A revealing treatise into the question that’s riddled the minds of scientists for years.
By Teshome Jenkins
June 27, 2022
Soon after Einstein introduced his theory of general relativity in the early 1900’s, the foundation for black holes and their mathematical opposites, white holes, began to emerge. Einstein didn’t necessarily predict them; he thought the absurd nature of black holes was far too outlandish to investigate. Yet to other professionals in the scientific community, they became a huge point of interest (Flamm, Ludwig (1916), “Beiträge zur Einsteinschen Gravitationstheorie [Comments on Einstein’s Theory of Gravity]”, pp. 448–454).
A white hole is the theoretical polar opposite of a black hole, a region of spacetime where matter suddenly appears and explodes outwards, rather than imploding and disappearing as a black hole would. The mathematics that calculates the very existence of black holes also describes the existence of white holes.
For now, it is only confined to mathematics and has not been directly observed. However, the theoretical white hole may provide invaluable insight on the creation of the entire universe along with countless other unsolved mysteries of space.
❖ What is a Black Hole?
To understand the full scope of the topic at hand, it helps to understand black holes on a fundamental level. A black hole is a region of inward flowing spacetime which has a gravitational pull so incredibly strong that not even light can escape it.
It forms when a massive star at the close of its life cycle shrinks catastrophically under its own gravity down to an infinitely tiny point or singularity — a spherical mass shrunken down to an infinitely dense point, wrapping space around it so tightly that the region pinches off from the rest of the universe.
The edge or surrounding “surface” of a black hole is called the event horizon. In theory, once you’ve crossed the event horizon, you’ve reached the point of no return and would be absorbed. A black hole therefore prohibits exit. If all that remains from the celestial collapse is a greatly warped region of space, many wonder where the star’s matter goes. One theory is that it spontaneously explodes into another universe as a white hole.
❖ Why White Holes May Not Exist
In reality, a white hole would violate the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the amount of entropy of the universe can either stay the same or increase but can never decrease. Entropy is usually defined as a degree of randomness. In other words, it is the level of disorder or uncertainty.
To demonstrate how this would violate the second law of thermodynamics, let us consider the well known piano-woodchipper example. If a piano were thrown into a universal woodchipper, it would be disintegrated into fine pieces. A black hole is like the woodchipper, and the continued disintegration of the piano is like an increase in entropy.
In this case the amount of entropy would increase, and the second law of thermodynamics mentioned above would be valid. There is only one configuration in which we would get the original piano back, and all of the wood chips would need to be put back into their original arrangement.
Obviously, we would not be able to run the machine backwards and regain the piano, which is precisely what a white hole does. This would violate the second law of thermodynamics, creating a domino effect of further impossibilities.
❖ Why White Holes May Exist
For some time, white holes were considered utterly impossible and were completely dismissed. However, the possibility of the existence of white holes stems from Stephen Hawking’s realization in the 1970’s that black holes leak energy.
In short, if a black hole leaks energy, its life cycle will eventually come to a resolution. So, what exactly happens to the internal record of all the contents the black hole absorbed? It creates a clash between general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Scientist Carlo Rovelli theorizes that the death of a black hole is the birth of a white hole (Flamm, pp. 448–454). As the black hole leaks energy and grows small enough not to obey general rules, quantum randomness takes over and the black hole transforms into a white hole. As stated previously, in 1915 Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity. Not long after this, physicist Karl Schwarzschild offered an answer to Einstein’s theory, consequently bringing about a black hole.
Australian physicist Ludwig Flamm researched Schwarzschild’s findings and came to the realization that another solution to Einstein’s theory was possible, creating what would in time be called a white hole. Ludwig Flamm further researched his investigation, theorizing a possible connection between both solutions to Einstein’s theory.
Flamm suggested that a spacetime channel could bind one side of the hole to the other. In 1935, Einstein and Nathan Rosen also came up with a similar theory for a conduit that would eventually go by the name of an Einstein-Rosen bridge, which physicist John Wheeler would eventually call a wormhole.
❖ Will We Ever See a White Hole?
Though it is fun to entertain the idea of white holes, unfortunately scientists have yet to confirm their existence. The closest we’ve gotten is the GRB 060614 gamma ray explosion on June 14, 2006. Deborah Byrd writes, “…Alon Retter and Shlomo Heller associate the idea of a white hole with the Big Bang — the theoretical beginning of our universe — which, as they say, “was instantaneous rather than continuous or long-lasting,” which presumably gets around the problem of white hole instability.
Retter and Heller write, “We thus suggest that the emergence of a white hole, which we name a ‘Small Bang’, is spontaneous — all the matter is ejected at a single pulse. Unlike black holes, white holes cannot be continuously observed rather their effect can only be detected around the event itself…”
Thankfully, given the advancements made in the Event Horizon telescope program, in May of 2022 scientists revealed the first ever image of Sagittarius A*, the black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Though this may seem unrelated to white holes at first glance, further information on the mechanics of black holes could lead to groundbreaking revelations concerning white holes, and other such wonders of the enigma that is our universe.
Who knows what lies ahead in the ever-evolving world of scientific discoveries? Be sure to check out more articles like this one at SpaceLab to keep up with what’s next!
