Magnetic Brakes for Cosmic Spinning Tops ⚡ экспресс
The most massive observed black hole merger, GW231123, involves components with masses in the pair-instability gap and extreme spins, challenging standard models. For the first time, a self-consistent 3D GRMHD simulation of the collapse of a helium star with an initial mass of 250 M☉ at low metallicity has been carried out, from helium burning to accretion onto the newly formed black hole. Rotation and magnetic fields drive powerful outflows (disk winds and jets), explaining the emergence of rapidly spinning black holes inside the mass gap and revealing a spin–mass correlation. Strong magnetic fields efficiently remove angular momentum, suppressing accretion and leaving the hole slowly spinning; weak fields allow near-total collapse and spin-up to a≈1. Moderately strong fields naturally reproduce the parameters of GW231123 and GW190521. The outflows can impart a "kick" to the black hole, causing misalignment between spin and orbit, and also produce short gamma-ray bursts of record-breaking brightness—a potential observable signature of such events in the early Universe.
When the core of a dying star collapses, a black hole is born — a cosmic spinning top. The stronger the collapse, the faster the spin. But this top has a magnetic brake: a strong field flings some matter away, slowing the hole, while a weak field lets matter fall in and spin it up to nearly the speed of light.
This is exactly what explained the mysterious hole pairs spotted by gravitational wave detectors — instruments built by Rainer Weiss and his colleagues. Event GW231123 revealed holes with masses thought impossible: stars with such cores were expected to explode as supernovae leaving nothing behind. But simulations confirmed: with rapid rotation and a moderate magnetic field, the star collapses into a heavyweight hole.
The same magnetic fields that brake the hole can also create jets — streams of matter that outshine galaxies and are visible across the universe. The fruit of nearly a century of effort: Schwarzschild described the stationary hole, Thorne the spinning one, and new calculations have merged their ideas.
🎯 It was once thought that the core of a star with 250 solar masses would explode without a trace. It turns out it can produce a black hole.
🎬 Such a rapidly spinning hole is almost like Gargantua from Interstellar: extreme rotation and monstrous gravity.