Hawking Gracefully, Formally Loses Black Hole Bet 485
Liora writes "Today at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Dublin, Cambridge University professor Stephen Hawking said in his talk titled The Information Paradox for Black Holes that he was wrong about the formation of an event horizon in a black hole, and that matter is not destroyed in a way defying subatomic theory, as he had previously believed. According to the talk's short, "the way the information gets out seems to be that a true event horizon never forms, just an apparent horizon." A New York Times story and a Wired story are available, both apparently based on Reuters information." (This is the formal announcement promised last week.)
how many....didn't he already....what the..... (Score:5, Funny)
More info.. (Score:4, Funny)
I didn't know hawking sold so well
Anyway, to be on topic - can someone give more technical information on this? Many of us probably have a fairly high understanding of maths and physics, and want more details...
No parallel universes? Bastard! (Score:5, Funny)
Yikes (Score:2, Funny)
That man is way too smart to be a human.
He Better Pay.... (Score:1, Funny)
UserFriendly (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yikes (Score:5, Funny)
My theory... (Score:1, Funny)
If they come out ok - black holes are cool and can spit out matter.
If they come out mangled, or you're left with a frayed end on said string, black holes are not cool and best stayed away from...
Well... Duh (Score:5, Funny)
Note to all you freshman physics students (Score:1, Funny)
Remember it well. It will get you out of a jam every time.
Obligatory Futurma episode quotation (Score:5, Funny)
Hawking: Sure. Why not?
Fry: Let me ask you something. Has anyone ever discovered a hole in nothing with monsters in it? [Hawking's eyes widen in horror.] 'Cause if I'm the first, I want them to call it a "Fry Hole."
Later:
Fry: So what do you nerds want?
Nichols: It's about that rip in space-time that you saw.
Hawking: I call it a "Hawking Hole."
Fry: No fair! I saw it first!
Hawking: Who is The Journal Of Quantum Physics going to believe?
Interesting note: Apparently Stephen Hawking did provide his voice for that episode.
Aww crap! (Score:4, Funny)
Matter can escape!? (Score:3, Funny)
For the grammatically challenged (Score:5, Funny)
For those grammatically declined I'll explain it to you with an analogy. It's like when you were in high school and used mirrors to peek around the corner into the girl's locker room. The naked chick in the mirror is the APPARANT horizon. The naked chick that kicks the testes back inside your body shortly after DOES NOT EXIST.
Also, just for laughs (ok...hopefully for mod points too, I admit) Hawking is also a freaking awesome DJ and serial killer on the side. All my Shootin's be driveby's [berkeley.edu]
Wu's site [berkeley.edu] has other cool stuff to see too. (not a plug, just want to give credit to where the song is downloaded from)
Re:how many....didn't he already....what the..... (Score:5, Funny)
I still believe his original theory is true!!! (Score:2, Funny)
and I still don't see any trace of it.
Re:Baloney! (Score:4, Funny)
Amen Brother! It's all a con game. Hawking and the rest of his Star Strek and time travel fanatics have been bulshitting the world with their time warps and wormholes for a long time. I wonder when someone is going to expose those con artists for good.
Re:Yikes (Score:3, Funny)
I think it's just conclusive proof he writes his papers with a program similar to the following:
Re:More info.. (Score:3, Funny)
(Lousy
Re:Fails to give wheelchair ride? (Score:3, Funny)
Hmmm... (Score:2, Funny)
MC Hawking's breif history of rhyme (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good for Hawking (Score:4, Funny)
A Brief History of the Internet (comic) (Score:2, Funny)
and be sure and do the JoyPoll, we've added a bonus Al Gore cameo.
Re:Cricket vs Baseball (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yikes (Score:2, Funny)
Parse error: reader too dumb.
The Euclidean path integral
OK.. I'm with you here, Hawking.. don't see what an integral has to do with black holes, but OK..
over all topologically trivial metrics can be done by time slicing
Slow down.. not sure what's going on here
and so is unitary when analytically continued to the Lorentzian
Gah? Wait.. I think I heard something about this Lorentz guy.. ooh, my brain is starting to hurt!
On the other hand, the path integral over all topologically non-trivial metrics is asymptotically independent of the initial state
Well, isn't that just stating the obvious (OK.. now I'm just trying to sound smart).
Thus the total path integral is unitary and information is not lost in the formation and evaporation of black holes.
OK.. he goes from a math equation to black holes? I don't see the jump.
The way the information gets out seems to be that a true event horizon never forms, just an apparent horizon.
Good enough of an explanation for me! Forget all the rest of the stuff..
Bah.. Need to wait for A Slightly Longer History of Time to be released before I understand this stuff!
Re:Fails to give wheelchair ride? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:how many....didn't he already....what the..... (Score:3, Funny)
timecube (Score:1, Funny)
Re:More info.. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:So what's the status of his bet with Kip Thorne (Score:3, Funny)
Re:HA! (Score:3, Funny)