A visual demonstration of how an event horizon disrupts the normal annihilation of virtual particles. One particle falls in while the other escapes, becoming real radiation.
Learn MotionBlack Holes: Physics, Structure, and Theory
Hawking Radiation and Quantum Effects
Pair Separation at the Horizon
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Here is where gravity changes everything. If a virtual pair forms exactly at the edge of the event horizon, the intense tidal forces can pull them apart before they annihilate. The particle with positive energy escapes to infinity, becoming what we call Hawking radiation. The partner particle, carrying negative energy relative to an outside observer, falls into the black hole. To conserve total energy, the black hole must lose mass equal to the energy carried away by the escaping particle.
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