Related papers: Physical observability of horizons
Any observer outside black holes cannot detect any physical signal produced by the black holes themselves, since, by definition, the black holes are not located in the causal past of the outside observer. In fact, what we regard as black…
Violating Lorentz-invariance, and so implicitly permitting some form of superluminal communication, necessarily alters the notion of a black hole. Nevertheless, in both Einstein-{\AE}ther gravity, and Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity, there is…
In calculations of gravitational collapse to form black holes, trapping horizons (foliated by marginally trapped surfaces) make their first appearance either within the collapsing matter or where it joins on to a vacuum exterior. Those…
Black hole event horizons and cosmological event horizons share many properties, making it natural to ask whether our recent advances in understanding black holes generalize to cosmology. To this end, we discuss a paradox that occurs if…
We demonstrate that a dark silhouette of the black hole illuminated by a thin accretion disk and seen by a distant observer is, in fact, a silhouette of the event horizon hemisphere. The boundary of this silhouette is a contour of the event…
We show that the number of horizons of static black holes can be strongly constrained by energy conditions of matter fields. After a careful clarification on the "interior" of a black hole, we prove that if the interior of a static black…
The capability of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to image the nearest supermassive black hole candidates at horizon-scale resolutions offers a novel means to study gravity in its strongest regimes and to test different models for these…
We prove the existence of general relativistic perfect fluid black hole solutions, and demonstrate the phenomenon for the $P=w\rho$ class of equations of state. While admitting a local time-like Killing vector on the event horizon itself,…
In this chapter I focus on asking and answering the following questions: (1) What is a black hole? Answer: There are three types of black holes, namely mathematical black holes, physical black holes and astrophysical black holes. An…
In general relativity without a cosmological constant, a classical theorem due to Hawking states that stationary black holes must be topologically spherical. This result is one of the several ingredients that collectively imply the…
Black holes hold a tremendous discovery potential. In this paper the extent to which the Event Horizon Telescope and its next generation upgrade can resolve their structure is quantified. Black holes are characterized by a perfectly…
Recently, Almheiri et. al. argued, via a delicate thought experiment, that it is not consistent to simultaneosuly require that (a) Hawking radiation is pure, (b) effective field theory is valid outside a stretched horizon and (c) infalling…
Basic properties of black holes are explained in terms of trapping horizons. It is shown that matter and information will escape from an evaporating black hole. A general scenario is outlined whereby a black hole evaporates completely…
Black holes are among the most extreme objects that can be found in the Universe and an ideal laboratory for testing fundamental physics. This article will briefly review the basic properties of black holes as expected from general…
A class of observers is introduced that interpolate smoothly between the Schwarzschild observer, stable at spatial infinity, and the Kerr-Schild observer, who falls into a black hole. For these observers the passing of the event and inner…
Any spacetime containing a degenerate Killing horizon, such as an extremal black hole, possesses a well-defined notion of a near-horizon geometry. We review such near-horizon geometry solutions in a variety of dimensions and theories in a…
The black hole paradigm, while remarkably successful, raises fundamental questions-both classical and quantum-about the nature of spacetime, horizons, and singularities. Black hole mimickers, horizonless ultra-compact objects, have emerged…
Spherical configurations that are very massive must be surrounded by apparent horizons. These in turn, when placed outside a collapsing body, have a fixed area and must propagate outward with a velocity equal to the velocity of radially…
Recently, two of us have argued that non-Kerr black holes in gravity theories different from General Relativity may have a topologically non-trivial event horizon. More precisely, the spatial topology of the horizon of non-rotating and…
This paper considers the nature of apparent horizons for astrophysical black hole situated in a realistic cosmological context. Using semi-tetrad covariant methods we study the local evolutions of the boundaries of the trapped region in the…