Magnetic reconnection — the process behind the sun's most violent outbursts — may have a counterpart in gravity.
According to a new theoretical study, sheet-like structures in the gravitational field can break apart and reconnect in new arrangements, much like the magnetic field lines that unleash solar flares.
Built entirely on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, the study spells out when this "gravitational reconnection" can happen. It also offers a way to measure how fast the theoretical reconnection proceeds, and suggests a change to how gravity and matter trade energy. The process could even play a role in black hole collisions, the researchers suggest.
From solar flares to space-time
Magnetic field lines are normally "frozen" into plasma — the hot, electrically charged gas that makes up stars — and carried along wherever it flows. The lines can be stretched and twisted, but not cut. Where this rule breaks down, they can snap and rejoin in a process called mag...
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