Gravitational Vortex Interpretation of Black Holes as an Alternative to Central Singularities

The standard interpretation of black holes as objects containing a central singularity of infinite density is a consequence of applying classical general relativity beyond its range of validity. This paper proposes an alternative interpretation grounded in the dynamics of the Kerr metric: black holes are gravitational vortices whose event horizons mark a relativistic causal boundary in the exterior geometry, without requiring any physically established central singularity. The event horizon is interpreted physically as a relativistic causal boundary of the exterior metric, while the familiar Newtonian escape-velocity analogy is retained only as a heuristic and not as a literal derivation of the horizon. The Kerr metric for rotating black holes naturally describes a vortex structure, with the ergosphere, frame-dragging, and ring structure all following from vortex dynamics. The formal singular structure at r = 0 in the Kerr solution is interpreted as a signal that the classical interior description has been extended beyond its physical domain, rather than as a directly established infinite-density physical object, consistent with the mathematical literature on the Kerr metric. Every directly confirmed observational feature of black hole candidates is shown to be consistent with the vortex interpretation: event horizons, accretion disks, relativistic jets, gravitational lensing, gravitational wave emission from mergers, and the black hole shadow images obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope. Flat or flattened galactic rotation-curve behaviour is shown to arise plausibly from the angular momentum distribution of galactic vortex structures in proof-of-concept N-body simulation, without hidden mass. The standard black hole information paradox is substantially weakened under the vortex interpretation because the central singularity is no longer treated as a physically established mechanism of information destruction. This paper further develops the Universal Centrality Rule: the observational fact that in the complete record spanning all surveys, all instruments, all redshifts, and all galaxy morphologies, no confirmed stable rotating galaxy has been observed with a supermassive mass concentration displaced beyond barycenter-consistent limits. The paper derives this zero-exception universality as a structural necessity of the gravitational vortex interpretation, presents the Solar System Barycenter Analogy, an analytical proof of wobble amplitude, and five falsifiable predictions. The vortex interpretation and the Universal Centrality Rule together form a unified framework: the vortex structure explains what galactic black holes are, and the centrality rule explains why they are always and only found at the dynamical centre of the systems that produce them. This paper is a companion to the main Big Flare-Up Theory paper (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19149786).