A black hole is not just an abyss. It is a seething cauldron whose temperature rises as it evaporates. The authors of the study found that when the heat reaches a critical threshold, the hole seems to boil. It emits superheavy particles — the very ones that exist on a scale where any theory of gravity collapses.
Ordinary Hawking radiation is not the main player here. Numerical calculations showed that the production of such particles via familiar evaporation is always weaker. The new mechanism is a phase transition, like water at 100 degrees Celsius. But instead of steam, we get particles at the edge of knowledge.
The researchers tested the idea on a whole zoo of holes: with electric and magnetic charge, with a dilaton field. Everywhere, the picture depends on the origin of symmetry and the strength of the coupling. Thus, a black hole becomes a tool that probes the deepest layers of reality.
The temperature of a stellar-mass black hole is less than a millionth of a degree above absolute zero, but a microscopic hole can be hotter than the Sun.
In Dan Simmons's novel Hyperion, black holes serve as portals, and here they become portals to the world of fundamental particles.