Black holes have proven a difficult area of research for scientists, but they believe they have made a breakthrough by working out the forces involved in superfluid helium. Superfluid helium is a frictionless liquid, so allows scientists to conduct experiments that can be compared to black holes. If correct, this could help to finally generate a tangible answer to the questions about the quantum theory that have existed in physics for so long.
The theory, called entanglement area law, applies to both black holes and the helium, and scientists such as Adrian Del Maestro, from the University of Vermont, believe they are finally gaining a good understanding. The principle of entropy means that time can never travel backward and many believe that since the big bang, this has been leading humanity towards another disastrous event. Stephen Hawking in the 70s was able to identify the behavior of black holes that is the most well known in popular culture, that material passing too close to the event horizon of a black hole will be sucked in, its information to be added to the black hole in the form of entropy. The super fluid helium solution that has been used in the experiments is a marvel in itself, made from helium that is only two degrees higher than absolute zero. This makes it into a gas with no viscosity, if it begins spinning, then it will spin forever, as friction cannot slow it down.
Super computers were used to simulate the way that the atoms in the helium changed as it reached the extremely low temperature. This is believed to be a good comparison of what would happen to the atoms in an object if it were sucked into a black hole. These findings may challenge some of the core theories of physics, such as gravity, which rely on known quantities
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