Black Holes May Not Exist!
This video by Matt O'Dowd, explores the possibility that singularities, the infinitely dense points at the heart of black holes, might not exist.
O'Dowd, a physicist, begins by explaining that singularities are a prediction of general relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, alongside quantum mechanics. However, these two pillars contradict each other at the scale of singularities, leading physicists to believe they are unphysical.
O'Dowd then dives into the Penrose singularity theorem, which states that singularities are inevitable given the existence of event horizons, the point of no return for anything entering a black hole. He explains the thought experiment Penrose used to prove this theorem.
Next, O'Dowd introduces Roy Kerr, a physicist who recently challenged the Penrose singularity theorem. Kerr argues that the theorem relies on a misinterpretation of geodesic incompleteness, which refers to situations where the paths objects take through spacetime come to an end. According to Kerr, this misinterpretation led physicists to the wrong conclusion about the necessity of singularities.
O'Dowd explains that Kerr believes singularities are not inevitable, particularly in rotating black holes, which are more realistic than the non-rotating ones used in the Penrose theorem. He argues that even if objects' paths appear to end at the singularity, they might actually continue beyond it.
O'Dowd concludes by mentioning that Kerr's work is still under debate within the physics community, but it has opened the door to the possibility that singularities might not exist after all. This could allow physicists to develop a theory of what happens inside black holes without needing to reconcile general relativity and quantum mechanics.
