By Eric Bright
I just read an article claiming that Hawking’s area theorem is observed to be true (see this: https://news.mit.edu/2021/hawkings-black-hole-theorem-confirm-0701 archived here https://archive.ph/qBjsk).
I would like to hear from you what you think about this recent “proof.” There are a few questions in my mind:
How can Hawking’s area theorem, i.e. ‘the area of the event horizon of a black hole should never shrink’ AND Hawking’s radiation be both true at he same time? Aren’t they contradicting each other? If one is true, wouldn’t some of the implications of the other be false?
Let me put it this way, if both are to be true (which seems to be the case anyway), then no black hole can ever radiate out of existence (as is commonly suggested to happen given enough time plus Hawking’s radiation). So, black holes might radiate alright, but they cannot lose mass, no matter the time-scale.
Hawking’s radiation, I am told, should make a black hole shrink over time. That is not totally clear why for two reasons now:
- each emerged-pair of matter/anti-matter can randomly be spared or trapped, nullifying any mass-loss by an equal amount of mass-gain (by the way, I have never heard or read anyone talking about this anywhere. This is my pure philosophical conjecture)
- Hawking’s Area Theorem that is recently ‘proven’ to be true
Therefore, if I understood these correctly, and if this area theorem is to be held true, a black hole can never evaporate out of existence, ever. Once all the surrounding matters are vacuumed and there is nothing left to fall into it, the Hawking’s radiation keeps adding AND subtracting equal amount of mass to and from the black hole ad infinitum, without the black hole losing or gaining any mass whatsoever. If the black hole loses any mass, then it violates the Hawking’s area theorem, since the event horizon has to shrink, necessarily, as a result of losing mass.
Something does not add up here. 🤔