Conceptual Papers
   (no equations):

• The time barrier that prevents formation of black holes


• Hawking radiation and black hole evaporation


• Pathological coordinates and special coordinates

Technical Papers:

• How black holes violate the conservation of energy


• Five fallacies used to link black holes to Einstein’s relativistic space-time


• Gravity and the conservation of energy


• Momentum and energy in the Schwarzschild metric


• A fundamental principle of relativity


• The fiery end of a journey to the event horizon of a black hole

Other Articles:

• No more black holes


• No black holes after all?


• How Quantum Effects Could Create Black Stars, Not Holes


• Observation of incipient black holes and the information loss problem


• Small, dark and heavy: But is it a black hole?

Do black holes exist?

Many believe not only that black holes exist, but that they are a source of improbable wonders such as volumeless matter, time travel and worm holes to other universes.  But common sense should instantly raise skepticism about such claims.   In fact, Albert Einstein argued vigorously that black holes were incompatible with reality as described by his theories of relativity.  He wrote a paper specifically on this topic in 1939.

Noblackholes.com supports Einstein's skepticism and explains why general relativity does not allow for black holes. A series of conceptual papers describe, without the use of equations, some of the more salient problems with black holes.  Technical papers provide a more thorough description of the problems of black holes and particularly how black holes violate the principles that underlie Einstein's theories of relativity.

A brief history of black holes

Isaac Newton's seminal work on gravity, Principia (1687), postulates a law of gravity where gravitational potential energy outside a mass is inversely proportional to radial distance from the center of the mass. According to this law of gravity, the escape velocity on the surface of a mass increases as the mass is compacted. In 1783 the Reverend John Michell, a British natural philosopher, pointed out that if a mass could be compacted within a critical radius where the escape velocity on the surface of the mass equals the speed of light, light would not escape from the surface. This would create an invisible mass, now called a black hole....

The time barrier that prevents formation of black holes

As a mass is compacted to have a smaller and smaller radius, the escape velocity at the surface of the resulting sphere increases. If the sphere could be compacted to a critical radius (called the Schwarzschild radius) so that the escape velocity at the surface of the sphere is equal to the speed of light, nothing could escape from the gravity field. The result would be the formation of a black hole. However, the acceleration of time that occurs with increasing gravity erects an impenetrable barrier at the Schwarzschild radius that is able to prevent any mass from compacting sufficiently to form a black hole...

Hawking radiation and black hole evaporation

Hawking radiation is named after physicist Stephen Hawking who in 1974 provided a theoretical argument for the existence of thermal radiation emitted by black holes. The existence of Hawking radiation, now commonly accepted among physicists, presents a very significant logical problem for those who additionally believe that gravity affects time and that light and matter can pass through the event horizon of a black hole. Specifically, in addition to completely evaporating a black hole before light or matter could reach the black hole’s event horizon, Hawking radiation, intensified by the acceleration of time, will destructively irradiate anything drawing near to the event horizon...

Pathological coordinates and special coordinates

If a time barrier prevents formation of black holes and if anything that approaches a very compact mass experiences instant evaporation, how can some still claim black holes form? One fallacy that has contributed to the mistaken belief that black holes form in Einstein's relativistic space time is the labelling of ordinary coordinates as "pathological" and the assertion  that there exist "special" coordinates that can be used to show a mass will compact to form a black hole...

Technical Papers

How black holes violate the conservation of energy

Black holes produce more energy than they consume thereby violating the conservation of energy and acting as perpetual motion machines.

Five fallacies used to link black holes to Einstein’s relativistic space-time

For a particle falling radially toward a compact mass, the Schwarzschild metric maps local time to coordinate time based on radial locations reached by the particle. The mapping shows the particle will not cross a critical radius regardless of the coordinate used to measure time. Herein are discussed five fallacies that have been used to make it appear the particle can cross the critical radius.

Gravity and the conservation of energy

The Schwarzschild metric apportions the energy equivalence of a mass into a time component, a space component and a gravitational component. This apportionment indicates there is a source of gravitational energy as well as a limit to the magnitude of gravitational energy.

Momentum and energy in the Schwarzschild Metric

Albert Einstein validated his field equations by demonstrating that they complied with what he called the laws of momentum and energy. The most well-known solution to Einstein’s field equations is the Schwarzschild metric describing the gravitational field of a mass point. Here is examined how what Einstein called the laws of momentum and energy are manifest in the Schwarzschild metric and how these laws limit the geometry of space-time that is defined by the Schwarzschild metric.

A fundamental principle of relativity

The laws of physics hold equally in reference frames that are in motion with respect to each other. This premise of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity is a fairly easy concept to understand in the abstract, however the mathematics—particularly the tensor calculus used by Einstein to describe general relativity—used to flesh out this premise can be very complex, making the subject matter difficult for the non-specialist to intuitively grasp. Here is set out a fundamental principle of relativity that can be used as a tool to understand and explain special and general relativity. The fundamental principle of relativity is used to independently derive the Lorentz factor, the Minkowski metric and the Schwarzschild metric. The fundamental principle is also used to derive metric tensors for systems with multiple point masses and to explain Newtonian kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy and mass-energy equivalence in the context of special and general relativity.

The fiery end of a journey to the event horizon of a black hole

Light transmitted towards the event horizon of a black hole will never complete the journey. Either the black hole will disintegrate or the light itself will disintegrate before the light can reach the event horizon. The incomplete journey illustrates how locations where time is dilated observe and experience an increase in the rate that things disintegrate. When a mass is compacted so that the Schwarzschild radius is near its surface, the very significant increase in time dilation at the surface results in a corresponding increase in the rate of surface disintegration, explaining the existence of quasars.