carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu (03/13/89)
/* Written 4:30 pm Mar 6, 1989 by kpmancus@phoenix.Princeton.EDU in s.cs.uiuc.edu:sci.space */
Easy. The forces that hold a macroscopic object together are
electromagnetic. They require the exchange of virtual photons between
the particles to be held together. When the object extends across the
event horizon, the photons can no longer go from the atoms inside the
black hole to the atoms outside. Thus the tether is neatly sliced.
/* - - */
Wouldn't that imply that anything going across the horizon would be reduced
to fundamental particles? The nucleons wouldn't be able to exchange strong
force particles (pions?), and the quarks wouldn't be able to exchange gluons,
etc.
But I've always thought that this is all moot, anyway. Given the prior existence
of a black hole (without worrying about where it came from), my understanding
is that due to time dilation effects, it would take an infinite amount of time
for anything to fall from (mostly) flat space across the horizon*. So, nothing's
fallen in yet into any black hole (assuming a finitely old universe). One might
also ask how fast an infalling object is going when it crosses the horizon,
assuming it fell from flat space.
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* `infinite time' for an observer in flat space, finite for the object itself
Alan M. Carroll "And then you say,
carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu We have the Moon, so now the Stars..." - YES
CS Grad / U of Ill @ Urbana ...{ucbvax,pur-ee,convex}!s.cs.uiuc.edu!carrollscotth@harlie.sgi.com (Scott Henry) (03/15/89)
> kpmancus@phoenix.Princeton.EDU in s.cs.uiuc.edu:sci.space : > Easy. The forces that hold a macroscopic object together are > electromagnetic. They require the exchange of virtual photons between > the particles to be held together. When the object extends across the > event horizon, the photons can no longer go from the atoms inside the > black hole to the atoms outside. Thus the tether is neatly sliced. This is incorrect. The definition of the event horizon is the point at which photons cannot escape to *infinity*. This in no way implies that they cannot cross the event horizon, they just cannot make it very far past it (depending on how deep they started). The bonds between atoms (nucleons) would begin to behave *oddly* as the energy of the virtual photons (gluons) would be different as seen by the higher and the lower (gravitationally speaking) particles. How oddly? Who's interested in a PHd thesis (maybe only a Masters)? -- --------------------- Scott Henry <scotth@sgi.com> #include <std_disclaimer.h>