New Black Hole Theory: Matter Doesn't Disappear After Entering
Black holes hold unfathomable mysteries, the most mysterious among them is the question of what happens to matter once it is sucked into the black hole. Scientists no longer think that it is lost and irretrievable forever. The latest theory provides a mathematical solution to the "loss paradox" that has plagued black hole physicists. This theory maintains that matter which enters a black hole still exists, in some form, actually disproving Stephen Hawking's theory of material destruction by black holes.
Hawking proposed that as a black hole emits radiation energy, it eventually exhausts itself and it dies out. This signified that all of the information (matter) which the black hole engulfed simply disappeared. This is a direct contradiction of the rules of quantum mechanics, which state that all information must be conserved.
This new study, challenging Hawking, is by Dejan Stojkovic, PhD and professor of physics at the University of Buffalo. Stojkovic's paper states that we can find information about what is inside a black hole by observing the particles emitted. Furthermore, the characteristics of the very object that initially formed the black hole can be calculated as well. Stojkovics findings go on to demonstrate that the matter inside the black hole is conserved, contradicting Hawking.
The paper calculated that an observer standing outside a black hole can recover information about the matter at the heart of the black hole by analyzing particle interactions such as gravitational attraction. Apparently, the scientific community has knows of such correlating information for a while, but this is the first paper flesh out the connection mathematically. Originally, many scientists deemed these correlations as ineffective because they were so minute, but Stojovic calculated that these interactions grow over time, and become large enough to significantly affect calculations.
Black hole physics has been a hot topic for debate among astrophysicists. Although these new findings propose a solution, it may just stoke the fire of the ongoing debate.
Source: Science Daily