<p>Firstly do not confuse the event horizon with the singularity. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerr_metric" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a> gives the formulae for the Kerr metric. There are a number of places where this formula appears to break down because you appear to be dividing by zero, essentially whenever $\Sigma = 0$ or $\Delta = 0$, in the notation of that page,  corresponding to the ergosphere and the event horizon respectively. There are two event horizons and two ergospheres but they all have the topology of spheres, one inside another (with some touching at the poles). However those are not singularities in general because you can choose other coordinates for space and time where the division by zero goes away. However you can't do this at points on the equator of the inner ergosphere, which makes those points a ring singularity. It is a ring with zero thickness (at least until quantum effects come in) .There is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerr_metric#/media/File:Kerr-surfaces.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a helpful picture</a> </p>

<p>Flow of liquids doesn't really enter the picture here. One can think of the properties of this metric as a "flow" of space-time, but that's an analogy at best.</p>

<p>There seems to be considerable doubt about what really happens inside a rotating black hole, or even, given that no information can escape from the black hole, about whether this is even a meaningful question.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-30T09:48:11.040Z
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_singularity
Roxy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-30T09:52:40.673Z
The link I provided above, is the one I was reffering to. In the description it's has given some angular momentum as a reason to the phenomenon. Can you explain it please?
Roxy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-30T10:42:04.400Z
I think the Wikipedia page on "Ring SIngularity" is simply rather badly written. It's talk page has credible people raising serious concerns. The page on the Kerr metric is much better.
Steve Linton
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-30T12:59:24.633Z
If that's the case, I'll read the kerr metric this time.
Roxy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-30T09:27:05.790Z
2018-03-30T09:27:05.790Z
Steve Linton
<p>I read about ring singularity on Wikipedia and didn't quite understand the flow of liquids inside a rotating body causing a ring shaped singularity with zero thickness. Moreover is it specifically ring shaped and not torus shaped in any case?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-30T08:45:16.060Z
There is an answer explaining (or outlining) the reason for the ring singularity as a result of the form of the Kerr metric and it's in answer to [this question on Physics SE](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/274053/ring-singularity-of-kerr-metric)
StephenG - Help Ukraine
<black-hole><astrophysics><singularity>
Why does kerr black holes have a ring shaped singularity rather than point?
Roxy
# Why does kerr black holes have a ring shaped singularity rather than point?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-03-30)

I read about ring singularity on Wikipedia and didn't quite understand the flow of liquids inside a rotating body causing a ring shaped singularity with zero thickness. Moreover is it specifically ring shaped and not torus shaped in any case?

**Tags:** black-hole, astrophysics, singularity

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There is an answer explaining (or outlining) the reason for the ring singularity as a result of the form of the Kerr metric and it's in answer to [this question on Physics SE](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/274053/ring-singularity-of-kerr-metric)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-03-30. Score: 3

Firstly do not confuse the event horizon with the singularity. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerr_metric) gives the formulae for the Kerr metric. There are a number of places where this formula appears to break down because you appear to be dividing by zero, essentially whenever $\Sigma = 0$ or $\Delta = 0$, in the notation of that page, corresponding to the ergosphere and the event horizon respectively. There are two event horizons and two ergospheres but they all have the topology of spheres, one inside another (with some touching at the poles). However those are not singularities in general because you can choose other coordinates for space and time where the division by zero goes away. However you can't do this at points on the equator of the inner ergosphere, which makes those points a ring singularity. It is a ring with zero thickness (at least until quantum effects come in) .There is [a helpful picture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerr_metric#/media/File:Kerr-surfaces.png)

Flow of liquids doesn't really enter the picture here. One can think of the properties of this metric as a "flow" of space-time, but that's an analogy at best.

There seems to be considerable doubt about what really happens inside a rotating black hole, or even, given that no information can escape from the black hole, about whether this is even a meaningful question.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_singularity  
> **username_0**: The link I provided above, is the one I was reffering to. In the description it's has given some angular momentum as a reason to the phenomenon. Can you explain it please?  
> **username_2**: I think the Wikipedia page on "Ring SIngularity" is simply rather badly written. It's talk page has credible people raising serious concerns. The page on the Kerr metric is much better.  
> **username_0**: If that's the case, I'll read the kerr metric this time.  

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