Information Paradox solved? by the Planck star?

Post Reply New Topic

"Black holes form when a large star runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight. Since there is no known force that can stop this collapse, astrophysicists have always assumed that it forms a singularity, a region of space that is infinitely dense. Now cosmologists think quantum gravity might prevent this complete collapse after all. They say that the same force that stops an electron spiraling into a nucleus might also cause the collapsing star to 'bounce' at scales of around 10^-14cm. They're calling this new state a 'Planck star' and say its lifetime would match that of the black hole itself as it evaporates. That raises the possibility that the shrinking event horizon would eventually meet the expanding Planck star, which emerges with a sudden blast of gamma rays. That radiation would allow any information trapped in the black hole to escape, solving the infamous information paradox. If they're right, these gamma rays may already have been detected by space-based telescopes meaning that the evidence is already there for any enterprising astronomer to tease apart."

source: http://classic.slashdot.org/story/14/02/06/1750254

Here is the ArXiv paper: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1401.6562v4.pdf

Makes sense.

Do you need infinite density to create a "black hole" or just enough to bend light back onto itself by perpetually curving it. Maybe the energy that "spits out" of a "black hole" is the result of this energy swirling around until it reaches a critical state.

Infinite density is not needed. Once the mass of an object becomes large enough for its gravity to be able to pull light in without light being able to escape, then it has the requisite density.

Black holes "evaporate" by the formation of virtual particles near the event horizon - one falls into the black hole and the other escapes. This leaches energy/matter away from the black hole. Eventually the black hole can shrink enough that its event horizon meets its outer limit and that's when things start to get more interesting and you get a gamma ray flash.

It is now thought that matter within a black hole doesn't collapse into a singularity of infinite density, but that it forms a 'planck star'. A bit disappointing in a way, but more realistic and likely. Just need someone to figure out what a finger print of the gamma ray flash would look like and to see if it can be detected by astronomers.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

Fascinating. I'm not a scientist, but I do feel there is something rather amiss with the notion of black holes. Apparently so does Steven Hawking.

Perhaps this will save Steve Carlip et. al. the hassle of explaining just how gravity escapes from "black holes"?

whoa, did not even know what the black hole information paradox was till just now! good condiment to add to the sandwich, thanks

Thanks for the heads-up, slave; I'm putting together a talk about weird things in space and already have four extra black hole theories to write about; here's a fifth

Isn't Modern Physics great? Someone publishes a conjecture in January and by March it is accepted as fact!

That is truly amazing.