Apr 2, 2012
Oppie’s Black Holes versus CERN
Posted by Otto E. Rössler in categories: existential risks, particle physics
Six years before Oppenheimer declared physics to be sinful after his success at building the bomb, he had discovered the existence of black holes as solutions to the Einstein equation. It took the physics community 30 years to fully believe him.
He found two things. (1) An astronaut jumping in takes infinitely long to disappear from sight (provided one could see him that long since the frequency of the light emitted by him goes to zero). (2) On his own wristwatch, only 2 days passed until he reached the surface of the star-mass black hole. Both results are still accepted.
Oppenheimer knew that if a trampoline were installed on the surface, enabling the astronaut to jump back up uninjured, both results are valid again: Up to his return to from where he came, 2 days would pass on his own wristwatch again. But for the outside world, once more an infinite amount of time would have passed.
This simple result is universally accepted but for some reason virtually unknown. It goes under the name “gravitational twins paradox.” No specialist denies it but virtually each will admit that it is new to him or her.