A black hole is a prediction of Einstein's General Theory of relativity, wherein a massive star collapses in on itself. Some physicists are
hypothesizing that this stellar collapse instead leads to dark energy.
Apparently these are theoretical considerations, and much of it is comming out of trying to make Quantum Mechanics jive with natural observations.
www.nature.com
[A]s long ago as 1975 quantum physicists argued that strange things do happen at an event horizon: matter governed by quantum laws becomes
hypersensitive to slight disturbances. "The result was quickly forgotten," says Chapline, "because it didn't agree with the prediction of general
relativity. But actually, it was absolutely correct."
This strange behaviour, he says, is the signature of a 'quantum phase transition' of space-time. Chapline argues that a star doesn't simply collapse
to form a black hole; instead, the space-time inside it becomes filled with dark energy
He also thinks that the Universe could be filled with 'primordial' dark-energy stars. These are formed not by stellar collapse but by fluctuations of
space-time itself, like blobs of liquid condensing spontaneously out of a cooling gas. These, he suggests, could be stuff that has the same
gravitational effect as normal matter, but cannot be seen: the elusive substance known as dark matter.
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Anything involve cosmology and astrophysics is allways pretty heavy and heady stuff. This certainly fills that criteria. Black Holes are normally
taken for granted as existing. Apparently now some physicists are stating that not only 'don't' they exist, but that they can't actually exist.
Interestingly, this idea has matter being ejected back out of a black hole as its anti-particle, ie electrons thrown out as positrons, which collide
with incomming matter, annhilate, and radiate energy, such as that which is thought to radiate from the center of the Milky Way. I suppose that this
would also account for Hawking Radiation, but I don't know enough about any of this to say.
I think one of the more interesting things about this, aside from the information itself, is that its part of what is apparently an ongoing trend to
reconcile theories in physics. For example, many people are familiar with the idea that there are many more dimensions to the universe and existence
than the four man is familiar with (space dimensions and time dimension). However, these multidimensional ideas aren't somethign experimentally
observed, but are rather somethign that is required to get certain types of string theory to work. Similarly, this is an attempt to reconcile certian
effects of quantum physics.
Thats how science really progresses, by formulating and comparing theories and deciding which ones have more or 'better' explanatory power'
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