According to a recent study, black holes have characteristics of quantum particles, implying that they can be both small and large, heavy and light, or dead and alive, like the fabled Schrödinger's cat.

The goal of the new study, which was based on computer modelling, was to discover the elusive link between the rules governing the behaviour of the smallest subatomic particles and the mind-boggling time-warping physics of supermassive objects like black holes.

The research team created a mathematical model that positioned a fictitious quantum particle just outside a massive fictitious black hole. According to the simulation, the black hole demonstrated quantum superposition, or the capacity to simultaneously exist in multiple states. In this case, this meant that it could be both massive and completely inert.

Joshua Foo, a PhD student in theoretical physics at the University of Queensland and the study's principal author, said in a statement: 'We wanted to investigate whether [black holes] could have drastically different masses at the same time, and it turns out they do'. We haven't looked at whether black holes exhibit some of the strange and amazing phenomena of quantum physics in depth up until now.

The goal of the new study, which was based on computer modelling, was to discover the elusive link between the rules governing the behaviour of the smallest subatomic particles and the mind-boggling time-warping physics of supermassive objects like black holes.

The research team created a mathematical model that positioned a fictitious quantum particle just outside a massive fictitious black hole. According to the simulation, the black hole demonstrated quantum superposition, or the capacity to simultaneously exist in multiple states. In this case, this meant that it could be both massive and completely inert.

The renowned Schrödinger's cat, a thought experiment created by scientist Erwin Schrödinger in the early 20th century to highlight some of the fundamental problems with quantum physics, is the most well-known example of quantum superposition. Until they interact with the outside world, subatomic particles are said to exist in several states simultaneously, according to quantum theories. The particle enters one of the potential states as a result of this contact, which could be as simple as being measured or detected.

The experiment was designed to show the absurdity of quantum theory because it would imply that a cat locked in a box could be both dead and alive based on the irrational behaviour of atoms, at least until an observer broke the superposition. Schrödinger was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.

But as it proved out, a quantum particle may in fact exist in a double state, but a cat in a box may be dead regardless of the observer's actions. And the most recent research suggests that a black hole also does.