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by dskloet 334 days ago
I thought it was just thought that it would take too long for them to spiral into each other for it to have happened enough times in our universe
1 comments

You're imagining some moment where two points merge.

These aren't points; they are (literally) opaque volumes of space, and once their outer limits broach, they have collided.

By analogy, two warships can collide, even though their centers of mass don't.

It would be difficult for two warships to collide without some of the material in one warship touching some of the material in the other one.

But there is no matter at an event horizon. That's just an imaginary line in space. It's opaque, but not solid.

If the black holes were moving fast enough, it should be possible for their event horizons to cross and then uncross, although that would immediately raise the question of what would happen to matter in the zone of overlap. Perhaps "fast enough" would exceed the speed of light?

I think you're playing fast-and-loose with the notion of "colliding".

First define what you mean by "colliding".

By analogy, I'm defining it as the Event Horizons intersecting, at which point nothing in side "either" black hole has any physical meaning to us ever again. For all we know, the insides could be chocolate ice cream on one half of the now-double-sized Event Horizon, and pure neutronium on the other. It's meaningless to even pretend we know anything about that volume.

Collision occurs when there is some sort of interaction between massy particles that try and fail to occupy the same space. Whatever stops you from passing through the floor counts as "collision".

An event horizon has no mass or other existence and cannot collide with anything. Within the black hole, there is mass somewhere, but generally not at the event horizon. If you're not comfortable assuming that, we can make it a definition - take this to be an example where none of the internal mass lies within the region of overlap.

What is the obstacle to the black holes separating again?

> If the black holes were moving fast enough, it should be possible for their event horizons to cross and then uncross,

No, that is not possible.

...because?
Time dilation is infinite at the even horizon, so anything that touches it, freezes for good.
The event horizon is not an object that can touch something, so why is that an objection to the idea of two event horizons crossing and uncrossing?
Infinities are typically indications of where a theory breaks down, not of something real.