Notion of an 'event horizon', from which nothing can escape,
is incompatible with quantum theory, physicist claims.
Most physicists foolhardy enough to write a paper claiming
that “there are no black holes” — at least not in the sense we usually imagine
— would probably be dismissed as cranks. But when the call to redefine these
cosmic crunchers comes from Stephen Hawking, it’s worth taking notice. In a
paper posted online, the physicist, based at the University of Cambridge, UK,
and one of the creators of modern black-hole theory, does away with the notion
of an event horizon, the invisible boundary thought to shroud every black hole,
beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape.