Hawking radiation

noun

1. astronomy the emission of particles by a black hole. Pairs of virtual particles in the intense gravitational field around a black hole may live long enough for one to move outward when the other is pulled into the black hole, making it appear that the black hole is emitting radiation

Hawking radiation

1. A form of radiation believed to emanate from black holes, emerging from the region just beyond the black hole's event horizon (from which no radiation can emerge). Pairs of virtual particles and antiparticles, created naturally in the vacuum fluctuation near the black hole, are split apart, one particle falling into the black hole and the other radiating away. The energy lost to such radiated particles is believed to come from the mass of the black hole.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Hawking radiation¹

C20: discovered by Stephen Hawking

Example Sentences

But he notes that in 2015 he and others performed a similar calculation to argue that as a black hole eventually evaporates—through a quantum process called Hawking radiation in which particles pop into existence just outside its event horizon—it essentially regurgitates any information encoded in the matter than has fallen into it.

From Science Magazine

In this way, black holes emit a type of energy now called Hawking radiation and, over time, this escaping positive energy depletes them, which causes them to evaporate.

From Scientific American

In 2014, Engelhardt and Aron Wall figured out a way to calculate the extremal surface area of a black hole that is subject to the kind of quantum corrections that cause Hawking radiation.

From Scientific American

In the absence of infalling matter, this “Hawking” radiation would cause a black hole to eventually evaporate.

From Scientific American

This emission, called Hawking radiation, is what causes black holes to eventually evaporate away.

From Scientific American