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Flat Earth Investigations / Black Holes and Paper Cuts
« on: April 01, 2020, 02:04:08 AM »
My philosophy on scientific theory is simple: it is a house of cards. There's the natural to urge to want to focus in one some small aspect of a model in discussion and exclusively talk about that, but that has very limited use because no part of a model ever stands alone. Every statement has prerequisites and consequences. The way to analyze a model is to look at how it all comes together. You look at the assumptions, you look at the consequences, and most importantly you look at what is held as reasonable. If those developing the model consider as reasonable an absurdity, those are sufficient grounds to question the rigidity of whatever framework they use.
So let's look at black holes, specifically microscopic black holes. Technically speaking much of these are theory, but it is a well-respected theory, so we can certainly use it to examine the character of mainstream RE scientists.
As most of us probably know, black holes are formed by incredibly dense masses, where mass exerts gravity, and the mass is within such a small volume that there is a radius around it where the gravity is so extreme that not even light can escape from it. They are inescapable.
It is also commonly held that these black holes do indeed collapse. That is, energy escapes them.
The astute among you will notice that this seems contradictory. If nothing can escape a black hole, then how does it run out of mass, how does the gravitational force run down?
The answer to this is is Hawking radiation. However, examination of what this entails will unearth a contradiction, but bear with me for a moment as I explain the concept for those unaware of it. Hawking radiation relies upon so-called 'virtual-particles,' which are posited as a particle and anti-particle pair that come into existence spontaneously, and annihilate each other in an instant, thus meaning no new mass is created and the laws of physics are followed. That, broadly speaking, is the theory. (I'm assuming a basic understanding of anti-matter). This ties to quantum theory, that any energy is ultimately composed of quanta, so any energy on a quantum level is composed of these particle/anti-particle pairs appearing and annihilating each other to produce said energy. It's complicated, but the basics are there.
Now, at a black hole, should a particle/anti-particle pair appear on the event horizon, the border between being able to escape a black hole and being trapped, they would be separated. That is, one particle would be drawn into the black hole, and one would be sent outwards. They would not come into contact and not annihilate each other, and the black hole will seem to emit radiation in the form of that half-pair. This is Hawking Radiation.
The claim is that this essentially acts as a black hole emitting its energy, and thus weakening.
Except... it isn't, is it? The virtual particles are the source of the radiation, not the mass within the black hole. So why, then is it so commonly held that this would work?
Let's look at the easy answers.
One is the claim that the virtual particles are just the manifestation of the energy contained within the black hole's gravitational field. Thus, the virtual particle being lost and not becoming energy will in fact weaken the gravitational pull, and thus ultimately shrink the event horizon until the black hole is no more. This, however, does not make sense. The mass in the black hole is not changing, that is source of the gravitational pull, it isn't being 'used up,' it isn't being teleported out to the event horizon. What this idea says is that mass will end up existing without exerting any gravitational pull, because when the black hole collapse, the superdense mass will still be there, unaffected by the virtual particles. This is fundamentally at odds with the laws of physics this model relies upon. Even somehow involving odd quantum phenomena like entanglement doesn't resolve this precisely because the lost particle is by definition not being destroyed.
One might then ask about the particle that goes into the black hole. If anything you would expect it to gain mass, not lose it. Some of you might have argued that the anti-particle is what is to blame, annihilating the matter inside the black hole particle by particle, until it is just energy captured and there's no mass to sustain the event horizon. This too is illogical. Statistically, it is equally likely that a particle will be the half of the pair to go inwards, as opposed to the anti-particle. The mass annihilated by any anti-particle would be replenished by a particle, and vice versa. The mass stays constant.
In conclusion, the central mass of a black hole is unaffected by whatever virtual particles do at the event horizon, and yet we are supposed to believe its gravitational pull will diminish just because.
True, we are in the realms of more theoretical science here, but these are the respected thinkers, these are the ones pushing frontiers. Why is such absurdity even considered?
Well, because it follows from believed statements, and that a black hole is needed to decay because if it doesn't the model would predict mass being generated by nothing, something too unreasonable. It demonstrates a willingness to bend the rules by supposed respected figures, and indicates the model is held together by string and hope when these are the things that are actually considered, actually studied, rather than be expected to develop to a worthwhile level.
It's like a paper cut. It's small, seemingly insignificant, but if you get a lot of them, the effect can be rather more worrying indeed. There are countless tiny flaws, things you look at and assume it's nothing, but all together they paint a worrying picture indeed about the state of RET.
So let's look at black holes, specifically microscopic black holes. Technically speaking much of these are theory, but it is a well-respected theory, so we can certainly use it to examine the character of mainstream RE scientists.
As most of us probably know, black holes are formed by incredibly dense masses, where mass exerts gravity, and the mass is within such a small volume that there is a radius around it where the gravity is so extreme that not even light can escape from it. They are inescapable.
It is also commonly held that these black holes do indeed collapse. That is, energy escapes them.
The astute among you will notice that this seems contradictory. If nothing can escape a black hole, then how does it run out of mass, how does the gravitational force run down?
The answer to this is is Hawking radiation. However, examination of what this entails will unearth a contradiction, but bear with me for a moment as I explain the concept for those unaware of it. Hawking radiation relies upon so-called 'virtual-particles,' which are posited as a particle and anti-particle pair that come into existence spontaneously, and annihilate each other in an instant, thus meaning no new mass is created and the laws of physics are followed. That, broadly speaking, is the theory. (I'm assuming a basic understanding of anti-matter). This ties to quantum theory, that any energy is ultimately composed of quanta, so any energy on a quantum level is composed of these particle/anti-particle pairs appearing and annihilating each other to produce said energy. It's complicated, but the basics are there.
Now, at a black hole, should a particle/anti-particle pair appear on the event horizon, the border between being able to escape a black hole and being trapped, they would be separated. That is, one particle would be drawn into the black hole, and one would be sent outwards. They would not come into contact and not annihilate each other, and the black hole will seem to emit radiation in the form of that half-pair. This is Hawking Radiation.
The claim is that this essentially acts as a black hole emitting its energy, and thus weakening.
Except... it isn't, is it? The virtual particles are the source of the radiation, not the mass within the black hole. So why, then is it so commonly held that this would work?
Let's look at the easy answers.
One is the claim that the virtual particles are just the manifestation of the energy contained within the black hole's gravitational field. Thus, the virtual particle being lost and not becoming energy will in fact weaken the gravitational pull, and thus ultimately shrink the event horizon until the black hole is no more. This, however, does not make sense. The mass in the black hole is not changing, that is source of the gravitational pull, it isn't being 'used up,' it isn't being teleported out to the event horizon. What this idea says is that mass will end up existing without exerting any gravitational pull, because when the black hole collapse, the superdense mass will still be there, unaffected by the virtual particles. This is fundamentally at odds with the laws of physics this model relies upon. Even somehow involving odd quantum phenomena like entanglement doesn't resolve this precisely because the lost particle is by definition not being destroyed.
One might then ask about the particle that goes into the black hole. If anything you would expect it to gain mass, not lose it. Some of you might have argued that the anti-particle is what is to blame, annihilating the matter inside the black hole particle by particle, until it is just energy captured and there's no mass to sustain the event horizon. This too is illogical. Statistically, it is equally likely that a particle will be the half of the pair to go inwards, as opposed to the anti-particle. The mass annihilated by any anti-particle would be replenished by a particle, and vice versa. The mass stays constant.
In conclusion, the central mass of a black hole is unaffected by whatever virtual particles do at the event horizon, and yet we are supposed to believe its gravitational pull will diminish just because.
True, we are in the realms of more theoretical science here, but these are the respected thinkers, these are the ones pushing frontiers. Why is such absurdity even considered?
Well, because it follows from believed statements, and that a black hole is needed to decay because if it doesn't the model would predict mass being generated by nothing, something too unreasonable. It demonstrates a willingness to bend the rules by supposed respected figures, and indicates the model is held together by string and hope when these are the things that are actually considered, actually studied, rather than be expected to develop to a worthwhile level.
It's like a paper cut. It's small, seemingly insignificant, but if you get a lot of them, the effect can be rather more worrying indeed. There are countless tiny flaws, things you look at and assume it's nothing, but all together they paint a worrying picture indeed about the state of RET.