Twin Birth Proposed for Colliding Black Holes That Produced Gravitational Waves
孪生黑洞碰撞发出引力波

A flash of light shortly after the detection of gravitational waves could mean that that historic event has an added wrinkle—the black holes that collided may have been born in the same collapsing massive star.  
紧随着引力波信号后的强光一闪，或许在这历史性事件上加上了一道涟漪——诱发引力波的两个相撞的黑洞或许是来自同一个巨大恒星的坍塌。

播音/撰文 克拉拉·莫斯科维茨 (Clara Moskowitz)
翻译 Meatle
审校 乔虹

The news last month that gravitational waves had been discovered made waves throughout the world of science. The finding, from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, showed that extreme gravity can cause ripples in spacetime. In the case studied, the extreme gravity came from two colliding black holes. Now one scientist is suggesting an added wrinkle—that those two black holes might have originated in a single star.
“The situation is similar to a pregnant woman that has twin babies in her belly.” Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He’s proposing the idea in a paper that’s been accepted for publication in theAstrophysical Journal Letters. [Abraham Loeb, Electromagnetic Counterparts to Black Hole Mergers Detected by LIGO]
引力波的发现在世界范围内引起了轰动。激光干涉引力波天文台 (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, 简称LIGO) 的发现表明了极端的引力会引起时空的涟漪。在发现引力波的这个案例中，极端的引力来自两个黑洞的碰撞。现在，一位科学家猜测那两个黑洞来自同一个恒星。“这种状况就像怀有双胞胎的孕妇一样。”来自哈佛-史密森天体物理学院 (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) 的阿维·罗朴 (Avi Loeb) 说。论述他这个猜想的文章被《天体物理学通讯杂志》 (Astrophysical Journal Letters) 所接收。

Loeb became suspicious because just 0.4 seconds after LIGO spotted the gravitational waves, a space telescope called Fermi glimpsed a bright flash of gamma-ray light in the same area of the sky.
罗朴如此猜测是因为LIGO探测到重力波仅0.4秒后，费米空间望远镜在同一宙域中观测到一阵强烈的伽玛射线。

“Detecting such a signal is quite surprising from a collision of two black holes. What could be the source of a flash of light following a black hole merger?”
“我们相当惊讶地观测到两个黑洞的碰撞所产生的信号，但这个信号之后的强光一闪又是源于什么呢？”

Colliding black holes should not produce such light—but the death of a very massive star could.
两个黑洞的碰撞并不会产生这样的强光——但一颗巨大的恒星的消逝会。

“My idea was that if the star is spinning very rapidly to start with, then as its core collapses it produces a bar that breaks into two clumps of matter, sort of like a dumbbell configuration. And these two clumps of matter orbit a common center, and they eventually collapse independently into two black holes.”
“我的想法是，如果那颗恒星在开始的时候以极高的速度旋转，然后它的核心开始崩塌，整颗恒星被拉长成一根棍子，其后棍子被撕裂为两团物质，就像哑铃那种状态。而这两团物质围绕着同一个中心公转，并各自坍塌成为一个黑洞。”

Of course, it’s possible that the Fermi telescope signal was a false alarm. So we’ll see if future gravitational wave detections are also accompanied by flashes of light—supporting the idea that twin black holes collided upon the collapse of a massive star.
当然，这种状况也有可能是费米望远镜的误报。因此我们需要关注其后其他的引力波信号是否也伴随着强光一闪，以此证明双子黑洞的碰撞是源于质量巨大的恒星的坍塌。