Black Hole Exotica
This chapter explores some of the predicted effects of black holes on people's lives and the possibility that they might someday be explored in fact as well as in fiction. These predicted effects include the Hawking radiation, wormholes, and multiverses. The Hawking radiation—in which the interaction between quantum mechanics and relativity has been explored with some success—is a process through which black holes are expected to emit energy and ultimately evaporate. Meanwhile, one of the most enticing possible effects associated with black holes is that they might form wormholes through which widely separated parts of the Universe can be closely connected. Lastly, one final suggestion that might be contemplated is that a separate universe might exist inside the event horizon of a black hole. This is one version of the multiverse concept, in which a variety of universes with a variety of characteristics exist.