Black holes

– who needs them?

Trevor Marshall, Manchester University
trevnat@talktalk.net http://crisisinphysics.co.uk

Laplace I have the honour to present your Majesty with

my new treatise on the Mechanics of the Heavens.

Napoleon Where is God in your mechanical system?

Laplace I have no need of that hypothesis.

 the conventional wisdom
Schwarzschild metric
dr2

The coordinate singularity at r = 2m is no problem. Just define

and we get the Eddington-Finkelstein metric

The singularity at r = 0 is unavoidable; thus a cold star with

mass > 3 solar masses will collapse to r = 0 under gravity.

• I have shown that this is incorrect;

r = 0 lies outside the physical space.
 Oppenheimer-Snyder metric [8,9]
A dust ball is a system of free-falling gravitating particles under zero
pressure. The metric used is comoving [4, pp.338-341]

and the stress tensor is

for which the OS solution is

with F = 1 (R>1) and F(R) arbitrary for R<1, but satisfying F(1-) =1.
I add F′ (1-) = 0 as a correction to Oppenheimer-Snyder.
The geodesics are R=const, ds=dτ ;
in particular the surface of the ball is at R=1 for all τ .
 Harmonic form of Oppenheimer-Snyder

Change coordinates to (t,r), where [3,4,7,10]

□ (t) = 0, □(r cosθ) = 0
and □ is the d’Alembertian operator

The solutions, for R>1, are

which give W→2m, r →m and t →+∞ as

 interpretation

a particle in the exterior region falls to the surface r = m in

finite proper time τ but infinite external time t;
it suffers an infinite red shift as it approaches r = m.

The exterior (t, r) metric is

which is the S-metric with r replaced by r + m.

The S-point r = 0 corresponds to the value r =-m in

harmonic (H) coords and is unphysical.
We shall see that the H-point r = 0 is the centre of the ball.
 solution in physical space
The boundary characteristic (BC) of both PDEs is defined by the ODE
d τ /dR = V(τ ,R), τ (1)=2/[3√(2m)] - 4m/3.
In R >1, the equation of the BC is τ (R)=2 √R³/[3√(2m)] - 4m/3.

Along the BC, t → + ∞.

There is no singularity inside the region τ< τ(boundary),
which is why I call it physical!

All geodesics, both interior and

exterior, end up on the BC.
t = +∞
In the figure I put 2m = 1, τ
so that τ (final) = 0 at R = 1,
and I put F = √[R³exp(3-3R)].

R
Interior exterior
 the Newtonian limit
As τ → - ∞, t ~ τ and r ~ [-(3/2) τ F(R)√(2m)] ⅔

this gives an initial constant density for any choice of F.

As τ varies for constant R, we obtain a Newtonian
collapse with dr/dt proportional to r,
thus maintaining the constant density until the strong field
regime is reached.
 From t(R,τ ) and r(R,τ ) we get r(R,t). Position
of a given dust particle, and thereby the
evolution of density with t, is described by

gives a crude picture of

the overall evolution.

With F = √[R³exp(3-3R)]
plot ufinal v. uinitial shows
● any interior particle of ufinal
the ball is displaced
towards the surface
● as the ball contracts,
and in the final state
the surface density
becomes infinite. uinitial
 Implications of the new solution 1

The topology of space, outside and within a

collapsing star of any mass, is the same as that
of Minkowski space: ie. no black holes [11,12].
The final state of the star, in the comoving coords
(τ ,R), is described by an ODE linking τ with R.
This ODE was obtained by going to harmonic
coordinates,
=> a believer in a strong Principle of Equivalence
must find a coordinate-free explanation for it.
 Implications of the new solution 2

Insisting on a physical space, with orbits for each

individual particle of the collapsing star, has led to
a final state with a strong concentration of
particles at the surface.
The harmonic frame is associated, in the Logunov
[2] theory, with a restoration of the distinction
between inertial and gravity forces;
in this frame the effect of the latter is to replace the
attraction of the weak-gravity regime with
repulsion in the strong-gravity regime.
 Implications of the new solution 3

The harmonic frame was first used by Einstein [5]

to derive his formula for the radiation from a
quadrupole source.
It has been demonstrated by the Logunov [7]
school that
Einstein’s result holds only in the harmonic frame,
something Eddington [6] pointed out long ago.
 Bibliography
[1] N. Rosen, Phys. Rev. 57, 147-153 (1940) and Ann. Phys.
(New York) 22,1(1963)
[2] A.A. Logunov, The Theory of Gravity, Nauka, Moscow (2001)
[3] V.A. Fock, The Theory of Space, Time and Gravitation,
Pergamon, New York (1959)
[4] S. Weinberg, Gravitation and Cosmology (John Wiley, New
York, 1972) pp. 161-163
[5] A. Einstein, Sitzungsber. preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1, 154 (1918)
[6] A.S. Eddington, The Mathematical Theory of Relativity,
University Press, Cambridge, pp128-131 (1924)
[7] A. Logunov and M Mestvirishvili, The Relativistic Theory of
Gravitation, Mir, Moscow (1989)
[8] R. C. Tolman, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci USA, 20, 169-176 (1934)
[9] J.R. Oppenheimer & H. Snyder, Phys. Rev., 56, 455-459 (1939)
[10] T.W. Marshall, http://arxiv.org/abs/0707.0201
[11] A.S. Eddington, The Observatory, 58, 37-39 (1935)
[12] A. Einstein, Ann. Math. 40, 922 (1939)