<p>It has been proven  (by <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.05862" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sorce and Wald</a>) that overspinning a black hole is actually impossible. So the question what happens if you overspin a black hole is asking for a counterfactual.</p>
<p>It is not actually clear what the end state of an overspun black hole would be. The obvious candidate would be the Kerr solution with <span class="math-container">$a&gt;GM/c^2$</span>. This is a vacuum solution to the Einstein equation describing a naked ring singularity, and also features closed timelike curves. However, unlike the black hole case there are no theorems that this has to be the stationary end state.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-15T18:08:14.587Z
Can't you just drop spinning matter exactly at the poles to overspin it?
Seggan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-15T20:37:44.777Z
@Seggan Nope, spin- spin interactions will prevent that.
TimRias
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-15T10:06:00.770Z
2023-09-15T10:06:00.770Z
TimRias
<p>I recently watched a Kurzgesagt <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFslUSyfZPc" rel="nofollow noreferrer">video</a> about destroying black holes. In the video, they mentioned that you can (theoretically) &quot;overspin&quot; a black hole to remove its event horizon, thereby creating a naked singularity. Now the way I think this works is that in an overspun black hole, the ergosphere makes you move so fast you always miss the event horizon. This would effectively allow light to &quot;reflect&quot; off the now-nonexistent event horizon. Wouldn't that mean that the black hole either becomes a white color or a perfect mirror? If it does, then we can't see the singularity and the cosmic censorship hypothesis holds. I admit this is based on my own understanding, so there's probably a flaw in my reasoning somewhere here.</p>

<black-hole><event-horizon>
Will an overspun black hole be white?
Seggan
# Will an overspun black hole be white?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-09-14)

I recently watched a Kurzgesagt [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFslUSyfZPc) about destroying black holes. In the video, they mentioned that you can (theoretically) "overspin" a black hole to remove its event horizon, thereby creating a naked singularity. Now the way I think this works is that in an overspun black hole, the ergosphere makes you move so fast you always miss the event horizon. This would effectively allow light to "reflect" off the now-nonexistent event horizon. Wouldn't that mean that the black hole either becomes a white color or a perfect mirror? If it does, then we can't see the singularity and the cosmic censorship hypothesis holds. I admit this is based on my own understanding, so there's probably a flaw in my reasoning somewhere here.

**Tags:** black-hole, event-horizon


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-09-15. Score: 2

It has been proven (by [Sorce and Wald](https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.05862)) that overspinning a black hole is actually impossible. So the question what happens if you overspin a black hole is asking for a counterfactual.

It is not actually clear what the end state of an overspun black hole would be. The obvious candidate would be the Kerr solution with $a>GM/c^2$. This is a vacuum solution to the Einstein equation describing a naked ring singularity, and also features closed timelike curves. However, unlike the black hole case there are no theorems that this has to be the stationary end state.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Can't you just drop spinning matter exactly at the poles to overspin it?  
> **username_1**: @username_0 Nope, spin- spin interactions will prevent that.  

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