DISCHARGE OF A REISSNER-NORDSTROM BLACK-HOLE WITHIN THE EVENT HORIZON

A simple model is constructed to illustrate candidate interior geometries for charged spherical black holes. The new feature of this model is the explicit consideration of the evolution of the electromagnetic field and charge distribution in the black-hole interior. The model is constructed by joining the Reissner-Nordstrom and Schwarzschild geometries along a spacelike hypersurface at a constant radius lying between the inner and outer horizon radii of the Reissner-Nordstrom geometry. This model represents an idealization in which the Schwinger pair creation rate is approximated as zero below a critical electric field value E0 and as infinity above the critical field value. The spacelike hypersurface on which the geometries are joined represents a sheet of current caused by the created charged pairs. This current eliminates the interior electromagnetic field, resulting in a final state for the black-hole interior which contains no Cauchy horizons, naked singularities, or ''tunnels to elsewhere.''