Black holes don't actually exist, see my other essay here. Instead the matter collapsing is always trying to settle down into something that would make an event horizon, where the escape velocity is the speed of light. It never actually gets there.

What happens as starlight falls onto what appears to be the event horizon of the "black" hole? This event horizon is almost but not quite black. There is actually matter right down there, just slightly above what would be an actual event horizon if it were all packed just a little bit tighter. New matter and starlight falling in lands on the existing matter. It doesn't cross some imaginary boundary (an event horizon) and enter into some other region. Instead it slams into the very densely packed matter already there that is constantly trying to settle down into the event horizon level, but forever slowing down due to the associated time dilation.

So matter falling in impacts matter already there in vastly energetic collisions. Starlight falling down the gravity well takes on so much energy even cosmic background radiation might end up being of gamma ray energy levels. Might these energetic collisions actually tear apart heavy atomic nuclei and reduce them to constituent protons, neutrons and electrons?

And might there occur combinations of collisions and heat energy that are sufficient to propel protons, neutrons and electrons into escape velocity, which then escape the gravity well and emerge back into the universe? So over time the black hole actually evaporates until it becomes unstable and then blows apart like a supernova?

The idea being the common conception is that once matter falls into black holes it is lost forever. That implies the universe cannot last forever. But perhaps matter only temporarily falls into black holes. Matter could start out as hydrogen and helium, collapse into stars, fuse to higher elements, the star often explodes and spreads the matter around, a good deal of it in the form of heavy elements. Or sometimes matter could collapse into "black" holes, which are environments of such energy and turbulence that the atoms are ripped apart back into hydrogen and helium and thrown back out, starting the process all over again.

Thus might the universe last forever?

A note on the charge aspect occurs to me. If we begin with a neutral state where the charge on the "black" hole is close to zero and the surrounding space is also relatively neutral, since the mass of an electron is so small compared to protons or neutrons, electrons would be the first things to get ejected out of the gravity well and escape into space. Now this creates an excess of protons in the black hole, it has a net positive charge. As more electrons are exiting, the charge difference increases. New electrons being kicked out are being pulled back in not only by gravity but by the excess positive charge. Now it seems to me a point is reached where an equilibrium condition is met where the charge differential exactly balances out the mass differential between electrons and protons, such that equal numbers of both are ejected from the black hole. Protons are helped to escape by the excess positive charge, electrons are hurt.

Perhaps even there is some oscillation around the equilibrium level, as net electric charge swings from positive to negative and back. Maybe this produces electromagnetic waves that go off in all directions. It would be funny if they happened to be of the same energy as those emitted by a black body at 3 degrees above zero.

Just playing with ideas.

ETA 20150221: Interesting article here about a black hole that is blasting out a cosmic wind in every direction. Well that just fits right into my theory...

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