🚀 go-pugleaf

Paul.Ciszek@mailbox.bison.mb.ca (Paul Ciszek) writes:

>Could someone please clear up the following for me?

>Suppose we start with a cloud of hydrogen, with a total baryon number
>equal to the number of hydrogen atoms present.  As this cloud goes from
>protosun -> star -> supernovae -> neutron star, baryon number is conserved.
>Fine and dandy.  Now the neutron star collapses into a black hole.  I guess
>I ought to assume the black hole still "remembers" the baryon number somehow.
>Now, according to Hawking, the black hole evaporates into "radiation".
>Does it "evaporate" into light?  Or did he mean "particle radiation"?
>Is baryon number conserved in this last stage?

Our present understanding of black hole physics suggests quite the 
reverse- that quantum processes involving black hole states do INDEED
violate pretty much every local conserved number except for spin,
mass/energy and charge. This forms the basis of the no-hair conjecture
for black holes. Future understanding may vary, however :). At present,
black holes can violate baryon number.

			Steve

--
| Name: Stephen P. Braham | Perversion: Quantum Cosmologist|
| Hangout: UBC physics    | Signature:  Euclidean          |
|          Vancouver, BC  |--------------------------------+
|          Canada         | E-mail: braham@physics.ubc.ca  |