Can gravitational fields break and reconnect? Einstein's equations suggest they can

More than a century after Einstein first devised the equations that describe gravity, physicists are still finding new ways of interpreting them. Luca Comisso, an associate research scientist in Columbia University's departments of Astronomy and Physics and the Columbia Astrophys

More than a century after Einstein first devised the equations that describe gravity, physicists are still finding new ways of interpreting them. Luca Comisso, an associate research scientist in Columbia University's departments of Astronomy and Physics and the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, and Felipe A. Asenjo of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, recently found a new way of looking at Einstein's equations that reveals a striking analogy with "magnetic reconnection" in plasmas, which occurs when magnetic field lines break and reconnect, powering explosive phenomena such as solar flares.