Volume V Issue 9

SEPTEMBER 2004

Publisher's Note
Stephen Hawking is a celebrated titan in theoretical physics and one of the few scientists whose popularity extends beyond the esoteric field of astronomy and quantum physics. In 1975, he gave broad shape to the theory of black holes, those mysterious bodies in space that result from the gravitational collapse of massive stars and, according to his theory, destroy everything that falls into them, preventing even light or information to escape.

That was the theory. But even brilliant scientists can make mistakes, and Mumbai-based theoretical physicist Abhas Mitra took on the international celebrity, questioning the existence of black holes in a paper four years ago. The result was brutal: his colleagues deserted him, and his employing institution transferred him. But Mitra persevered, and recently Hawking himself has admitted a flaw in his theory of black holes. Our cover story offers details on this fascinating story about cutting-edge theoretical physics. World-famous Cambridge University astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is used to having the last word in his field. For over 30 years Hawking and his followers promoted the theory that black holes resulting from gravitational collapse of massive stars destroy everything that falls into them preventing even light or information to escape. Four years ago, BARC physicist Abhas Mitra dared to question Hawking in a paper, and became a pariah. Now Hawking says his theory was flawed, and Mitra is vindicated. Deepak Goyal reports. Stephen Hawking, the world-famous Cambridge University astrophysicist who wrote the bestselling A Brief History of Time, is used to having the last word in his field. For over 30 years, Hawking, regarded by many as the modern-day Einstein, has promoted the theory, backed by his countless followers, that black holesresulting from gravitational collapse of massive starsdestroy everything that falls into them preventing even light or information to escape.

Now Hawking is revising his 1975 ideas that are regarded as the most astonishing breakthrough in black hole studies. At a packed lecture hall at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Dublin recently, he presented his new views in a presentation entitled The Information Paradox for Black Holes. In 1975, Hawking calculated that once a black hole forms, it radiates energy and starts losing mass by giving off Hawking radiation. He now believes that black holes may allow information to get out. His new research could even help solve the black hole information paradox, a crucial puzzle for modern physics. The intriguing thing about all this is that an Indian scientist said his theory was flawed four years ago, but nobody listened. What is a black hole? It is an object from which nothing can escape because its escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. Since nothing can travel faster than light, nothing can get out. Inside a black hole strange things are done to space and time, and at its centre could be a so-called singularity where space and time are squeezed to an infinitely small point.

Abhas Mitra, a physicist with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, could well be the only scientist who had the guts to openly challenge Hawking on this. Four years ago, in a paper in the journal Foundations of Physics Letters, Mitra showed that Hawkings theory was flawed. He proved black holes couldnt exist because their formation and existence flouted Einsteins general theory of relativity.

Pretty much the overwhelming majority of mainstream scientists dismissed Mitras conclusions. Mitra invited several notable black hole theorists including Hawking and Jayant Narlikar of India to criticize his work but no one replied. The only Indian who praised Mitras work was relativist Pankaj Joshi of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. Too embarrassed to be associated with a man who challenged Hawking, even Mitras close colleagues avoided him. BARC authorities removed Mitra from the theoretical physics division on a flimsy pretext. This is not the first time an Indian scientist has been pooh-poohed, only to be proved right years later. In the 1930s when Subramanian Chandrasekhars work on the upper mass limit of white dwarfs was considered incorrect by celebrated astrophysicists like Sir Arthur Eddington even though no one could precisely point out any error in Chandras work. The ironic element in this whole exercise, Mitra told PTI, is that the person who actually dared to show that there cannot be any black holes was completely ignored both by the academicians and the media. Yet Hawkings own admission two weeks ago in Dublin is that there isnt a black hole in the absolute sense.

In essence, Hawkings new black holes never quite become the kind that gobble up everything. Instead, they keep emitting radiation for a long timeexactly what Mitra showed in his paper. A black hole is characterized by an imaginary boundary called the event horizon that shuts everything within. But in 1976 Hawking introduced quantum mechanics into the problem and claimed that black holes do radiate energyalthough at a low rateand ultimately vanish into nothingness. The vanishing act, however, destroys all the trapped information as welldirectly conflicting with the laws of quantum physics that say that information can never be completely wiped out. This is the information loss paradox associated with black holes that, in a way, was created by Hawkings own work. One logical resolution of this paradox would have been to realize that black holes did not exist. But Mitra says that such sweeping, yet logical thinking was never undertaken by either party involved in this prolonged debate and they kept on debating effectively to make the paradox more popular and perpetuating. It was then that Mitra published his seminal paper showing that gravitational collapse of massive star can at best produce an eternally collapsing object but not an event horizon or a black hole in the strict sense. Since no event horizon is formed, there is no paradox at all in the first place, Mitra argued. Mitras work inspired American physicists Stanley Robertson and Darryl Leiter who confirmed in 2002 that Black Hole Candidates suggested earlier by Mitra have intense magnetic fields as predicted by Mitra and therefore are not real black holes, which cannot have magnetic fields. His own colleagues sidelined Mitra after his first paper, but several physicists around the world supported him. Italian relativist Salvatore Antocia, a noted relativist, wrote: Let me express to you my great joy in seeing your much-disputed paper eventually accepted for publication by Foundations of Physics Letters. Convincing the community of relativists about the mythical nature of black holes will remain a tremendous task, but it is a little less desperate, thanks to your success. British physicist Peder Norberg and U.S. relativist Stanley Robertson backed him as well. Robertson wrote: On first becoming acquainted with your work, I was dubious, thinking it unlikely that something as profound as belief in the existence of black holes could become erroneously established in the literature. In the meanwhile, I have found no errors in your work. It is fascinating. - Deepak Goyal is a freelance writer. He lives in Kolkata, India.

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