Could White Holes Exist Beyond Black Holes in Higher Dimensions?

[timbuckiii]

From watching "The Universe" on the History Channel, I have heard that there is a theory suggesting that on the "other side" of black holes may lie white holes that spew everything back out into another universe. I'm not sure how great of a source that show is, but that's not the issue here.

My questions is, how can a three-dimensional black hole have something equivalent to the "other side"? Would it have to be in higher dimensions?

Thanks!

 

[abhishek k]

the mathematical equations that predicted the existence of black holes have another solution which predicts white holes. but it has been proved that white holes cannot exist. it was thought that they exist in a setup called wormholes in which they are other ends of black holes but this setup was proved to highly unstable. anyways whatever falls into black holes ends up at a singularity which can not be escaped so there is no point of having a white hole as other end

 

[timbuckiii]

Cool, thanks!

 

[Mindscrape]

Yeah, I saw the same episode "The Universe" that you are talking about. While I am no astrophysicist, white holes seemed to me like they would violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics. I guess they have been "proven" (in what way?) not to exist.

 

[John232]

A viable wormhole that could be used for insteller travel would be almost impossible to exist, but a Einstein Rosenburg bridge could exist that annihilated everything that went through it. The main problem with white holes is that they have not been found, anything like a luminous galaxy has already been dubbed to have supermassive black holes with large jets or glowing from large intakes of matter. You would think it wouldn't be too hard to find them given their description.

 

[cerebusb]

i thought white holes are just collapsed stars that didnt go black hole. similar to a quasar or even a magnatar :) its just a different behavior of an unstable star. but i do like the worm hole idea works better for the pro worm hole theorists

 

[John232]

i thought white holes are just collapsed stars that didnt go black hole. similar to a quasar or even a magnatar :) its just a different behavior of an unstable star. but i do like the worm hole idea works better for the pro worm hole theorists

No, it would take a black hole in order to create a white hole. I wouldn't say that a wormhole connected the two because the term wormhole itself implies that the connection between them would have a counter to the gravitational pull to allow safe travel and a black hole/white hole bridge wouldn't.

 

[PhysDrew]

Yeah I understood them to be merely mathematical abstractions. The theory seems to 'predict' that if any matter at all came close to the white hole, they would collapse and form black holes. I also heard a unique demonstration of what one would look like is turning the kitchen tap on and aiming it at the sink hole. The 'hole' spits out the water, instead of swallowing it. Not entirely accurate but still it serves as a good visualisation. Long live maths

 

[LURCH]

i thought white holes are just collapsed stars that didnt go black hole. similar to a quasar or even a magnatar :) its just a different behavior of an unstable star. but i do like the worm hole idea works better for the pro worm hole theorists

I believe you are thinking of a "white dwarf."

 

[bcrowell]

There's a good description here: http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schww.html