A couple of /\/008 Questions

[zelcon]

I have recently read books on Quantum Mechanics. I began to get interested in this subject. Then I had some questions, questions that no book would give a straight answer for:

 

What is a white hole?

What specifically occurs when a virtual particle and an antiparticle collide?

What specifically occurs when an astronaut stumbles upon a black hole?

 

If you are an uber genius, please answer me. Thank You.

[Severian]

Uber genious at your service...

 

1. It is the complete opposite of a black hole.

 

2. Do you mean when a particle and anti-particle collide? If you do, then they annihilate and the energy goes into creating another particle. What particle they turn into depends on what the original particles were. For most particle-antiparticle pairs this is usually a photon, but it could be a gluon or a Z-boson or even (hypothetically) a graviton. Either or both of the particles could be virtual.

 

3. He dies. Long before he reaches the event horizon he would be ripped apart by the gravitational forces.

[J.C.MacSwell]

Uber genious at your service...

 

1. It is the complete opposite of a black hole.

 

2. Do you mean when a particle and anti-particle collide? If you do' date=' then they annihilate and the energy goes into creating another particle. What particle they turn into depends on what the original particles were. For most particle-antiparticle pairs this is usually a photon, but it could be a gluon or a Z-boson or even (hypothetically) a graviton. Either or both of the particles could be virtual.

 

3. [b']He dies. Long before he reaches the event horizon he would be ripped apart by the gravitational forces[/b].

 

If it's massive enough he can cross the event horizon without feeling anything (small tidal effect), though his fate is sealed.