How the Black Hole Firewall Paradox Was Resolved 118
Stephen Hawking's recent comments about the nature of black holes have bred uncertainty about physics concepts that were relatively well understood. This article from astrophysicist Ethan Siegel explains that yes, black holes still exist, and how a group of three academic papers answered the black hole 'firewall' paradox. Quoting:
"... And so what these three papers, in tandem, have done, is demonstrate that there is no firewall and that the resolution to the firewall paradox is that the first assumption, that Hawking radiation is in a pure state, is the one that's flawed. You won't read about this in the popular write-ups because it doesn't have a catchy headline, it's complex, and it's not work by someone that's already very famous for other work. But it's right. Hawking radiation is not in a pure state, and without that pure state, there's no firewall, and no paradox. There is still an incredible amount to learn and understand about black holes, event horizons, and the behavior of quantum systems in strongly curved spacetime, to be sure, and there's lots of very interesting research ahead. These findings arguably raise more questions than they answer, although at least we know that black holes won't fry you when you fall in; it will still be death by spaghettification, not by incineration!"
Re:Begs the question (Score:5, Funny)
Black holes are some of the most dramatic events the cosmos: As round and powerful as his meaty balls, and within spaghettified as his noodly appendages.
Ramen, indeed. The proof of His divine influence is writ in all scales throughout the heavenly quantum sauce.
Re:Begs the question (Score:3, Funny)
I sense a schism forming. Flying Orthodox vs. Liberal Stationary. Go!
Solution (Score:5, Funny)
But what if you reconfigure the main deflector to emit a tachyon pulse