A Copenhagen solution of the black hole singularity problem

[Demystifier]

Due to strong gravitational tidal forces, any living observer will die and any macroscopic measuring apparatus will be destroyed before it reaches the black hole singularity at the center of a macroscopic black hole. Hence the black hole singularity cannot be observed, so from an experimental point of view it doesn't exist.

Is that an acceptable solution of the black hole singularity problem from a "Copenhagen" point of view?

 

[mfb]

By that argument, we could say matter outside the observable universe doesn't exist? Or matter inside but far away stopped existing since we are not in its future light cone any more? I don't share that view. It also doesn't answer how the end of the evaporation process looks like.

 

[EPR]

Its characteristics are not defined.

 

[martinbn]

There is not black hole singularity problem.

Also, the tidal forces don't matter. The singularity is in the future of any falling observer and space-like, so it cannot be observe.

 

[akvadrako]

If the black hole is large enough, I have read that the tidal forces are manageable.

 

[Ibix]

If the black hole is large enough, I have read that the tidal forces are manageable.

Not at the singularity, by definition. At the event horizon, tidal forces are indeed lower for a larger hole, but this is not what Demystifier is talking about. Somewhere between horizon and singularity the tidal forces get sufficiently high to rip you apart (assuming GR holds).

 

[EPR]

In the CI it is not generally assumed that the tidal waves have definite properties before observation. It's silent on the matter and we must assume that they have those properties(though this is common and probably wrong).

 

[timmdeeg]

Hence the black hole singularity cannot be observed, so from an experimental point of view it doesn't exist.

Is that an acceptable solution of the black hole singularity problem from a "Copenhagen" point of view?

I don't think these views are comparable at all. According to the CI physical properties are not defined before measurement whereas General Relativity requires that physical quantities become infinite at the singularity which is unobservable per se .

 

[Morbert]

Due to strong gravitational tidal forces, any living observer will die and any macroscopic measuring apparatus will be destroyed before it reaches the black hole singularity at the center of a macroscopic black hole. Hence the black hole singularity cannot be observed, so from an experimental point of view it doesn't exist.

Is that an acceptable solution of the black hole singularity problem from a "Copenhagen" point of view?

In section 7.3 of "Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime and Black Hole Thermodynamics", Wald discusses issues of quantum coherence that are especially (but not exclusively) prominent in the process of black hole evaporation. Specifically, it is hard to correlate states defined on spacetime surfaces in different regions in the presence of black hole evaporation. I don't think your proposal would solve this issue.

On the other hand, in the same book, Wald also discusses measurement theory formulated with an algebraic approach (i.e. where states are no longer defined on spacetime surfaces) that would presumably let us recover a Copenhagen interpretation. So maybe there's no problem in the first place.