Black Holes might not exist after all, new study shows

[eesmith]

This is a copy of https://uncnewsarchive.unc.edu/2014/09/23/carolinas-laura-me... , which it gives as a source. That is titled "Carolina’s Laura Mersini-Houghton shows that black holes do not exist".

That source (unlike this one) gives a date - from 2014. So, not a new study.

The only publications mentioned are http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1406.1525 ("Backreaction of Hawking Radiation on a Gravitationally Collapsing Star I: Black Holes?") and http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1409.1837 ("Back-reaction of the Hawking radiation flux on a gravitationally collapsing star II").

Google Scholar lists 72 paper siting the first one: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=1402943078866844400... . Oh, and it was later published in Phys Lett B. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037026931...

Picking one of them includes this paper as part of: "Regular collapse models where the black hole singularity is replaced by some smooth geometry have a long history. The leitmotiv of these models is the attempt to understand issues related to the Hawking information loss paradox on an effective background spacetime capturing the idea that black hole singularities must be resolved by quantum gravity effects." - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1512.04566.pdf

Also, FWIW, the three other HN articles from anomalien.com are:

* Google-Earther discovers excavated “alien base”, airstrip in Antarctica

* Meditation shown to slow aging of brain

* The KGB Had a Classified Information Exchange Program with Extraterrestrials

While that does not detract from the paper, they are the ones who came up with the title shown here on HN.

[chaimanmeow]

Interesting, I'd never been aware of this topic, which seems to underlie the UNC profs conclusion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_information_paradox

Clicking through the relevant wiki reference: "How do black holes destroy information and why is that a problem?" https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-do-black-holes...

[beardyw]

Isn't it a step from black holes not forming how we think they do - to them not existing?

[Arnt]

Well, something exists, we know that from observing how it influences its surroundings. But what is it?

If a particular thing cannot come into being, then what we observe cannot be that particular thing. That's all.

[ClassyJacket]

So what did those scientists capture an image of recently?

[defrost]

Stuff in the vicinity of what was assumed to be a black hole.

Pretty compelling evidence for a black hole right there, given the energy levels, orbital speeds, etc .. but not "a picture of a black hole".

( More a Margritte picture of a Black Hole ).

NB: I still believe in black holes despite this new study.