods.
• The findings were published in Physical Review Letters under the title “Analytic Discrete Self-Similar Solutions of Einstein-Klein-Gordon at Large D,” marking a significant step forward in explaining black hole formation at critical thresholds.