# What is the thickness of black holes event horizon?

I would premit that I am just an enthusiast, so don't expect a good background or a deep mathematical knowledge about the topic. I just read an article about how light is reflected by a black hole (https://www.sciencealert.com/we-now-have-precise-maths-to-describe-how-black-holes-reflect-the-universe/amp). That let me think because, as far as I can understand that imply that the geometrical place where gravitational pull is "just strong enough" to "capture" light has to be a sphere (or geoid if the black hole rotate). What is hard to grasp for me is how perfect that sphere should be in reality (mathematical place doesn't not exist in real world).In other words I am asking if that topic was studied and which is the trending hipotesys about real thickness and smoothness of event horizon (intended as the region of space in which gravitational pull is just strong enough to capture the light, but not too strong).

• "...event horizon (intended as the region of space in which gravitational pull is just strong enough to capture the light, but not too strong)." That's an unhelpful definition of event horizon, since the tidal forces felt by a particle at a black hole's event horizon depends on the mass of the black hole. Black holes are not the only objects whose gravity can bend the path that light travels on, this is generally known as gravitational lensing and is done by galaxies too, where the shape of the lens (the galaxy) effects the types of images that are produced. Jul 14 at 19:53
• Sorry English is not my mother tongue so I may be misleading.What I mean is understand if there are theory about the thickness and smoothness of the black hole region in which photon start "orbiting" without falling (in a given moment, so assuming the gravitational pull does not change).So I would better understand the current theory about the "border" of a black hole and not it's interior.Is the border a infinitesimal thin film or has a thickness? Is smooth or has irregularities? Jul 15 at 5:45
• That's okay! Thanks for clarifying. By "border" are you referring to the event horizon of the black hole, or are you referring to the inner most stable circular orbit (ISCO) where the accretion disk begins? These two things are not the same. It seems like you're asking about the event horizon, but then you ask about the thickness of an accretion disk which involves the ISCO. Which is it? Jul 15 at 12:15
• Sorry for the delay, I don't even know these are two separated region. From what I've understand if you are inside a black hole you start the fall, no stable orbit here. So I am referring to the event horizon "outer" face (that I suppose it's a 2D surface, but I am no sure, for that reason I have asked). I definitely not refer to accretion disk outside, where gravitational pull should not be so strong to make light orbiting (afaik) Jul 19 at 12:55
• All good. What does "Inside a black hole" mean??? IT seems you might want to start reading a textbook before asking questions on here. For a non-rotating (Schwarzschild) black hole, the inner most stable circular orbit (ISCO) is at $r = 6m$ (assuming G=C=1 and using Schwarzschild coordinates) which is farther away from the center than the event horizon, which is at $r = 3m.$ So, as any textbook shows you, the ISCO is at a wider orbit than the event horizon. Light can orbit the black hole on at the ISCO as well, so the dichotomy you're making is not true. Jul 19 at 13:02