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Old 20-June-2007, 05:15 PM
nauthiz nauthiz is offline
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Ah, thanks. I think I got it. I took a look at the paper linked in the article last night, and I think I see where they say why this doesn't actually happen. From the bottom of page 4:

Quote:
The width of the Gaussian wave packet remains fixed in the u coordinate while it shrinks in the R coordinate via the relation dR = Bdu which follows from Eq. 36. This fact is of great importance, since if the wave packet remained of constant size in R coordinates, it might cross the event horizon in finite time.
That said, I got a bit lost in the jargon so I don't really understand what the u and R coordinates are. I'm assuming R is the Schwarzschild radial coordinate. Is u the spatial coordinate? I gather that Schwarzschild coordinates don't give an accurate representation of distances in space.

(Then again, I also gather that I've found myself way out to sea without a map.)
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