New Interpretation of the Extended Schwarzschild Manifold

Abstract

New analytic extensions of the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström manifolds are presented in which the metric coefficients are simple rational functions of the coordinates, and the complete manifold is covered by a single coordinate patch. A study of radial time-like geodesics leads naturally to an interpretation of the domain inside the Schwarzschild "singularity" involving a breakdown of the global distinction between past and future in this region. According to the new interpretation, and in contrast to presently established views, probes and light signals dropped in toward the center can be recovered by an external observer in a finite time.