Why don't back holes decrease in mass as you add things?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the behavior of black holes in relation to mass changes due to Hawking radiation and the energy dynamics of particles entering and leaving the black hole. Participants explore theoretical implications, conservation of energy, and the nature of energy associated with particles near the event horizon.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants discuss Hawking radiation and its effect on black hole mass, questioning why only certain particles contribute to mass loss while others do not.
  • One participant notes that the description of Hawking radiation involving virtual particle pairs may be oversimplified and reflects a challenge in translating complex mathematics into understandable concepts.
  • Another participant asserts that energy conservation is maintained in Hawking radiation because particles are created in pairs, with one particle having positive energy and the other negative, resulting in a net energy of zero.
  • A later reply introduces a modified energy equation, suggesting that particles coming from far away have positive energy, raising questions about the energy state of matter near the event horizon.
  • Concerns are raised about the potential for matter near the center of a collapsing star to have negative energy, indicating a need for further exploration of energy dynamics in extreme gravitational fields.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the implications of Hawking radiation and the nature of energy associated with particles entering black holes. There is no consensus on the interpretations of energy dynamics or the validity of simplified descriptions of Hawking radiation.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the reliance on specific definitions of energy and the complexities of gravitational effects on particle behavior, which remain unresolved in the discussion.

Psip
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In hawking radiation a black hole decreases in mass and is described by E= mc^2-GMm/r and as r gets closer to zero the energy of the particle that enters becomes negative and takes away from the net energy of the black hole. My question is why does this only apply to these particles that pop out of the vacuum and not every particle that falls into the black hole. I realize though that this would violate conservation of energy if everything that fell in made the energy go down.
 
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Psip said:
In hawking radiation a black hole decreases in mass and is described by E= mc^2-GMm/r and as r gets closer to zero the energy of the particle that enters becomes negative and takes away from the net energy of the black hole. My question is why does this only apply to these particles that pop out of the vacuum and not every particle that falls into the black hole. I realize though that this would violate conservation of energy if everything that fell in made the energy go down.
I don't have a solid answer for you and there are others here who will, but I would give you one piece of information that might help. The whole concept of Hawking Radiation being due to virtual particle-pairs is a pop-science type description which was put forth by Hawking himself because, as he said, he just wasn't able to think of any other way to translate the math into English.
 
Psip said:
In hawking radiation a black hole decreases in mass and is described by E= mc^2-GMm/r and as r gets closer to zero the energy of the particle that enters becomes negative and takes away from the net energy of the black hole. My question is why does this only apply to these particles that pop out of the vacuum and not every particle that falls into the black hole. I realize though that this would violate conservation of energy if everything that fell in made the energy go down.
As you said, that would violate energy conservation, which is the answer to your question. In the case of Hawking radiation the energy is however conserved because the particles are created in pairs, one with positive energy going outside and another with negative energy going inside, so that their total energy is zero.

But negativity of energy is not directly related to the fact that mc^2-GMm/r is negative for small r. The origin of negative energies is different.
 
Thanks for the replies. I got an answer from somewhere else and apparently total energy would be E=mc^2-GMm/r+1/2mv^2 so when particles come in from far away they will have positive energy. So things really need to be made on the edge of the event horizon. However, would the star junk near the center of mass right before collapse be able to initially be close enough to still have negative energy?
 

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