Module 6: Crossing the Event Horizon

Event horizon – hides the singularity

Video 2: The Event Horizon

Have an inside and outside separate dby the event horizon

Sun is a big ball of gas with a surface
Most of the gas is actually found in the inner surface
Solar winds transmit gas from inside to outside – present aurora
Photosphere – outermost layer of Sun – what we see when we look at sun in visible light
Cant look deeper into the sun because the hot gas blocks the light
Beyond photosphere: chromosphere and corona – hard to see
Black holes don’t have surface – event horizon – separates interior from outer region
Event horizon easy to define because nothing will escape past it
Event horizon – boundary – point of no return for material that has fallen in
Hydrostatic equilibrium – balance bw gravity and gas pressure in the interior of stars
Gravitational attraction – brings all gas to inner of star
Gas pressure put force outwards to prevent grav collapse
When both are balanced then the star will stay the same size over time
Star being compressed – stronger grav pull to center and strong gas pressure outwrds
Compress gas – within schwarschild radius – need infinite gas pressure to push outward to
prevent collapse
Matter cant be at rest inside event horizon
Light rays bent – no gravity = light travels in straight lines; with gravity, light is curved towards
center of mass
Star and blackhole, have same mass – more dense.
Sun radius – 700,000km vs black hole of same mass will have radius of 3km
It is much easier to get to the center of a black hole
Radius of non-rotating black hole – schwarschild radius
Non-rotating black hole
Formula for schwarschild radius – Rs = 2GM/c^2 (M = black hole mass)
When black hole is not rotating – event horizon is a sphere – radius is proportional to black
hole’s mass
Double mass – radius doubles.
Rs – 3 km of sun
CygX1 – 15 times larger than Sun – event horizon is 3 x 15
Event horizon’s for supermass bhs is farther away from center – tidal forces smaller
Larger black hole mass – weaker tidal force
2 black holes collide – form one larger black hole
closer light to black hole – light is more curved
special distance at which light travels in circle around sun – Photon sphere – 1.5 Rs – similar to
ISCO – they are unstable – photon stuck in photon sphere – only small movement needed to
move inward to event horizon – photon sphere “ring of fire”
light emitted from accretion discs gets trapped in circular orbits around event horizon – ring of
fire
escaping photons form bright ring around the black hole
event horizon telescope
flashlight closer to black hole – cross event horizon
gravitational time dilation stretches time the observer sees
time interval bw pulses stretched
falling in towards black hole, astronaut will receive pulses at same rate 1 pulse/sec
the astro will still receive signals even after entering event horizon
singularity – foreign to law of physics – event horizons shield this – cosmic censorship
hypothesis

Video 3: The Singularity

Supermassive black hole – pass through event horizon – in the interior

Cant send info past event horizon
All emitted by stars and galaxies emitted outside black hole
Shine flashlight – point inward to small values of radius
3 spatial dimensions (front-back, left-right, up-down)
time is also a dimension
within event horizon, radial coordinate (how far you are from black hole) switches meaning
with time
cant go back in time.
In black hole – cant go back in space – move to small value of radius – same as moving in time
Cant go back in time
Star is a sphere, size of stars radius – same size for all time – surface of star is a straight line
Star is a sphere, collapsing – surface is a curve – as time inc upwards, dist bw surface and center
of star decreases with time
At one moment in time, surface of star is at same distance as schwarschild radius (Rs)
This is when the event horizon forms – straight line at 45 degrees
Region below line of event horizon is outside of the black hole
Region above line of event horizon is inside of the black hole – r=0 singularity
Jagged line = time in the future
Penrose diagram – interior of black hole
advanced versions – compact regions of space
r – time coordinate
any object dropped into event horizon – falls at r=0
light rays travel upward path at 45 degrees
outside of event horizon – light can travel on 2 paths – escaping out of black hole right or left
falling into the event horizon
light emitted inside of event horizon travels on 45 degree angle – it will hit the jagged r =0 line
mass of black hole – higher mass larger, fall takes longer
Tfall = 15 x10^-6s(M/Msun)
Black hole CygX1 – 15x Msun – have 0.2 ms to tour interior – how quick lids blink
Supermassive black hole – 4 hrs to fall from event horizon to the singularity at the center
Center of black hole at r=0 lovation of singularity – at time in future – wont see or experience
till reach it
All of mass that has fallen into black hole – accum at center and is compacted into zero volume
Predict that an observer would exp infinitely strong tidal forces – no one would survive this
Newton’s attractive force – F= GM1M2/r^2  allow distance r to become close together then
set r=0 then, undefined – provide context – mass takes up space, cant have zero separation.
R=0 is singularity – equations don’t make sense - look for new explanation
Einstein’s eq – divergence of grav fields
Shortcoming is – don’t include modern knowledge of quantum mechanics – wave functions;
governs behaviours of particles. Einstein – assumes we know speed and mass of particles. There
is limit to how precisely we can det location and speed of particles.
Need to combine quantum theory with general relativity
Quantum gravity
String theory – eq that might describe quantum gravity – not solved yet
Cosmic censorship hypothesis – hide singularity – naked singularities cant form; unproven
Naked sing – no way to predict what it emits
Big bang – naked singularity?
Video 4: Spinning Black Holes

Rotating black hole

Rotation of black hole changes innermost stable circular orbit
For non- rotating black hole the ISCO was 3 times further from center than a schwarschild black
hole
Rotating black hole ISCO can shrink so that it can meet the event horizon
Black hole spins faster – ISCO and event horizon can move in closer – ½ of schwarschild radius
Angular momentum
Infalling particles have angular momentum – law of conservation of angular momentum
Says that particles contribute angular momentum to black hole
Perfect schwars black hole unlikely to exist
Limit to how quick black holes can spin
Rotation drags spacetime with it
Spacetime rotates around rotating black hole = frame-dragging
Rotation depends on original spin and what material falls in
If all mass of black hole trapped in zero volume singularity- how can it have moment of inertia
1963 – Kerr: properties of rotating black hole. Moment inertia cant be characterized. Rotation is
characterized by: 0<a<1
a = Jc/M^2G
J = angular momentum of the black hole
M = mass of the black hole
G= Newton’s gravitational constant

Black hole not rotating – a = 0

Spinning maximally a= 1
Black hole spins fast – event horizon and ISCO shrinks in
Both ISCO and event horizon will coincide and make up ½ the Rs for max rotation
Radius of ISCO goes from 3x to ½ of Rs as black hole speed goes from a=0 to a=1
Max allowed spin freq at event horizon = 16,000Hz
Max freq = 16, 000Hz (M/Msun)
Higher mass black holes must spin at a slower rate
Chandrasekhar
Spacetime twist change movement of particles
Closer to event horizon – anything past event horizon is twist and turned
Kerr black hole – event horizon shrinks, particles spiral around black hole when black hole
rotating
Ergospehere = outer boundary – stationary limit – spacecraft can park without being sucked
into the black hole
Once enter the stationary limit into the ergosphere and travel in opposite direction to the black
hole rotation will eventually get sucked into the black hole.
Ergosphere isn’t spherical but an ellipsoid
Event horizon – spherical
Ergosphere envelopes the event horizon and only touches at the spin axis
Ergosphere and event horizon are boundaries not objects
Ergosphere – ergon”work” – extract energy from black hole- to escape
Stealing energy from black hole rotating – penrose process
Energy of particle becomes negative – in ergosphere bc of change in coordinate at the
stationary limit
Store energy as angular momentum of black hole – use at later time
Measure grav effects – gravity probe B – investigate how strong frame dragging events –
contains 4 gyroscopes; most spherical objects ever made
Event horizon of Kerr black hole – outer horizon and inner horizon hidden inside; outer = same
as event horizon (boundary from nothing can escape), fall through inner horizon (Cauchy
horizon) – info cant escape  boundary where info from entire history of universe is
compressed. Crossing Cauchy horizon – inc energy density.
Ring singularity – rotating kerr black hole
Point sing – schar black hole
Black hole spins fast enough then the horizons will disappear and the singularity will be visible
No event horizon – then have a naked singularity
Cant spin black hole faster than max amount
Pass through Cauchy horizon and cosmic sensor, could enter singularity and enter new universe

Video 5: Wormholes

Apple = schwarschild worm hole

Skin of apple – 4d spacetime
Flesh – dimension
Wormhole looks like black hole – opens up into distant region of spacetime
White hole – ejects matter from event horizon
Spacetime bridge – Einstein rosen bridge
Wormhole – connection bw two points in spacetime – Meissner and wheeler
Whiteholes and wormholes hypothetical – no evidence
Wormholes can exist – can tunnel through space and time
Wormholes unstable – close up quickly
Neck could be help open to repel closing of the walls
Spherical wormhole held open by negative energy density
Ellis wormhole