Sujoy Parikh
ENGL 106
Rachel A. Reynolds
November 26, 2013
Article Analysis: White Holes and Eternal Black Holes
The article White Holes and Eternal Black Hole by Stephen D H Hsu contemplates the
theoretical existence of white holes in space, thereby following from previous research involving
black holes and the creation of the Universe. Hsu attempts to theorize the existence of white
holes in isolation i.e. white holes existing by themselves in vacuum. The reason that the research
put forth through this article is important is that it provides an alternate theory to explain the
creation of the Universe, and the birth of our planet Earth. The Big Bang theory, which is widely
accepted by physicists to be the most plausible theory that governs the creation of the Universe,
says that the Universe was a dense mass of heat, and the rapid cooling of this system caused subatomic particles to be released into space, thereby causing the creation of planetary objects in
space, the Earth being one of them (Howell). This theory should be of importance not only to
theoretical physicists and astrophysicists but also to all people that question their existence on
Earth, and how they and their natural environment have come into being. One could easily say
that human beings exist because of the Big Bang.
Research put forth by Hsu furthers claims by physicists that the Earth was created due to the
death and collapse of a massive star in a four-dimensional space. This claim ties in with research
that has proven the existence of black holes (in theory and through pictures taken by planetary
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cameras) (The Universe: Cosmic Holes). Therefore, if the death of a massive star can cause the
creation of a black hole that caused the spurting out of matter leading to the formation of Earth
and other planetary bodies, one could say that the Universe existed long before the Earth even
came into being. The focus of my paper is to contemplate this possibility, which deviates from
the Big Bang theory.
Hsu says that white holes are fundamentally the same as black holes, only reversed in time,
possessing the same quantum numbers: angular momentum, mass and charge as black holes (1).
Standard quantum mechanics suggests that any initial state that evolves into a black hole could
also evolve into a white hole. The probability of that happening is not zero Ibid. Since large
black holes stay alive for a long time before exploding, there could be present multiple white
hole states within that system, resulting from time slices that occur a little into the future. Thus,
the existence of white holes corresponds to the existence and properties of black holes Ibid. Note
that time in space is quite different from time on Earth; therefore the time slices that cause white
holes to exist cannot be related to any phenomenon seen on Earth. Now that we know that white
holes occur within black hole systems, we can look at some research by Stephen Hawking in the
field of thermal equilibrium of cosmic holes.
In his 1976 paper Black holes and thermodynamics, Hawking analyzed the properties of white
holes by considering a box in thermal equilibrium, whose temperature and volume are adjusted
so that the most probable configuration is a black hole surrounded by a gas of particles whose
temperature is equal to that of a black hole. The black hole emits Hawking radiation but absorbs
as much energy from the gas as it emits. Applying time reversal, the configuration describes a
white hole emitting and absorbing radiation. Since there is no arrow of time for a system in
thermal equilibrium, Hawking argued that black and white holes must be indistinguishable. More
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precisely, the properties of white and black holes in equilibrium with their surroundings are
identical. However, the same cannot be said for black and white holes in isolation (i.e.
surrounded by empty vacuum); we see that these properties are extremely different (Hsu, 2).
Isolated white holes behave very differently from isolated black holes. This is due to the lack of
time reversal symmetry in the surrounding environment: the statistical arrow of time implies that
isolated black holes evaporate into their cold surroundings, whereas isolated white holes are, by
definition, not bathed in incident radiation. Complete time reversal symmetry is only present in
thermal equilibrium, the case originally analyzed by Hawking. Isolated white holes with initial
state given by simple conditions emit quasi-thermal radiation just before and after exploding
from behind their anti-horizon. Modifying the initial state (that leads to formation of cosmic
holes) while retaining the condition of isolation at the same time implies that white holes emit
more radiation at later stages. There do not seem to be isolated white holes which are
indistinguishable from isolated black holes of the same mass (Hsu, 7). Hsu concludes that stable
white holes simply can't exist in empty space, and that's why we see no evidence for them. They
most likely exploded into quasi-thermal radiation long before we had the tools to observe them
(Ouellette).
However, the concept of a white hole only appears as part of the vacuum solution to Einstein’s
field equations that are used to describe a Schwarzschild wormhole. A wormhole is a black hole
from one end that draws in matter and a white hole on the other that emits matter (The Universe:
Cosmic Holes). Schwarzschild wormholes are unstable; they collapse as soon as they form. Also,
wormholes are only a solution to the Einstein field equations in a vacuum where no matter
interacts with the hole. Real black holes are formed by the collapse of stars, but white holes
shrink from matter so they could not exist in connection with true black holes because the
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presence of matter would cause them to collapse (Coffey). Thus, we see that there are
contradicting theories regarding the existence and formation of white holes. The theory that
white holes could not exist in connection with real black holes explains why white holes have
never been observed or their existence proven.
Humans were not present when the Universe began, and therefore cannot predict with absolute
certainty the events that led to its formation. For years together, the Big Bang has been
considered the most plausible theory to explain the creation of the Universe. However, the
existence of black holes and research involving the theoretical existence of white holes (that
could cause matter to be spurted into being) allows for the possibility that the creation of the
Earth and the creation of the Universe were two separate, singular events, with the Earth being
formed much later, reiterating my focus for this paper.
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Works Cited:
Hsu, Stephen D. "White Holes and Eternal Black Holes." Institute of Physics: Classical and
Quantum Gravity (2011): 1-8. Print.
Coffey, Jerry. "White Holes." Universe Today RSS. Universe Today, 29 Oct. 2010. Web. 26
Nov. 2013.
Howell, Elizabeth. "Goodbye Big Bang, Hello Black Hole? A New Theory of the Universe's
Creation." Goodbye Big Bang, Hello Black Hole? A New Theory of the Universe's Creation.
Universe Today, 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
Ouellette, Jennifer. "Why Don't We See White Holes in Space?" DNews. Discovery, 16 Aug.
2010. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
“The Universe: Cosmic Holes.” The Universe. The History Channel. Flight 33 Productions. 4
Dec. 2007. Television.
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