Physicists have taken a notable step towards understanding one of the universe's most extreme environments by recreating key aspects of black hole energy extraction in a laboratory setting. The work, announced on 8 July 2026, demonstrates a wave amplification effect long predicted in theory but never before realised in controlled conditions.
The team at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center built a ring-shaped network of electronic resonators. By modulating the properties of these resonators in a carefully timed sequence, they generated what amounts to synthetic ultrafast rotation. No physical spinning of matter was involved. Electromagnetic waves sent into this system with the right rotational characteristics drew energy from it and emerged amplified.
This experiment reproduces the essential physics of the Penrose-Zel'dovich process. First proposed by Roger Penrose in 1969, the mechanism describes how energy might be extracted from a rotating black hole by exploiting its ergosphere. A related wave amplification idea came from Yakov Zel'dovich two years later. Until now both ideas had remained theoretical.
A platform for broader exploration
The laboratory system offers more than a single demonstration. It creates a versatile experimental platform. Hadiseh Nasari, the lead author and a postdoctoral researcher with the CUNY ASRC Photonics Initiative, described its potential clearly.
This successful experiment moves ideas about extreme rotational dynamics from theory to practice and creates a versatile experimental platform for exploring a broad range of phenomena at the intersection of astrophysics, wave physics, and quantum science.
The principal investigator, Andrea Alù, distinguished professor and Einstein professor of physics at the CUNY Graduate Center and founding director of the CUNY ASRC Photonics Initiative, emphasised the novelty of the wave-matter interaction achieved.
Our approach facilitates a new method of wave-matter interaction in which waves with selected rotational properties extract energy from synthetic time-engineered rotation, producing a form of broadband selective amplification.
Hady Moussa, co-lead author and a former PhD student with the same initiative, confirmed the direct parallel with the original concept.