[dlorde]

... take a look at an old version of the Wikipedia article and you can see mention of Friedwardt Winterberg's firewall. It's to do with gamma-ray bursters, and I'm pretty sure it's correct. You see where you said the escape velocity exceeds c? In Winterberg's scenario the speed of an infalling body would exceed the local speed of light, so it gets destroyed.

OK thanks, I'll take a look.

[JohnDuffield]

I've got a full copy of his paper, but it's too big to attach. The abstract is here:

Gamma-Ray Bursters and Lorentzian Relativity

"In the dynamic interpretation of relatively by Lorentz and Poincaré, Lorentz invariance results from real physical contractions of measuring rods and slower going clocks in absolute motion against an ether. As it was shown by Thirring, this different interpretation of special relativity can be extended to general relativity, replacing the non-Euclidean with a Euclidean geometry, but where rods are contracted and clocks slowed down. In this dynamic interpretation of the special, (and by implication of the general) theory of relativity, there is a balance of forces which might be destroyed near the Planck energy, reached in approaching the event horizon. In gravitational collapse, the event horizon appears first at the center of the collapsing body, thereafter moving radially outward. If the balance of forces holding together elementary particles is destroyed near the event horizon, all matter would be converted into zero rest mass particles which could explain the large energy release of gamma ray bursters".

I wouldn't say everything he says is absolutely right, but I think the gist of his argument is sound. When you drop a body into a black hole it goes faster and faster because the coordinate speed of light is getting lower and lower. There has to comes a point when its falling speed approaches the coordinate speed of light at that location. It can't fall faster than the coordinate speed of light at that location. So something's got to give. And gamma-ray bursters are said to be mysterious. I can imagine all the electrons being stripped off first, then they get ripped into gamma photons, then the protons and neutrons go. I imagine it would be pretty spectacular. BA-BOOM! 

[yor_on]

Nope Dlorde, you have a good mind, and you're not wrong, as far I'm concerned.

[jeffreyH]

I've got a full copy of his paper, but it's too big to attach. The abstract is here:

Gamma-Ray Bursters and Lorentzian Relativity

"In the dynamic interpretation of relatively by Lorentz and Poincaré, Lorentz invariance results from real physical contractions of measuring rods and slower going clocks in absolute motion against an ether. As it was shown by Thirring, this different interpretation of special relativity can be extended to general relativity, replacing the non-Euclidean with a Euclidean geometry, but where rods are contracted and clocks slowed down. In this dynamic interpretation of the special, (and by implication of the general) theory of relativity, there is a balance of forces which might be destroyed near the Planck energy, reached in approaching the event horizon. In gravitational collapse, the event horizon appears first at the center of the collapsing body, thereafter moving radially outward. If the balance of forces holding together elementary particles is destroyed near the event horizon, all matter would be converted into zero rest mass particles which could explain the large energy release of gamma ray bursters".

I wouldn't say everything he says is absolutely right, but I think the gist of his argument is sound. When you drop a body into a black hole it goes faster and faster because the coordinate speed of light is getting lower and lower. There has to comes a point when its falling speed approaches the coordinate speed of light at that location. It can't fall faster than the coordinate speed of light at that location. So something's got to give. And gamma-ray bursters are said to be mysterious. I can imagine all the electrons being stripped off first, then they get ripped into gamma photons, then the protons and neutrons go. I imagine it would be pretty spectacular. BA-BOOM!

That IS interesting.

[dlorde]

Nope Dlorde, you have a good mind, and you're not wrong, as far I'm concerned.

Thanks, yor_on - I'll try not to let it go to my head  []

[JohnDuffield]

That IS interesting.

It is, isn't it? And for the life of me, I cannot see how it can possibly be wrong.