I see many answers to what happens to 'an observer' or 'matter' or 'clocks' passing the event horizon of a black hole, but would like to ask how the structure of solid or liquid matter is affected?
For example imagine I push a diamond prism through the event horizon (this is a simple, single element, regular crystalline structure), maintained by inter-atomic forces. If I regard the prism as a collection of atoms, maintained in their relative positions through those inter-atomic forces, then how are the inter-atomic nearest-neighbour connections affected as they cross the event horizon? An atom within the event horizon cannot affect one outside, so presumably the connection is broken and the material is disrupted, but I'd like to understand a bit more about what happens and why.
For another example imagine a liquid whose structure is maintained, if you like, by inter-molecular collisions. Again, a molecule within the event horizon cannot collide with one outside, so presumably again the material is disrupted?
For context, this question arose from a silly suggestion I made, that one might build a tower that extended outside the event horizon and then put an elevator in it to move in and out. I 'know' that doesn't work but I am not quite clear about the mechanisms when we think about real material with its interatomic forces rather than idealised 'matter'.
