Chi-kwan Chan Uses Codex to Model Trillions of Black Hole Particles
Updated
Updated · OpenAI · Jun 10
Chi-kwan Chan Uses Codex to Model Trillions of Black Hole Particles
2 articles · Updated · OpenAI · Jun 10
Summary
University of Arizona astrophysicist Chi-kwan Chan is using Codex to generate and test new algorithms aimed at making black hole plasma simulations far more realistic.
Trillions of electrons and ions near supermassive black holes can spiral along magnetic fields with few collisions, forcing standard codes to track tiny motions with extremely small timesteps.
Codex helps Chan’s team explore mathematical shortcuts that avoid following every spiral directly, while still producing numerical schemes researchers can inspect, test and compare with known solutions.
Chan, part of the Event Horizon Telescope team that released the first black hole image in 2019, says better simulations are needed as the collaboration pushes from still images toward the first video of M87’s black hole.
If the AI-assisted methods hold up under repeated verification, they could unlock decades-out-of-reach studies of plasma physics around black holes.
What secrets about the universe could be unlocked by the first-ever movie of a black hole?
As AI writes new laws for black hole physics, how can we be sure it is not cleverly wrong?
Is the future of cosmic discovery in human minds or in the algorithms of artificial intelligence?
From Static Snapshots to Moving Images: AI’s 1000-Fold Impact on Black Hole Research with the Event Horizon Telescope
Overview
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration made history by delivering the first-ever images of black holes, starting with the supermassive black hole in M87, published in 2019 after observations began in 2017. This achievement was followed by the unveiling of Sagittarius A* in 2022, also based on 2017 data. These milestones have set the stage for the EHT’s next ambitious goal: capturing the first moving image of a black hole, targeted for release around 2027. Each breakthrough builds on the last, driving the frontier of black hole imaging and deepening our understanding of the universe.