Friday 9 July 2010

black hole - Conversion of matter into antimatter

It would be more accurate to say that a black hole eventually turns whatever falls in it into equal quantities of matter and antimatter.



The difference between matter and antimatter is defined by some conserved (or approximately conserved) quantum numbers. For example, matter baryons and quarks have positive baryon number, while antibaryons and antiquarks have negative baryon number. Leptons (e.g., electrons, neutrinos) and their antiparticles have a corresponding lepton number instead.



Semiclassically, a black hole evaporates through Hawking radiation. For astrophysically large black holes, this will be overwhelmingly be in terms of photons, which are their own antiparticles, but once the black hole evaporates to a small enough size, it will also radiate massive particles as well. Because there are no long-range forces that couple to baryon number or lepton number, a black hole is under no obligation to conserve them, and thus should radiate equal amounts of matter and antimatter, regardless of what fell into it.



This is unlike, say, energy-momentum, electric charge, and angular momentum, the presence of which makes a difference in the long-range gravitational and/or electromagnetic fields. Thus the total amount of charge the black hole will radiate should match the total amount that fell into it, etc.



Unless, of course, quantum gravity gives us more surprises, which is definitely possible.

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