ALICE BOB AND FIREWALL ~ COSMOLOGISTIC

In the last two or three weeks when our entire Human Race was facing a threat of a complete annihilation of some sort, from an unknown asteroid coming towards us from deep space like Nibiru or something, there took place some terrific events in the Physics fraternity which missed most of our attentions. One of them was the ‘Closure of LHC’, the other was the arrival of the ‘Black hole Firewall Controversy’ which some are saying was ignited by a tweet Prof. Sean Carroll on the second week of December, followed by a Post on that by her wife on her own online columns. Regardless of the source, it was and in fact still is going on as a burning topic for debates, questions and counter arguments, people like Leo Susskind, John Preskill was also not spared from this and what could I’ve done other than to follow and comprehend what they are saying and make a logic out of it on my own way.

In the mean time someone from Edmonton, Canada confessed me in an E-mail (I don’t know from where he Got my mail address though) that let alone understanding what is going on at present, where people are shouting against each other about firewall, Alice-Bob and stuff, he in truth, does not even understand what ‘Firewall’ actually means and said that he initially interpreted that the talks which are going on are about the Firewalls installed in our computers and he asked me to clear this out and though his mail appeared to me as a bit funny, it led me to realize that there might be many others interested in Astrophysics but without technical know-how who are actually finding it tough to understand just like that Canadian guy did. So the Paragraphs which follows are dedicated to all of them.

So..what is a fire wall ??

To understand Firewall we start with a Particular Scenario, where two friends, Alice and Bob (The two beloved fictional characters used in Most of the Quantum Mechanical experiments) are hanging around with each other in a weekend Picnic somewhere in Space. After a wonderful time together and lots of fun and play, Alice and Bob went for a walk, only to discover after a few steps that they have come dangerously close to an Evil black hole lurking in the vicinity. The Black hole tries to attract them towards itself, while Alice and Bob, both tries to escape. Fate plays unfair with Alice, she was suctioned into the Black hole crossing the Event Horizon while Bob somehow escapes. Now the question is what happens to Alice from here ??..

Until recently most of the Physicist thought that nothing special would happen to Alice, it’s just that she will not be able to communicate with the outside world anymore and the singularity of the black hole will slowly attract her towards itself but she will not be able to even feel it until she comes extremely close to it. So all and all, Alice will be cool.

Now recently, Joe Polchinski and some of his brilliant students argued against this 'Not so argued' notion. They said that as soon as Alice crosses the Event horizon, she will face a wall of fire which will instantly vaporize her and convert her into pure energy, though this entire process will happen so fast that the death of Alice will be practically painless and John Preskill also supported it saying that, facing the firewall for Alice will be nothing but dying in deep sleep in one of his articles and also a tweet as well. Bob will however not notice the incineration of Alice even if he crosses the Event Horizon at the same instant as Alice did rather than escaping, because when you are inside a Black hole, then you’ll not be able to even see yourself, let alone someone else.

And you won't believe..that's it, that's how much there is and that was how much you needed to know to Get things and your own research started on Firewalls and stuff.

But let’s be honest with you, Black hole Firewalls with all these emerging hypothesizes is not at all a pressing practical problem for us, and it’s not something that you’ll face if you enter into a Black hole after you read this one. Because for Black holes to have an effective firewall, it’s theorized that it must be of that kind which is large in size and have evaporated more than half it’s total mass. But our Universe is too young to have such a Black hole at present. Nevertheless, things like these are always appreciated for a bit of intellectual exercise and controversies like these are taking place in Physics for more than Four Centuries, with starting from ‘The Gravity Train', to more recently 'Warp Drives'. Anyways, time to sign-off, will be waiting eagerly to know Your views on this one. Have a Great start to the year..Adieu !!!

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