The April 11, 2017 reconstructed image (left) and a modeled EHT image (right) line up remarkably well. This is an excellent indication that the model library the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration put together can, in fact, model the physics of the matter surrounding these supermassive, rotating, plasma-rich black holes quite successfully. (HUIB JAN VAN LANGEVELDE (EHT DIRECTOR) ON BEHALF OF THE EHT COLLABORATION)

Which ‘Hints’ Of New Physics Should We Be Paying Attention To?

And which ones are probably examples where we’ve fooled ourselves?

Every once in a while — multiple times per year — a new research finding fails to line up with our theoretical expectations. In the fields of physics and astronomy, the laws of nature are known to such incredible precision that anything that fails to align with our predictions isn’t just interesting, it’s a potential revolution. On the particle physics side of the equation, we have the laws of the Standard Model governed by quantum field theory; on the astrophysics side, we have the laws of gravity governed by General Relativity.

And yet, from all of our observations and experiments, we occasionally get results that conflict with the combination of those two remarkably successful theories. Either:

• there’s an error with the experiments or observations,
• there’s an error with the predictions,
• there’s a new effect we haven’t anticipated within the Standard Model or General Relativity,
• or there’s new physics involved.

While it’s tempting to leap to the final possibility, it should be the scientists final resort, as the resiliency and successes of our leading theories has shown…