Black hole cores may not be infinitely dense but portals to elsewhere

The cores of black holes may not hold points of infinite density as currently thought, but portals to elsewhere in the universe, theoretical physicists say. …

These new findings are based on loop quantum gravity, one of the leading theories seeking to unite quantum mechanics and general relativity into a single theory that can explain all the forces of the universe. In loop quantum gravity, the four dimensions of spacetime are composed of networks of intersecting loops – ripples of the gravitational field.

The researchers applied loop quantum gravity theory to the simplest model of black hole – a spherical, uncharged, non-rotating body known as a Schwarzschild black hole.

“We have been looking at various aspects of spherical models for several years,” said researcher Jorge Pullin, a theoretical physicist at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. “We like them because they are at the frontier of what is possible in loop quantum gravity today – a bit more complicated than the cosmologies that have been studied over the last decade, but not so complicated as to become intractable. An ‘aha’ moment was when we realized we can carry out an important simplification of the equations of the model.”

Instead of a singularity, they found the center of this black hole only held a region of highly curved spacetime. …

My goodness, took them long enough to think of that. Maybe they’ve been reading the Cs’ sessions?