The Science of Interstellar

Bicep2, 156–157, 156

big-bang origin of our universe, 17–18, 29, 135, 155–157, 277

gravitational waves from, 155–157

black-hole flight simulator, Andrew Hamilton’s, 288

black holes:

introduced, 21–22

observational evidence for, 51–53

observed at the centers of galaxies, 19

observed at center of Milky Way galaxy, 51–53

observed at center of the Andromeda galaxy, 19–20, 70

number in our Milky Way galaxy, 53

how they are born, 22

properties predicted by Einstein’s relativistic laws, 51

all properties determined by mass and spin, 57

maximum possible spin rate, 59–62

made from warped spacetime, 22, 45–49

warping of space around, 45–49

slowing of time near, 35, 47–49; see also event horizon

whirl of space near, 48–50, 60–61, 77, 80–82, 91–92, 97, 149, 163–164, 175, 193, 247, 284, 295

circumference proportional to mass, 22

radius of black hole, defined, 59

appearance as seen from the bulk, 40–41, 46–49, 49

appearance as seen inside our universe—shadow and gravitational lensing, 12, 50–51, 50, 75–84, 75, 79, 81; see also Gargantua, Interstellar’s black hole; gravitational lensing by black holes

vibrations of, 170–173, 284

typical orbits around, 72, 101, 280

orbital navigation near, 71–72

zoom-whirl orbit, 121

tidal gravity of, 41–42, 44

tidal gravity tears apart stars, 148–149

environment near, is lethal, 100–102, 281

intermediate-mass black hole, see IMBH

small black hole spiraling into a large black hole, 186

collision and merger of two black holes, 151–152, 154–155, 151, 155

Schwarzschild and Kerr metrics for, 51

Paczynski-Wiita approximate description of black hole’s gravity, 296–297

some black-hole formulas, 292–293

references on, 279

see also accretion disks around black holes; critical orbit around a black hole; event horizon; Gargantua, Interstellar’s black hole; gravitational lensing by black holes; jets from black holes; singularities inside black holes

blackboards, Professor Brand’s, 14, 32, 33, 192, 201, 212–213, 220, 221, 274, 286, 295–296

Blandford-Znajek effect, 91–92

blight in crops:

nature of blight, 109–110

specialist vs. generalist, 110–111

Interstellar’s blight:

burning blighted corn, 31

possibility of occurrence, 31–32, 105–106, 109–111, 281

branes:

our universe as a brane in a higher-dimensional bulk, 32, 187–188

predicted by superstring theory, 187–188, 227

used to visualize the warping of space, 37–41

humans, and all known nongravitational particles and fields, confined to our brane, 49–50, 192–193

gravitational field lines bent parallel to our brane, see bulk, confining gravity in

confining branes, 199–201, 285

instability of confining branes: danger of brane collision and destruction of our universe, 219

see also bulk; fifth dimension; Professor Brand’s equation; tesseract

bulk:

descriptions of, 32

used to depict warping of space in our universe, 37–41, 39, 40, 46–49, 46, 47, 48, 49, 62, 128, 129, 131, 135, 139, 141, 142, 155, 186

existence is an educated guess, 32–33

evidence for existence from superstring theory, 186–188, 284

number of dimensions in the bulk, 187–188

confining gravity in, 194–199

problem of, 194–195

solution: curled-up dimensions, 195–196

solution: the Anti-deSitter warp, 196–201

for Interstellar: the Anti-deSitter sandwich and layer, 199–200

buckling instability of the sandwich, 200–201, 219, 219

Einstein’s relativistic laws in the bulk, 32, 224–225, 271

determined by the quantum gravity laws, 225

see also branes; bulk beings; bulk fields in Interstellar; fifth dimension; tesseract; time travel, with a bulk

bulk beings (hypothetical), 189–193, 190, 191, 193

motivated by Abbott’s Flatland, 190–193, 285

their physical nature—made of bulk fields, 192–193

appearance when they pass through our brane, 190–192

gravity, space warp, and space whirl due to, 192–193, 193

in Interstellar, 137, 193, 218, 247, 259, 261, 271

bulk fields in Interstellar:

defined and described, 215–216

tidal gravity and gravitational anomalies due to, 215, 215

Professor Brand’s suspicion that bulk fields control strength of gravity, 217, 286

may hold Interstellar’s wormhole open, 218

may protect our brane from collision with confining branes, 219

embodied in Professor Brand’s equation, 220–222, 295–296

see also Professor Brand’s equation

carbon cycle, 281–282

Cassini space mission (NASA), 72–74

centrifugal forces:

and angular momentum, 101

protect objects from falling into black holes, 67, 101

and stability of orbits, 162, 162, 241–242, 241

and the critical orbit (volcano’s rim), 121, 239–242, 244–245

near a spinning black hole: influence of space whirl, 164

confining gravity in the bulk, see bulk

critical orbit around a black hole, 60, 62–64, 121–122, 239–245, 247, 249

volcano analogy, 239–241, 239, 241, 296–297

explanation in terms of gravitational energy, centrifugal energy, and radial kinetic energy, 240–241

explanation in terms of centrifugal and gravitational forces, 241–242, 241