View Full Version : black holes and quantum mechanics


cephas1012
04-06-04, 07:55 PM
I know it is said that all known laws of physics breakdown in a black hole, so maybe this question isnt valid, but I will try asking it anyways.

Is the singularity of a black hole a violation of the uncertainty prinicple?
Could a particle in a black hole "tunnel" to the outside of the black hole and escape?

James R
04-06-04, 11:52 PM
Answers, as far as I know:

1. Nobody knows. We need a quantum theory of gravity to answer this.
2. Probably not, since it would require infinite energy to escape from inside a black hole, and even tunnelling could not "borrow" that kind of energy to allow a particle to escape.

John Connellan
04-07-04, 06:04 AM
Well the question in 2) is could it escape, and I would have to say yes but with an infinitely low probability. It would be the product of all the probabilities of the particle getting to near the edge of the black hole, then the probability of the particle borrowing the energy to escape the event horizon. Very low.

cephas1012
04-07-04, 02:00 PM
Answers, as far as I know:

1. Nobody knows. We need a quantum theory of gravity to answer this.
2. Probably not, since it would require infinite energy to escape from inside a black hole, and even tunnelling could not "borrow" that kind of energy to allow a particle to escape.

I figured that would be the case.

Maybe some of these questions can be answered then...With respect to a theory of quantum gravity, is it likely that the probaility distribution of a particle determines the gravitational force it would exert on other particles? Or maybe I should ask, how do you think the probability distribution of a particle would be related to the gravitational force it exerts? Also, would a quantum theory of gravity be similiar in form to QED?