Rupture-Zone Theory

Black holes are traditionally described as regions where matter collapses to a point-like singularity of infinite density (Einstein, 1916; Penrose, 1965). This interpretation, while mathematically convenient, provides little physical insight into how spacetime actually fails. In this work, I propose the rupture-zone model, a geometric frame-work in which the interior of a black hole is governed by runaway contraction of the radial metric (Misner, Thorne & Wheeler, 1973; Wald, 1984). As contraction acceler-ates, wavelengths shorten, energy density diverges, and the causal structure collapses (Hawking & Penrose, 1970). Instead of a singular point, the interior terminates in a finite-volume region where the metric can no longer define distances or causal rela-tionships (Poisson & Israel, 1990). This rupture zone provides a physically intuitive mechanism for the breakdown of spacetime, resolves conceptual issues with the classi-cal singularity, and reframes black-hole interiors as dynamic geometric processes rather than static endpoints. The model is developed from first principles using light-cone structure, metric evolution, and the symmetry between cosmological expansion and interior contraction (Friedmann, 1922; Lemaˆıtre, 1927; Hubble, 1929).