View Full Version : Black hole radiation?


god-of-course
08-16-03, 09:56 AM
when particles orbit black holes they give off radiation right? whats this form of radiation called?
also when one particle steal energy from another to escape a black hole what is this effect called?

god-of-course
08-16-03, 10:15 AM
note: i know one is hawking radiation, which one? and what is the other

James R
08-16-03, 10:22 AM
<i>when particles orbit black holes they give off radiation right? whats this form of radiation called?</i>

I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about here. Particles can orbit black holes quite happily without radiating.

<i>also when one particle steal energy from another to escape a black hole what is this effect called?</i>

Particles don't actually steal energy from each other to escape from a black hole. In fact, no particle can ever escape from a black hole by any means if it is inside the event horizon.

Probably what you're thinking of here is Hawking radiation, where two particles are created from the vacuum just outside the horizon and one falls into the hole whilst the other one escapes.

2inquisitive
08-16-03, 11:46 PM
I'm confused here James. I have seen it said many times that no
particle can ever escape a singularity. I also have seen it said many
times that over billions of years, even the largest black holes will
evaporate, smaller ones sooner. What happens to the particles
in the singularity when it evaporates? I have seen different theories
as to how black holes may evaporate, mainly by Hawking radation
and Quantum tunneling. Would not the particles from the singularity
still need to get past the event horizon before the black hole can
evaporate? Or possibly you support the model of the non-evaporating
black hole, which I have also read of. I am just a layman, but there
seems so many models to me. One of the latest papers I saw
published had a model of a black hole with FIVE singularities, in
the shape of a pentagon! Very confusing. Thanks.

Lucas
08-17-03, 01:25 AM
when particles orbit around a black hole they radiate by synchrotron radiation

James R
08-18-03, 07:10 AM
2inquisitive:

Black holes are supposed to evaporate due to Hawking radiation. When particles are created just outside the event horizon, they effectively "steal" energy from the black hole itself. The energy is carried off by the Hawking radiation particles which escape. Since the creation happens outside the horizon, no particles actually cross from the inside to the outside, yet the mass of the hole gradually decreases.

You need to realise that this is all theoretical right now, so nobody really knows what would happen when the black hole was reduced to a very small size by Hawking radiation. For example, the question of what would happen to the singularity in the end is still an open question.

2inquisitive
08-18-03, 08:07 AM
Thanks, JamesR. The part that has me confused is where is the
"stolen" energy comming from? I know the theory says the
black hole itself, but I guess I just envision the singularity to be
seperated from the event horizon and wondered how the energy
crossed the gap. I guess my idea is not accurate, I had also read
something about Quantum tunneling, I thought to explain how the
energy got from the singularity to the event horizon, but it looks to
me like it would still mean something escaping the singularity. That
is the source of my confusion.

Edited for addition: I want to add that I am not asking for more
discussion, I do realize that it is not important anyway. It just
always raised a question in my mind every time I saw the standard
model theory's statement of a singularity that nothing could ever
escape and that the black hole would evaporate over time.