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Currently Playing: What Stops Light From Becoming a Black Hole?

Thanks to Hungry Minds for sponsoring this video. Use the code PHYSICSEXPLAIN10 to get 10% off The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding a Civilization. 👉 https://mdsh.io/physicsexplain 🤝 Support the channel Patreon → https://www.patreon.com/physicsexplained 🔗 Follow me Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/physics_explained_ig X (Twitter) → https://twitter.com/PhysicsExplain1 Can a black hole be made entirely from light? General relativity suggests that, in principle, concentrating enough electromagnetic energy into a sufficiently small region could form an event horizon. But quantum electrodynamics may intervene first: sufficiently intense electromagnetic fields can produce electron–positron pairs, carrying energy away from the region before a black hole can form. REFERENCES Á. Álvarez-Domínguez, L. J. Garay, E. Martín-Martínez & J. Polo-Gómez, “No Black Holes from Light”, Physical Review Letters 133, 041401 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.041401 D. N. Page, “Light Black Holes from Light”, Physical Review Letters 135, 261402 (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.16202 J. A. Wheeler, “Geons”, Physical Review 97, 511 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.97.511 J. Schwinger, “On Gauge Invariance and Vacuum Polarization”, Physical Review 82, 664 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.82.664