Hawking radiation
Predicted black-body radiation from black holes due to quantum effects.
Last updated
This radiation causes black holes to lose mass and energy, leading to their eventual evaporation.[1] The process is extremely slow for all but the smallest black holes.[1] Quantum effects cause a black hole to emit radiation, a phenomenon first modeled by Stephen Hawking in 1974, which is now termed Hawking radiation.[2]
Quick Facts
- Field
- Theoretical physics
- Known for
- Hawking radiation, black hole evaporation
- Key concept
- Black holes emit thermal radiation due to quantum vacuum fluctuations near the event horizon
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Stephen Hawking initially argued against Bekenstein's theory, but after meeting Zeldovich in 1973, he combined quantum field theory and general relativity.[3] Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity provided the basis for the initial prediction of what are now called black holes.[4] Karl Schwarzschild and John Wheeler were among the early researchers who treated black holes as objects possessing zero entropy.[5] Yakov Zeldovich and Alexei Starobinsky, Soviet physicists, put forward the idea in 1971 that particle creation and emission should occur from rotating black holes.[3]
The Hawking temperature, which characterizes the radiation, has a value that is inversely proportional to the black hole's mass.[1] Vacuum fluctuations are the origin of Hawking radiation; one photon from a fluctuation lies outside the horizon while its partner lies inside.[6]
What the cited sources add
A JavaScript calculator of Hawking radiation parameters for a Schwarzschild black hole is available online.[7] The calculator includes the peak photon wavelength, frequency, and energy for the blackbody radiation curve.[7] The Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of a black hole is defined as S = c³A/(4Għ).[7] The free-fall time from horizon to singularity is calculated as t_s = πGM/c³.[7]
The lifetime of a black hole of initial mass M₀ is t = (M/M⊙)³ × 1.160 × 10⁶⁷ yr.[7] Hawking evaporation is significant only for small black holes, where tidal effects break particle pairs from quantum vacuum fluctuations.[8] The formula for Hawking radiation luminosity is L = ħc⁶/(15360πG²M²).[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Hawking radiation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hawking, "Black Hole Explosions?", Nature, March 1, 1974, p. 30–31 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Hawking radiation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hawking, "Black Hole Explosions?", Nature, March 1, 1974, p. 30–31; Hawking, "The Quantum Mechanics of Black Holes", Scientific American, January 1977, p. 34; Hakwing, "A conversation with Dr. Stephen Hawking & Lucy Hawking", Charlie Rose, 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Hawking radiation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bekenstein, "Black holes and the second law", Lettere al Nuovo Cimento, 1972, p. 99–104; Thorne, "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy", W. W. Norton & Company, 1994; Thorne, "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy", W. W. Norton & Company, 1994 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Hawking radiation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Country Parson Who Conceived of Black Holes", AMNH Cosmic Horizons Curriculum Collection, 2000 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Hawking radiation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Country Parson Who Conceived of Black Holes", AMNH Cosmic Horizons Curriculum Collection, 2000; Karozis, "Black Hole Entropy and 2D Conformal Field Theory – Towards Quantum Gravity", October 27, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Hawking radiation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Thorne, "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy", W. W. Norton & Company, 1994 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Toth, "Hawking radiation calculator", VT Toth.com. facts only, no text reused. vttoth.com
- Barrau, "The Case for Mini Black Holes", CERN Courier, November 2004. facts only, no text reused. cerncourier.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Hawking radiation (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Hawking radiation (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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