3 ms·
How can spacetime have a “defect”? Isn’t this just a feature?
by xwdv 3y ago
How can spacetime have a “defect”? Isn’t this just a feature?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- techwiz137 3y agoIt's not a bug. It's a feature.
- liotier 3y agoJust update the specification with the observed behaviour and presto - black holes are no longer defective !
- magicalhippo 3y agoIn this case it's about topological defects[1], also known as topological solitons, which is explained rather well on SE here[2]. Mathematicians and physicists try to give words to concepts, they don't always map well. As Wikipedia puts it: Topological solitons arise with ease when creating the crystalline semiconductors used in modern electronics, and in that context their effects are almost always deleterious. For this reason such crystal transitions are called topological defects. However, this mostly solid-state terminology distracts from the rich and intriguing mathematical properties of such boundary regions. Thus for most non-solid-state contexts the more positive and mathematically rich phrase "topological soliton" is preferable. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_defect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_defect [2]: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/285731/what-is-a-topological-defect https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/285731/what-is-a...
- Attrecomet 3y agoInteresting. During my time in solid state physics and later quantum information, we just used "(topological) defects", not "topological solitons", though of course papers trying to sound cool could use that term. It takes about 2 uses to not conflate "defect" with anything deleterious, just the breaking of an otherwise functional symmetry.
- lovemenot 3y agoWhat I understood from the purported distinction when reading this article was that black holes result from physical activity within spacetime. Wheras solitons are constructs resulting from the mathematical arrangement of the fabric of spacetime (involving those other dimensions posited by String Theory) .
- 0xblinq 3y agoDo we happen to work at the same software company, by any chance?
- ThrowawayR2 3y agoThe same way computers can have a "bus" despite there being no large multi-passenger motor vehicle inside the laptop sitting on our desks. It's technical jargon that means something other than what the layperson thinks it means. It's probably easiest to visualize the sense in which "defect" is used in the article by the analogous concept of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_defect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_defect , a disruption in what is otherwise an orderly, regular structure.