A Black Hole Cooks Up Radiation Like a Pot of Soup express
The 'double copy' method in physics is a culinary trick: a chef takes a cold soup recipe, doubles the ingredients, and gets a recipe for a hot roast. Likewise, particle interactions via electric forces (the basis of the Standard Model) morph into gravity, which describes spacetime curvature.
Until now, this trick was only tested in empty space. Now it's been applied to Stephen Hawking radiation from a black hole. The original 'soup' — particle creation in an electric field — is a process with no temperature or horizon. After double copying, radiation emerges with entropy (a measure of disorder), as if from a hot object. The horizon and temperature weren't put into the recipe: they just appeared on their own.
Particle creation in a strong electric field (the Schwinger effect) has never been observed in the lab — the energy needed is staggering. However, its double copy, Hawking radiation, is what astronomers aim to catch at the rims of real black holes.