In an article in 2023, Professor Heino Falcke and his colleagues at Radboud University have shown that not only black holes, but also all other objects in the universe can “evaporate” via a process similar to the radiation of hawking. After this publication, the authors received many questions about the duration of the process. In a new study, they calculated that the end of the universe is around 1078 Years, if only a radiation similar to a hawking is taken into account. This is the weather for white dwarfs – the most persistent celestial bodies – to decompose via hawking radiation. Previous studies, which did not take this effect into account, have launched the lifespan of white dwarfs at 101100 years.
The artist’s impression of a neutron star who “evaporates” slowly via a radiation similar to a hawking. Image credit: Daniël Futselaar / Artsource.nl.
“So the ultimate end of the universe comes much earlier than expected, but fortunately, it still takes a long time,” said Professor Falcke.
In 1975, the physicist Stephen Hawking postulated that, unlike the theory of relativity, particles and radiation could escape from a black hole.
At the edge of a black hole, two temporary particles can form, and before they merge, a particle is suckled in the black hole and the other particle escapes.
One of the consequences of the hawking radiation is that a black hole disintegrates very slowly in the particles and the radiation.
This contradicts the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein, who says that black holes can only grow.
Professor Falcke and co-authors have calculated that the radiation hawking process also applies to other objects with a gravitational field.
The calculations have also shown that the “evaporation time” of an object depends only on its density.
To the surprise of researchers, neutron stars and stellar black holes take the same time to decompose: 1067 years.
It was unexpected because the black holes have a stronger gravitational field, which should make them “evaporate” more quickly.
“But black holes have no surface,” said Dr. Michael Wondrak, a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University.
“They reabsorb part of their own radiations that inhibit the process.”
“Because we were there anyway, we also calculated how long it takes for the moon and a human evaporating via hawking radiation: 1090 years, ”said the authors.
“Of course, there are other processes that can make humans disappear and the moon faster than calculated.”
“Research is an exciting collaboration of different disciplines and that the combination of astrophysics, quantum physics and mathematics leads to new ideas,” said Radboud university professor Walter Van Suijlekom.
“By asking these kinds of questions and looking at extreme cases, we want to better understand the theory, and perhaps one day, disilar the mystery of the radiation of hawking.”
The new document will be published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
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Heino Falcke and al. 2025. A limit greater than the lifespan of stellar remains of the production of gravitational pairs. Jcapin press; Arxiv: 2410.14734
