Colliding Neutron Stars Collapse into Black Holes

[lavinia]

TL;DR Summary

Presentations of the recent observation of two colliding neutron stars state that physicists believe that the neutron stars "collapsed into a black hole." though they are not 100% certain.

What if anything is known about the transition from star to hole?

Here is a presentation on the discovery of two colliding neutron stars and the resulting phenomena such as gravity waves, gamma ray bursts, and synthesis of high atomic number elements. The author is a theoretical physicist who is involved in the research.



He says that the neutron stars most likely collapsed into a black hole - a very small one - but not a larger neutron star.

Question: During the collapse what do theoreticians predict about the transition from neutron to whatever is in a black hole? What in known about the path of changes that the neutron passes through?

 

[Orodruin]

resulting phenomena such as gravity waves

Note that there is a difference between gravity waves and gravitational waves. It is highly unfortunate that the video does not separate.

The black hole does not really ”consist” of anything in GR models. In a Schwarzschild black hole any infalling matter eventually reaches the singularity where it is expected that GR breaks down and quantum effects become important. As for what happens during collision between neutrons from the two stars it is a different question. @vanhees71 may be more familiar with those processes.

 

[lavinia]

Note that there is a difference between gravity waves and gravitational waves. It is highly unfortunate that the video does not separate.

The black hole does not really ”consist” of anything in GR models. In a Schwarzschild black hole any infalling matter eventually reaches the singularity where it is expected that GR breaks down and quantum effects become important. As for what happens during collision between neutrons from the two stars it is a different question. @vanhees71 may be more familiar with those processes.

Thank you. I am sure the presenter did not use the wrong language. It was my naive abuse of language.

He speaks of fluctuations in gravity which I guess are waves propagated in the metric.