All black holes absorb mass attracted by gravity, and expel mass (Hawking Radiation). I've been led to believe, due to all popular representations of black holes, that astronomical (a.k.a. large) black holes grow. I've read that Micro-black holes shrink/evaporate.
My question is, at what mass and/or radius is a black hole a growing one, as opposed to a shrinking one?
Answer
If one assumes no other matter is supplied to the black hole (which is difficult to describe in a general manner as it depends on the details of the environment), the question if black holes evaporate depends on the difference between the emitted Hawking radiation and the absorbed cosmic microwave background radiation. According to the Stefan-Boltzmann law the Power emitted/absorbed by a black body is P=σAT4,
Notice however, that if the universe keeps on expanding then the CMB temperature will keep on dropping and even heavy black holes will evaporate eventually.
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