Related papers: New theoretical approaches to black holes
Black and white holes play remarkably contrasting roles in general relativity versus observational astrophysics. While there is overwhelming observational evidence for the existence of compact objects that are "cold, dark, and heavy", which…
The spacetime foam structure is reviewed briefly (topogical fluctuations and virtual black hole possibility; equation of state of the foam). A model of space foam at the surface of the event horizon is introduced. The model is applied to…
The gravitational force harbours a fundamental instability against collapse. In standard General Relativity without Quantum Mechanics, this implies the existence of black holes as natural, stable solutions of Einstein's equations. If one…
We construct several classes of worldvolume effective actions for black holes by integrating out spatial sections of the worldvolume geometry of asymptotically flat black branes. This provides a generalisation of the blackfold approach for…
While extreme black hole spacetimes with smooth horizons are known at the level of mathematics, we argue that the horizons of physical extreme black holes are effectively singular. Test particles encounter a singularity the moment they…
A summary of how black holes grow in full, non-linear general relativity is presented. Specifically, a notion of "dynamical horizons" is introduced and expressions of fluxes of energy and angular momentum carried by gravitational waves…
We give a short introduction to the approaches currently used to describe black holes in loop quantum gravity. We will concentrate on the classical issues related to the modeling of black holes as isolated horizons, give a short discussion…
Several general arguments indicate that the event horizon behaves as a stretched membrane. We propose using this relation to understand gravity and dynamics of black objects in higher dimensions. We provide evidence that (i) the…
In theories where physics depends on a global foliation of space-time, a black hole's horizon is surrounded by an "eternity skin": a pile-up of space-like leaves that in the far-out region cover all times from the start of collapse to…
Astrophysical black hole candidates, although long thought to have a horizon, could be horizonless ultra-compact objects. This intriguing possibility is motivated by the black hole information paradox and a plausible fundamental connection…
Our understanding of space and time is probed to its depths by black holes. These objects, which appear as a natural consequence of general relativity, provide a powerful analytical tool able to examine macroscopic and microscopic…
The curved geometry of a spacetime manifold arises as a solution of Einstein's gravitational field equation. We show that the metric of a spherically symmetric gravitational field configuration can be viewed as an optical metric created by…
A direct very simple proof that there can be no closed trapped surfaces (ergo no black hole regions) in spacetimes with all curvature scalar invariants vanishing is given. Explicit examples of the recently introduced ``dynamical horizons''…
In this chapter, we introduce the concept of a black hole (BH) and recount the initial theoretical predictions. We then review the possible types of BHs in nature, from primordial, to stellar-mass, to supermassive BHs. Finally, we focus on…
One of the remarkable features of black holes is that they possess a thermodynamic description, even though they do not appear to be statistical systems. We use self-gravitating magnetic monopole solutions as tools for understanding the…
A description of the event horizon of a perturbed Schwarzschild black hole is provided in terms of the intrinsic and extrinsic geometries of the null hypersurface. This description relies on a Gauss-Codazzi theory of null hypersurfaces…
After reviewing the shortcomings of existing definitions used to characterize the boundary of a black hole, we present a new method for its characterization. This definition could potentially be applied to locate the boundary of general…
This paper delineates the first steps in a systematic quantitative study of the spacetime fluctuations induced by quantum fields in an evaporating black hole. We explain how the stochastic gravity formalism can be a useful tool for that…
Event horizons are the defining feature of classical black holes. They are the key ingredient of the information loss paradox which, as paradoxes in quantum foundations, is built on a combination of predictions of quantum theory and…
Black holes are fantastic laboratories to probe new physics. Both theoretically and experimentally, many new ideas are emerging to use them as tools for understanding better quantum gravity or classical gravity beyond general relativity. I…