Why don't black holes form from forces other than gravity?

Question

Gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces, so what is so special about gravity that it can form an inescapably strong field while a force like the EM force cannot? It seems to me that if there were some extremely strong electric field, that it would only have an influence on particles that carry a charge, and so it would make sense that a black hole could not from from the EM force because it could not affect particles like neutrons. However, the same logic cannot be applied to black holes caused by gravity, because things like photons, which have no mass, still cannot escape the intense gravitational field. Why does gravity influence things that have no "gravitational charge" while the EM force cannot influence things that have no "electric charge." Because otherwise it would follow that a strong enough EM field should be fundamentally inescapable in the same way a black hole is inescapable. I know E=mc^2, so obviously a strong enough EM field would eventually act like a gravitational black hole, but why wouldn't it be easier for an EM black hole to form than a gravitational one since the EM force is so much stronger?

Answer 1

From a Newtonian point of view, this follows from the same reason gravity, the weakest of the fundamental forces, controls the movement in the universe: it is only attractive (unlike electric forces, which can either attract or repel), and it acts over long ranges (unlike the nuclear forces). Electric forces COULD do what you stated, but most material is electrically neutral, so you would have to first create a static electric charge on a lot of it, which would take a great amount of effort (and the removed charges could not just vanish, either).

Gravity attracts objects together naturally, and, with enough self-gravitating mass, can create the conditions where a black hole could form.

It is a good thing most material is electrically neutral, too, or we would constantly have to hold ourselves apart from being attracted or repelled by material around us.