Black hole evaporation mechanism

[Gingerot]

Evaporation of a black hole by Hawking radiation defies common sense. Let us assume that a vacuum fluctuation leads to the birth of an electron-positron pair, with an electron being born below the event horizon and a positron above the event horizon. The positron flies away to infinity. But the electron falls into the central singularity. In this case, there is an increase in mass in the singularity! How is this process related to the “evaporation” of a black hole? The mass at the singular point increases.

 

[BvU]

with an electron being born below the event horizon and a positron above the event horizon. The positron flies away to infinity

Don't you think that's a bit naive ?

$\$

 

[Nugatory]

How is this process related to the “evaporation” of a black hole?

It isn’t. You’ll see Hawking radiation described that way in the popular press, but that’s not what’s really going on and it will confuse you if you take it too seriously.

 

[phinds]

from the original paper on what is now called Hawking Radiation:

(in talking about the particle-pair description): It should be emphasized that these pictures of the mechanism responsible for the thermal emission and area decrease are heuristic only and should not be taken too literally.

 

[Nugatory]

@Gingerot
There is no good math-free way of describing how Hawking radiation works, which is why so many pop-sci writers fall back on the misleading “explanation” you’ve seen.

The process can be described as negative energy falling into the black hole while positive energy escapes out to infinity, but that’s not a complete either. You will get some help from here and you can get the real thing from Hawking himself here.