I looked at the All Space Questions thread and I honestly think this sits outside its purpose as this subject doesn't seem to have a lot of research examining the potential consequence.
What started me thinking down this path was when I read about this
https://www.astronomy.com/science/astronomers-spot-a-pair-of-orbiting-supermassive-black-holes/
While the original story was quite old, it had been updated recently.
Here's the wikipedia entry for this SMBH Binary (SMBHB).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4C_%2B37.11
This particular pair are reported as very close together at around 25ly and an orbital period of about 30,000 years and a combined mass of about 15Bn solar masses.
That lead me to this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OJ_287
Another conjectured SMBHB that seems to have a orbital period of every 12 years, it has occasional 'flashes' that outputs more visible luminosity than the entire Milky Way and one theory is that the less massive SMBH is crashing through the accretion disk of the much more massive SMBH.
The question that I cannot seem to find much information on, thus the reason I'm posting here hoping others can contribute, is what happens if the event horizons of two SMBHs get so close together that they actually merge/overlap? I appreciate that if they get that close they'll be in a crazily short orbital period as the rotation speed will be brutal, perhaps high enough to cause it's own gravitational waves?
While prevailing theory is that time almost stops at the event horizon, does that mean matter gobbled by the SMBH is falling into the singularity on some extended timescale and thus 'scattered' inside the event horizon? If so, what happens if two event horizons overlap and thus 'both' want to impose their competing physics rules on the overlapped sections of the event horizon, does physics break down in totally new ways? Do the competing gravitational wells now allow matter/radiation/whatever to 'leak' out of the edges where the two event horizons meet?
Given the amount of energy released when even Neutron stars merge, the potential for Galaxy wide affected areas in a SMBHB merging are of any order of magnitude higher, even if only the matter near the edge of the event horizon is the primary fuel, as that could be in the order of the low millions of Solar Masses of material.
I'd welcome any pointers on research that's been done on overlapping event horizons, to try to help me get my head around this………
If a Binary SMBH systems Black Holes get close enough so that their event horizons overlap, will the two event horizons start to break down?
byu/Flubadubadubadub inspace
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Disclaimer, I wear a size 11 shoe.
I think the event horizons themselves would maintain their own respective structures, as their gravitational focal point would be separate to each other. The boundary between the horizons would snap and move around, creating gravity waves and exotic matter creation, all which would be trapped in its neighbours event horizon.
If you were in either, you would still spend the rest of eternity heading for one of two singularities.
I think what would be more destructive and energetic, would be the rippling gravity waves and exotic matter production where the zones just before the event horizons intersect, as the rotating energy and matter is slammed into other rotating energy and matter, like a galactic scale particle accelerator.