Black Hole and Electric Charge

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the relationship between black holes and electric charge, exploring how charge can be detected in distant galaxies and the implications for understanding black holes' mass, charge, and spin through spectral lines, particularly hydrogen spectral lines.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that electric charge in distant galaxies can be inferred from the presence of hydrogen spectral lines, which indicate the existence of charged particles.
  • Questions are raised about whether the hydrogen spectral lines can provide information on mass, charge, and spin, and whether radio telescopes can also measure these quantities.
  • One participant notes that astrophysical black holes are generally considered to be Kerr black holes, which are thought to be uncharged due to surrounding matter neutralizing any charge.
  • There are references to methods for measuring black hole spin and charge, including the relationship between the inner edge of the accretion disk and black hole spin.
  • Another participant mentions that black holes may gain charge when they consume matter, and questions arise about how charge can be calculated from the velocity of stars around a black hole.
  • Some participants inquire about specific examples or ranges of charge values for black holes and the implications of these values.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express various viewpoints on the detection of charge and the implications for black holes, with no consensus reached on the methods or interpretations of the spectral data.

Contextual Notes

There are unresolved questions regarding the assumptions made about the nature of physics in distant galaxies and the specific conditions under which charge can be measured or inferred from spectral lines.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those studying astrophysics, particularly in the areas of black hole physics, spectral analysis, and the interplay between charge and mass in cosmic structures.

Philosophaie
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A galaxy is many many light years away. All Electric Charge, Q, must be dissipated. How do you tell if charge exists and what magnitude.
 
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How do you mean "dissipated"?

Note: we can tell there are charged particles in distant galaxies by examining the light.
For instance, we discover that there are hydrogen spectral lines in the light from distant galaxies ... this suggests the presence of hydrogen which is composed of a positive and a negative charge.

Either that or something else we don't know about gives rise to the spectra... apply Occam's Razor.
 
Can you tell the mass, charge and spin thru the Hydrogen Spectral Lines? Does the band on the hydrogen spectrum get distorted to reveal these things? Can a Radio Telescope find these quantities also? What are found with Radio waves? Also how do you find the mass, charge and spin of a black hole?
 
So that was what you meant:
The presence of hydrogen spectral lines says there is hydrogen present... which says their must be an electron and a proton in a bound state. Can you find any other situation where such a spectra is found in nature?

Thus - masses, charges, and spins.
The hydrogen that gave that spectra must have the same masses and charges and spins as the local stuff or that spectra won't happen.

But we don't need to go just by hydrogen spectra alone - we also see the spectra for other atoms and molecules in starlight and we can compare them with local sources. So we don't just see evidence of hydrogen, we se evidence of the kinds of chemistry that we get here too and so on. Its like doing a crossword puzzle -several words may fit the clue and the available spaces, but, when you consider the rest of the puzzle, it is very unlikely there is more than one set of words that satisfy the clues, and interlock in the right way to fit the puzzle.

Now we could just assume that physics is very different in distant parts of the Universe ... different in just the right sort of way that makes it look exactly like the same processes are happening there that happen here even though they don't.

That would be like doing a crossword but assuming a different language and different grammar and different meanings of words and still getting the same letters filling the same squares.

... but what has all this got to do with Black Holes?
 
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Philosophaie said:
Can you tell the mass, charge and spin thru the Hydrogen Spectral Lines? Does the band on the hydrogen spectrum get distorted to reveal these things? Can a Radio Telescope find these quantities also? What are found with Radio waves? Also how do you find the mass, charge and spin of a black hole?

Astrophysical black holes are thought to be Kerr black holes, which are uncharged, because astrophysical black holes are surrounded by matter which would quickly neutalize the charge. I think there hasn't yet been definitive observational evidence that the spacetime around astrophysical black holes is described by the Kerr metric. How one might get such data is discussed in
http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.0100
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C0507252/papers/L006.PDF
 
Hah ... I was just coming from there...
 
Philosophaie said:
Can you tell the mass, charge and spin thru the Hydrogen Spectral Lines? Does the band on the hydrogen spectrum get distorted to reveal these things? Can a Radio Telescope find these quantities also? What are found with Radio waves? Also how do you find the mass, charge and spin of a black hole?

Here are a couple of links that relate to measuring charge and spin for a black hole-

http://blogs.physicstoday.org/newspicks/2013/10/black-holes-may-gain-extra-charge-swallowing-matter/

http://blogs.physicstoday.org/newspicks/2013/08/new-method-to-measure-black-hole-spin-rate-raises-questions/

Normally the amount of spin can be calculated by the location of the inner edge of the accretion disk (the marginally stable orbit or MSO) which is at r=6M for a static black hole and at r=1M for a black hole at maximum spin.

Also, if you could observe directly, the coordinate radius of the event horizon reduces with spin and charge-

r_+=M+\sqrt{M^2-a^2-Q^2}
where r+ is the event horizon, M, a and Q are mass, spin and charge in geometric units where M=Gm/c2, a=J/mc and Q=C(G/(4∏ε0))1/2/c2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometrized_unit_system
 
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stevebd1 said:
Black holes may gain extra charge when swallowing matter.

New method to measure black hole spin rate raises questions.
Cutting edge stuff.

The Hydrogen Spectrum shows a Red Shift in most Galaxies at the 1420.8Hz or so point. How does it show charge? Is it calculate from the velocity of the stars around the Black Hole?

The Charge is ##Q=\sqrt{\frac{C^2*G}{(4\piε_0)*c^4}}##.

Is there some examples of values for C, even though it may be exploding Star matter,
of galaxies that have a charge, C, near the center and maybe a range of what the charges, C, can be.
 
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Philosophaie said:
Is there some examples of values for C, even though it may be exploding Star matter,
of galaxies that have a charge, C, near the center and maybe a range of what the charges, C, can be.

The range of charge for a BH is Q≤M and if spin is included then Q2+a2≤M2.

http://www.fysik.su.se/~narit/bh.pdf
 
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