Physics professor says she has proof that black holes don't exist

[Buster's Uncle]

Physics professor says she has proof that black holes don't exist
The Week
Meghan DeMaria  10:20am ET



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Black holes have inspired everything from sci-fi films to questionably racist greeting cards — which is all the more surprising considering that, according to one scientist, they may not even exist.

Laura Mersini-Houghton, a physics professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says she has mathematic proof that black holes "can never come into being in the first place," according to a statement from the university. Black holes, scientists have long believed, are the "ultimate unknown," because they are "the blackest and most dense objects in the universe." Mersini-Houghton, though, wants to disprove common ideas about the elusive black holes.

Mersini-Houghton looked at two leading theories of the universe, Einstein's theory of gravity and a fundamental law of quantum theory. The theories appear to contradict each other — the quantum theory law says that "no information from the universe can ever disappear," while Einstein's theory "predicts the formation of black holes." But Mersini-Houghton has merged what was known as the "information law paradox," and her findings will make scientists "reimagine the fabric of space-time" and "rethink the origins of the universe," according to the university.

"I'm still not over the shock," Mersini-Houghton said in the statement. "We've been studying this problem for more than 50 years, and this solution gives us a lot to think about."

Previous thought suggests that black holes form when stars collapse, and their gravitational pull creates the black hole. Stephen Hawking proved that black holes release radiation, and Mersini-Houghton has built on Hawking's ideas. She argues that when stars release radiation, they also lose mass — so much mass, in fact, that the star wouldn't have enough density to ever become a black hole.

"Physicists have been trying to merge these two theories — Einstein's theory of gravity and quantum mechanics — for decades, but this scenario brings these two theories together, into harmony," Mersini-Houghton said in the statement. "And that's a big deal."


http://theweek.com/article/index/268684/speedreads-physics-professor-says-she-has-proof-that-black-holes-dont-exist

[Fal]

Isn't this already a well known paradox that's, at least for now, theoretically resolved by the Firewall theory?

[Buster's Uncle]

[shrugs]  Her math doesn't seem to agree with observations/reality...

[Geo]

I'm of course close to ignorant on the subject, but it seems to me she doesn't take into consideration the rapid collapse of the whole mass of a red giant before it goes supernova, and what effects/opportunities that may temporarily create.

[Buster's Uncle]

Doesn't the infinitely greater diameter of an uncollapsed star make all the difference when it comes to quantum effects, anyway?

[Geo]

Doesn't the infinitely greater diameter of an uncollapsed star make all the difference when it comes to quantum effects, anyway?

The mass of a red giant is spread out over a hugely inflated volume compared to its earlier stable state. But I'm not sure that is what you meant?

[Buster's Uncle]

I mean that a black hole is supposed to be a zero point in volume - easy to see how quantum uncertainty would result in mass loss, given a small enough gravity well to escape.  Something the size of a read giant wouldn't have that problem, which I think was the basis of her argument.  Make a quantum jump in THAT volume, and 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the time, you're still inside the star.

[Geo]

I see what you mean now.
Frankly, .

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm sure that's a failure of the write-up, not the theory.  Heckuvan oversight, otherwise.

Event horizons do occupy space, of course - but I never heard of hawking radiation drain being supposed to be significant on a decent-sized black hole...