# How does negative energy from Hawking Radiation cause a Black Hole to shrink? [duplicate]

Hello this is expanding upon a question that was previously asked on stack exchange that I linked below. From what I understand of Black Holes is that overtime Hawking Radiation results in the Black Hole shrinking. This being do to virtual particle pairs. The point I find confusing, and I may be misunderstanding it, but the black shrinks due to negative energy of the particle it absorbs when the other particle escapes but it does not matter whether or not it was the matter of the antimatter that was absorbed. Is the Black Hole losing mass if it absorbs only the normal matter half of a virtual particle and the antimatter half escapes?

Hawking Radiation - Why it causes black holes to die?

-

## marked as duplicate by John Rennie, Kyle Kanos, Brandon Enright, Qmechanic♦Apr 7 at 12:37

possible duplicate of Black holes and positive/negative-energy particles –  John Rennie Apr 5 at 8:49
Hello thank you for posting this but it does not quite ask or answer the question I posted. Main point I am confused on is how the Black Hole can shrink as a result of absorbing a particle due to the particle having negative energy even if the particle in question is an antiparticle through Hawking radiation? –  John Apr 5 at 17:12
In GR all matter is treated as energy via Einstein's famous equation $e = mc^2$. GR makes no distinction between matter and energy - both create a gravitational field. Both matter and anti-matter have the same (positive) energy simply given by their mass. A negative energy particle is one that, in effect, has a negative mass, and of course adding a negative mass to a black hole will reduce its total mass. This is a gruesome oversimplification, but if you insist on using the particle-antip[article explanation of Hawking radiation this is basically what happens. –  John Rennie Apr 5 at 18:15
Thank you, I miss-wrote part of the above question, I meant to say particle not antiparticle. Does the black hole still shrinks if it absorbs a normal particle and how? –  John Apr 5 at 19:54
Both virtual particles and antiparticles may have a negative energy or a positive energy. Any negative energy object absorbed by the black hole will cause it to shrink because it decreases the total energy, and therefore mass, of the black hole. –  John Rennie Apr 6 at 6:03