Additions:
""The Weak Field Limit""
""Conservation of Mass-Energy""
""The Stress-Energy Tensor""
""Einstein’s Law of Gravitation""
""Stationary Matter""
""The Newtonian Approximation""
""The Schwarzschild Solution""
""Black Holes""
From the pespective of an external observer, the redshift factor, ""k = (g00)−½"", becomes zero at the Schwarzschild radius, showing that time, and all physical processes, slow down relative to time measured by a distant observer as matter approaches the black hole. The external observer would calculate that matter does not actually fall through the Schwarzschild radius, but stops at it. This is true also of light. The Schwarzschild radius is an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_horizon event horizon]]. Processes inside an event horizon are hidden to the observer. An issue was raised as to whether a ""singularity"" could actually form according to the equations of relativity. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Oppenheimer Oppenheimer]] & [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartland_Snyder Snyder]] published the first calculation of gravitational collapse in 1939, showing that one can.
In fact the ""singularity"" at the event horizon is only a singularity in a particular coordinate system. If instead of using coordinates defined by an external observer, stationary with respect to the hole, we use coordinates determined by an observer falling into it, it can be shown that no singularity arises at the Schwarzschild radius. According to general relativity, the observer simply falls through empty space at the Schwarzschild radius, into a region from which he can no longer communicate with the external observer. There is no singularity in coordinates defined by the falling observer, and physical processes proceed as normal until he meets the true singularity at ""r = 0"". That is the solution according to Einstein’s field equation, but the question still arises as to whether it is a real physical solution. The meaning of the singularity at ""r = 0"" is that known laws of physics break down. We cannot say, from classical general relativity, precisely at what point the laws of physics break down in the vicinity of the singularity. Relational quantum gravity will reexamine this issue in the light of a unification with quantum theory.
Deletions:
From the pespective of an external observer, the redshift factor, ""k = (g00)−½"", becomes zero at the Schwarzschild radius, showing that time, and all physical processes, slow down relative to time measured by a distant observer as matter approaches the black hole. The external observer would calculate that matter does not actually fall through the Schwarzschild radius, but stops at it. This is true also of light. The Schwarzschild radius is an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_horizon event horizon]]. Processes inside an event horizon are hidden to the observer. An issue was raised as to whether a singularity could actually form according to the equations of relativity. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Oppenheimer Oppenheimer]] & [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartland_Snyder Snyder]] published the first calculation of gravitational collapse in 1939, showing that one can.
In fact the singularity at the event horizon is only a singularity in a particular coordinate system. If instead of using coordinates defined by an external observer, stationary with respect to the hole, we use coordinates determined by an observer falling into it, it can be shown that no singularity arises at the Schwarzschild radius. According to general relativity, the observer simply falls through empty space at the Schwarzschild radius, into a region from which he can no longer communicate with the external observer. There is no singularity in coordinates defined by the falling observer, and physical processes proceed as normal until he meets the true singularity at ""r = 0"". That is the solution according to Einstein’s field equation, but the question still arises as to whether it is a real physical solution. The meaning of the singularity at ""r = 0"" is that known laws of physics break down. We cannot say, from classical general relativity, precisely at what point the laws of physics break down in the vicinity of the singularity. Relational quantum gravity will reexamine this issue in the light of a unification with quantum theory.
