New theoretical research suggests that black hole While it may not completely evaporate, this contradicts Stephen Hawking’s infamous theory and appears to violate the fundamental laws of the universe. quantum mechanics. Instead, black holes may leave behind small, stable remnants that store all the information they once consumed, the study suggests.
But there’s a twist, literally. For this theory to work, there must be three additional hidden dimensions in the universe that humans cannot perceive, making spacetime seven-dimensional. As these hidden dimensions fold and twist, they create repulsive forces that prevent the black hole from completely evaporating.
A paradox that questions the foundations of physics
black hole It is often thought of as a cosmic trap from which nothing can escape. But since the 1970s, physicists have known that these cosmic giants aren’t completely black. Famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking believes that black holes are emit radiation And it slowly evaporates over time, creating a perplexing contradiction known as the information loss paradox.
‘Imagine throwing a book into a fire,’ study co-author Richard Pinchaksaid a senior researcher at the Institute of Experimental Physics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences to Live Science via email. “The book was destroyed, but in principle all the words could be reconstructed from the smoke, ash and heat. The information was scrambled, not lost.”
But when a black hole completely evaporates, information about everything that fell into it appears to disappear, violating a central principle of quantum mechanics.
For decades, physicists have struggled to resolve this contradiction. Now, a new study published in the journal March 19th general relativity and gravitysuggests that the answer may lie in the hidden structure of space-time itself.
Extra dimensions and the hidden structure of spacetime
New research explores a universe with more dimensions than the well-known four. In this framework, the universe contains seven dimensions, three of which are invisible on compact, everyday scales.
“We experience four dimensions: three dimensions of space and one dimension of time,” Pinchak said. “Our model proposes that there are actually seven dimensions in the universe. In addition to the four we know, there are three small extra dimensions so densely packed that we cannot directly perceive them.”
These additional dimensions are arranged in a highly symmetrical structure known as the G2 geometry. This mathematical framework is often considered in advanced theories such as: string theory This theory, known as M-theory, determines how hidden dimensions are “folded.”
“Think of it like origami,” Pinchak says. “The way you fold the paper determines the final shape.”
In the new model, this geometry creates a physical effect called twisting. You can think of this as a space-time twist. It turns out that this torsion field plays an important role in black hole physics.
Twisting and the birth of stable black hole remnants
This study shows that twisting generates repulsive forces that become important at very small scales near the end of a black hole’s life. As the black hole shrinks due to Hawking radiation, this force eventually stops it from collapsing further.
“This repulsion acts as a brake, stopping the black hole from evaporating before it dies completely,” Pinchak said.
Rather than disappearing, black holes become stable as small remnants. According to the model, this leftover object has a mass of about 9 × 10-4¹ kilograms, which is about 10 billion times smaller than an electron.
Importantly, this debris can preserve the information that fell into the black hole, avoiding violations of quantum mechanics. Information is encoded in subtle vibrations known as quasi-normal modes, which act as carriers for lost data.
This model also particle physics: The existence of three hidden dimensions, along with the presence of torsion, generates a pattern of particle interactions that is responsible for the Higgs mechanism, a phenomenon that gives mass to subatomic particles such as electrons and quarks.
“The same torsion field… produces a potential energy landscape identical in shape to that responsible for giving mass to the W and Z bosons that carry the weak nuclear force,” Pinchak said.
This link connects the behavior of black holes to the electroweak scale, an energy scale well known from particle physics.
Where new theories reach their limits
Despite its appeal, this model faces significant challenges. The standard explanation of black hole evaporation relies on a semi-classical approximation and is expected to decay on very small scales around the Planck mass (about 10).-5 grams. This is the mass scale at which the influence of quantum gravity becomes so strong that it cannot be ignored.
“As black holes shrink toward the Planck scale, all existing models, including ours, will eventually face a transition into the deep quantum gravity regime,” Pinchak noted.
In this regime, complete quantum gravity theory is necessary, but such a theory remains incomplete. The new study does not claim to completely solve the problem. Instead, we provide a concrete mechanism for how new physics emerges during the final stage of evaporation.
“What’s unique about our approach is that we don’t claim that semiclassical evaporation works all the way down to the residue,” Pinchak said. “At that point, new physical effects…take over and stabilize the configuration.”
It is very difficult to test theories directly. The energy scales involved are far beyond the reach of current particle accelerators. However, this model makes clear predictions that can be tested in principle.
For example, the hypothetical Kaluza-Klein particle associated with the extra dimension is predicted to have a mass of about 10¹⁶ gigaelectronvolts. This is about 14 orders of magnitude heavier than the heaviest known elementary particle, the top quark. If current or future accelerators detect lighter versions of these particles, the model will rule them out.
Another possibility involves observing the final stages of black hole evaporation, especially for primordial black holes. Future gamma-ray telescopes and gravitational wave detectors may provide indirect evidence of stable debris.
“The important thing is that the predictions are specific. The model could be wrong, which is what makes it scientific,” Pinchak said.
Looking ahead, the researchers aim to link their framework directly to fundamental theories such as M-theory to better understand how information is stored in debris. If confirmed, the idea that black holes leave behind tiny, information-rich remnants could revolutionize our understanding of gravity, quantum mechanics, and the fundamental structure of the universe.
Pinčák, R., Pigazzini, A., Pudlák, M., and Bartoš, E. (2026). Geometric origin of stable black hole remnants from twisting of G$$_2$$manifold geometry. general relativity and gravity, 58(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-026-03528-z
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