A charged black hole is a black hole that possesses electric charge. Since the electromagnetic repulsion in compressing an electrically charged mass is dramatically greater than the gravitational attraction (by about 40 orders of magnitude), it is not expected that black holes with a significant electric charge will be formed in nature.
A charged black hole is one of four possible types of black holes that could exist in the theory of gravitation called general relativity. Black holes can be characterized by three (and only three) quantities, its
- mass M (called a Schwarzschild black hole if it has no angular momentum and no electric charge),
- angular momentum J (called a Kerr black hole if it has no charge), and
- electric charge Q (charged black hole or Reissner-Nordström black hole if the angular momentum is zero or a Kerr-Newman black hole if it has both angular momentum and electric charge).
A special, mathematically-oriented article describes the Reissner-Nordström metric for a charged, non-rotating black hole.
The solutions of Einstein's field equation for the gravitational field of an electrically charged point mass (with zero angular momentum) in empty space was obtained in 1918 by Hans Reissner and Gunnar Nordström, not long after Karl Schwarzschild found the Schwarzschild metric as a solution for a point mass without electric charge and angular momentum.
Famous quotes containing the words charged, black and/or hole:
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Suddenly made to see they can declare
Nothing but harmony, and may not move
Without a happy stirring of the air
That builds within this room a second room....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
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—Mae West (1892–1980)
“The more supple vagabond, too, is sure to appear on the least rumor of such a gathering, and the next day to disappear, and go into his hole like the seventeen-year locust, in an ever-shabby coat, though finer than the farmer’s best, yet never dressed.... He especially is the creature of the occasion. He empties both his pockets and his character into the stream, and swims in such a day. He dearly loves the social slush. There is no reserve of soberness in him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)