Carlo Rovelli is one of the most famous physicists alive today. Last year I discussed his book Anaximander with him; our conversation appeared in the April edition of the Catholic Herald. Since then, Rovelli has published White Holes.
In both books, Rovelli’s fascination with physics is clearly apparent, and he is keen to share his fascination with his readers. But on the question of religion, there is quite a contrast. In Anaximander, Rovelli is openly hostile to the Catholic faith of his youth, and he gives the completely erroneous impression that Christianity is anti-intellectual and the enemy of science. In White Holes, Rovelli comes across as someone who really values his Christian heritage despite not being a believer.
It might seem surprising that two books published by the same author in the same year portray Christianity so differently. But the relatively short period between publication dates is somewhat misleading. Rovelli actually wrote Anaximander around 15 years ago, but White Holes is a much more recent effort – he wrote the first draft around 2020.
A clear example of how Rovelli draws on his Christian heritage is the basic structure of his book, which is inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy. White Holes is sprinkled with quotes from the Commedia as Rovelli takes his readers on a journey through the mysteries of physics: a journey that he sees as somewhat analogous to Dante’s journey through the inferno, purgatory and paradise.
The journey begins with black holes, which evoke Dante’s inscription on the gates of Hell: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Black holes are stars that have collapsed under the force of their own gravity and have become so dense that not even light can escape from them. To appreciate just how dense black holes are, Rovelli explains that for the earth to become a black hole, it would be necessary to compress all the matter of the earth down to the size of a ping-pong ball!
The possibility of there being celestial objects so dense as to form black holes is predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Rovelli speaks of Einstein’s field equations with great admiration, describing them as perhaps the most beautiful equations in all of physics. But like Dante’s Virgil, these equations can only get us so far. There comes a point where Einstein’s physics breaks down: the values of the variables become infinite indicating that the theory is wrong when we reach the very small so-called Planck scale. To appreciate just how small this is, the ratio of the Planck scale to the size of a proton is similar to the ratio of the earth’s radius to the size of the entire visible universe. When we get to this scale, we must abandon the reassuring guidance of Einstein’s equations, just as in Dante’s journey, he has to leave Virgil behind when he is captivated by something more alluring.
To journey beyond a black hole and escape its power, one needs another guide: quantum physics. Rovelli claims that when a black hole is reduced to the size of the Planck scale (which will eventually happen due to Hawking radiation), quantum physics predicts that there is a possibility the black hole will transform into a white hole. A white hole is very similar to a black hole, but it behaves like a black hole moving backwards in time; one could imagine filming a black hole and playing the film backwards. This means that it is impossible for anything to enter a white hole, and everything within the white hole must eventually leave it. Whilst cosmologists know that black holes exist, Rovelli admits it is far from certain that white holes also exist. But if they do, he thinks they might be minuscule, and that there might be billions upon billions of these tiny delicate white holes. As for why anyone should want to speculate on white holes, Rovelli sees this as an opportunity to deepen one’s relationship with reality, which for Rovelli has an almost personal nature. Rovelli compares his questioning of nature to Dante’s questioning of Beatrice in the hope that she may gaze on him with eyes full of the sparks of divine love. Rovelli has come a long way since he wrote Anaximander, but nevertheless, he is still on a journey.
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