Three cosmic enigmas, one audacious answer [bye-bye to black holes?]

New Scientist ^ | March 9, 2006 | Zeeya Merali

[null and void]

Black holes are out of sight...

[parsifal]

So I guess this proves that the Big Bang never happened either. Never did believe in it anyway.

parsy, who feels he will someday be vindicated

[beezdotcom]

"It's like we are living inside a giant dark energy star," Chapline says. There is, of course, no explanation yet for how a universe-sized star could come into being.

Similar to some of the previous "our universe is a black hole" speculation. The nice part of this angle, though, is that it should be (ever-so-slightly) easier to envision a means of detection of what's outside, given that quarks could theoretically transition the quantum shell.

(Easier, assuming huge advances in means, methods, and resources, that is...)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[beezdotcom]

Wouldst thou grace us mere mortals with the Schrodinger equations describing the orbitals of these 'hydrinos' so we can work out the binding energies and lifetimes for ourselves?

I guess they would be "suborbitals"....and I strongly suspect the binding energy would be equivalent to that which binds a booger to a finger...

[Kirkwood]

"Ummm, the writer says that information about the matter is lost, not the matter itself."

Do you believe it is possible to have information about all matter in the universe? Of course not because some matter is simply inaccessable. Same goes for matter that is within a black hole. The author simply doesn't know what he is talking about.

[RightWingAtheist]

I read Motl's blog daily. It's a relief to finally find a physics blog that isn't by a leftist moonbat.

[beezdotcom]

Do you believe it is possible to have information about all matter in the universe?

Are you prepared to refute Hawking?

[chimera]

Now see what you've started...

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. There apparently are several holes in the theory of Quantum Mechanics. It predicts well at sub-atomic scale, but not so well at molecular scale and not well at all at cosmic scale.

[Bean Counter]

Chinese Arithmatic *ping*

[snarks_when_bored]

"Ummm, the writer says that information about the matter is lost, not the matter itself."

Do you believe it is possible to have information about all matter in the universe? Of course not because some matter is simply inaccessable. Same goes for matter that is within a black hole. The author simply doesn't know what he is talking about.

Nothing I said suggested that I do. I simply pointed out that you appeared to have mis-read what the author had written. He wasn't speaking of lost matter but rather of information about lost matter—for example, whether it was a '57 Chevy before it fell into the black hole.

A black hole (should such there be) reduces all matter that falls into it to mass, charge and momentum. If a '57 Chevy falls into it, that Chevy is crushed by the singularity and only the mass of its former constituent particles, their collective charge and their collective momenta remain available for measurement (in principle). Hence the information carried by the particulate make-up of the Chevy is (allegedly) lost (unless Hawking is right, or somebody else comes up with a way of 'saving the information').

Of course, the New Scientist writer, Merali, was simply recording the views of George Chapline and his collaborators, so I suppose you're criticizing them. It's unlikely that you know as much physics as, say, Chapline or the Nobel laureate, Robert Laughlin; I know I don't. Do you remain confident that your criticism is justified?

[snarks_when_bored]

I took a glance earlier today at Chapline's "Dark Energy Star" paper and I found nothing in it to suggest that he thought the vacuum energy was causally responsible for the absence of a singularity. But I could've missed it, or he just might not have said it, PH.

[snarks_when_bored]

Now see what you've started...

And it's a very good thing...

[Bender2]

Re: Chapline: black holes don't exist

Hey man! There will always be black hos...

What about us black and white hos?

I for one, like fuzzy yellow and pink hos...

With my luck, they'll outlaw us park bench hos!

Never, my dear! Never! Want to see my bippy?

We fembot hos will always be around... And, NO! I don't want to see your bippy at any price!

Not even for... a case of zee finest German oil?

No! Well... Maybe for two cases...

Well... I was a total ho for Michael Douglas... And what did it get me?

[PatrickHenry]

Placemarker

[edsheppa]

parsy, who feels he will someday be vindicated

Keep the faith brother!

[snarks_when_bored]

You've defined the word 'pastiche' for me, Bender2! (laugh)

[Billthedrill]

Man, I dunno. Do you really think that a physicist of the stature of Ernest Borgnine would have starred in a movie about black holes if they didn't exist?

Another (sniff!) idol overthrown...

[snarks_when_bored]

Well, he'll always be 'Cabbie' to me...