MadSci Network: Astronomy
Query:

Re: do black holes move faster than light??

Date: Mon May 1 10:45:59 2000
Posted By: william bray, Staff, chemistry, merck research laboratories
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 956788125.As
Message:

Everything inside of a black hole has been debatable since the idea was 
postulated.  

In general, it is safe to say that the definition of the event horizon is 
that this is the radius from the center of the mass at which time is 
infinitely dilated.  This means that time stands still.  A complete stop.  
What occurs within this region therefore does not occur in a time frame 
which resembles the common time you and I experience.  

For instance, the concept of velocity, as your question poses, no longer 
applies, since velocity requires both distance and time.  Distance, in 
fact, being a spacial dimension, and a time dependent variable, also has no 
meaning.  In Euclidian space, the diameter of the black hole is zero, even 
though the observed diameter is measured from the event horizon to the 
event horizon on the opposite side of the mass.  The distance from one side 
to the other is zero.  This is conceived by saying that since time is 
standing still to the observer outside the event horizon, time is 
infinitely fast inside, and the contraction from being an event horizon to 
a singularity occurs infinitely fast.  Thus, the event horizon occurs for 
an infiniteley short period of time, at which point it is considered a 
singularity, whose spacial dimensions are zero, and velocity has no 
meaning.

As for force, these are space-time dependent variables as well.  And all of 
the above applies.

Escaping from a singularity is Big Bang physics.  To the best of my 
knowledge, no one has postulated theory which actually goes back to the 
point of a singularity - all of the theories require a radius slightly 
larger.  Events inside the event horizon in Big Bang theories require other 
space-time dimensions which do not have characteristics like those we can 
observe.  They have purely theoretical properties.

The amount of literature on this subject is extremely vast.  In general, 
look for the names Steven Hawking, Alan Guth, Roger Penrose, and the search 
term Zero Point Field.  That is a good starting point.



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