Virtual particles inside black holes

[Daddo0711]

First time poster, more of a nerd than an academic.

So virtual particles, can they pop into and out of existence inside the event horizon of a black hole? What about in the black hole itself? If nothing can escape and matter is torn apart, what happens to those quantum particles? Or maybe not escape but are they given enough time and space to interact/annihilate themselves inside such a massive gravitational field? Can they even come into being in the first place? Obviously I know we would only have theoretical knowledge but I don't think I've seen this asked or answered before.

 

[juzzy]

It is an interesting if not highly theoretical question. The best we can do (or at least the best I can do) is say that the surface area describes the internal entropy of a black hole (i.e Leonard Susskinds holographic principle and Stephen Hawking equations for black hole entropy). The entropy is a kind of average value of all the things that are going on inside a black hole but what those things are is anyone's guess. Perhaps someone with a higher level of theoretical understanding of this could explain better but my gut answer is we don't really know.

 

[mfb]

First time poster, more of a nerd than an academic.

So virtual particles, can they pop into and out of existence inside the event horizon of a black hole? What about in the black hole itself?

"Inside the black hole" and "inside the event horizon" are the same.
As far as I know, there is no problem with virtual particles inside - they can annihilate again and everything is fine. While the total drag towards the black hole is big, it is locally quite similar for all particles. In a similar way, you can perform the same experiments in outer space and in drop towers.

 

[Daddo0711]

mfb, I had always thought the event horizon was simply a point of demarcation defining only where the force of gravity overcomes the ability of waves/particles to escape. I can see I have misspoken in not defining "black hole" versus "singularity", though.

 

[mfb]

Well, as the singularity cannot be well-defined within current physics, and as it would be point-like in General Relativity , "in the singularity" is a bit odd.
"Black hole" usually means the whole object, including the event horizon.

 

[FrY-Yau]

I was thinking and imagined that virtual particles might not exist in a black hole since it is in a way a manifestation of compressed space; so much so a that light does not escape, (with the exception of quantum tunneling).
So when space get compress in black hole it gets stuck in its set frequency position so it has the same effect as on light on the quantum scale, in that it doesn't really move

Maybe.I just stumbled on to this forum it's pretty cool.