Black Hole mergers

[symesie04]

Hi

 

Now i almost certainly have the wrong picture in my head but im struggling to understand even on a basic level how black holes could merge. I could understand them kind of bonding together in a bond that defies maths but merging? I my somewhat non fluid mind for them to merge at a atomic level the atoms would need to be ripped from each other and bonded to atoms in the other black hole and vice versa to merge. But how in an object that has infinite gravity (ok i know it cant really have) can atoms be ripped from each other even buy another object that has the same properties? 

On top of that if the maths is correct regarding these objects then they are infinitely small so how could they ever occupy the same area of space time to merge anyway? (ok it cant really be infinitely small)

 

Of course the answer may be well no one knows or understands at this point in time which is why the discovery of gravitational waves is so exciting. The answer may also be chris your such a buffoon, its simple blah blah blah.............  either way i would be quite interested to hear an answer.

[andrew s]

So what does a merger mean. I think it means that the two black holes that had separate event horizons surrounding their own individual singularities (assuming they exists) come so close together that so that they have a single event horizon and the singularities merge to become one. This is the GR model but many physicists assume that GR will breakdown due to quantum effects  and not have a singularity. The exact timing of the merger of the horizons and "singularities" as seen by an external observer can be calculated using the equations of GR and the graphics on the internet following LIGO announcement give a good picture of what happens.

Remember the event horizon is not a physical surface just a point of no return for light and matter there is no physical discontinuity at the horizon.

 

Regards Andrew

[Tiki]

 

I hope this helps:  http://www.astro.cardiff.ac.uk/research/gravity/tutorial/?page=4blackholecollisions