How to Delay Death and Look Further Into the Future if You Fall Into a Black Hole (original) (raw)

Abstract

In this note, we present a pedagogical illustration of peculiar properties of motion in the vicinity of and inside black holes. We discuss how a momentary impulse can modify the life-time of an object radially falling into a Schwarzschild black hole down to singularity. The well-known upper limit for a proper time spent within a horizon, in fact, requires an infinitely powerful kick. We calculate the proper time interval (perceived as the personal lifetime of a falling observer) till the contact with the singularity, as well as the time interval in the Lemaître frame (which reflects how far into the future of the outer world a falling observer can look), for different values of the kick received by the falling body. We discuss the ideal strategy to increase both time intervals by an engine with a finite power. This example is suitable for university seminars for undergraduate students specializing in general relativity and related astrophysical subjects.

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Acknowledgement

We thank Dr. Oleg Zaslavsky from Karazin National University (Kharkiv, Ukraine) and Dr. Tarun Deep Saini from the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore, India) for discussions and useful comments. We also thank the referee for notes and suggestions, which helped to improve the paper.

Sergei Popov was supported by the Ministry of Science and higher Education of the Russian Federation under the contract 075-15-2020-778 in the framework of the Large Scientific Projects Program within the national project ‘Science’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Universitetski pr. 13, Moscow, 119234, Russia
    Alexei Toporensky & Sergei Popov

Authors

  1. Alexei Toporensky
  2. Sergei Popov

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Correspondence toAlexei Toporensky or Sergei Popov.

Additional information

Dr. Alexei Toporensky works at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute and delivers seminars at the HSE University, Moscow. His main research interests are in the cosmology of the early Universe and theories of gravity.

Prof. Sergei Popov works at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute and at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics. Main scientific interests are related to the evolution of compact objects, especially neutron stars. He also actively participates in popular science activities and public outreach.

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Toporensky, A., Popov, S. How to Delay Death and Look Further Into the Future if You Fall Into a Black Hole.Reson 28, 737–749 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-023-1602-8

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