Physicists made a black hole out of light to test Stephen Hawking's elusive radiation theory

Theory Briefing

• Hawking radiation sits where quantum mechanics, general relativity, and thermodynamics all collide — making it one of physics' hardest predictions to test.
• A lab-made black hole built from light lets physicists probe conditions that mimic a real event horizon without needing an actual black hole.
• Hawking's theory predicts black holes slowly leak energy and eventually evaporate — a claim that has never been directly confirmed by observation.
• Testing this in a controlled setting could resolve a decades-old tension between quantum theory and Einstein's gravity.