Related papers: Comments on Microcausality, Chaos, and Gravitation…
The possible existence of black holes has fascinated scientists at least since Michell and Laplace's proposal that a gravitating object could exist from which light could not escape. In the 20th century, in light of the general theory of…
The properties of metric perturbations are determined in the context of an expanding Universe governed by a modified theory of gravity with a non-minimal coupling between curvature and matter. We analyse the dynamics of the 6 components of…
Everybody knows what the classical black holes are. In short, this is a spacetime region beyond the so-called event horizon. The notion of the event horizon is mathematically well defined. The situation with a definition of quantum black…
We show how semiclassical black holes can be reinterpreted as an effective geometry, composed of a large ensamble of horizonless naked singularities (eventually smoothed at the Planck scale). We call this new items {\it frizzyballs}, which…
I review elements of the foundations of black-hole theory with attention to problematic issues, and describe some techniques which either seem to help with the difficulties or at least investigate their scope. The definition of black holes…
Stationary compact astrophysical objects such as black holes and neutron stars behave as classical systems from the gravitational point of view. Their (observable) curvature is everywhere "small". Here we investigate whether mergers of such…
In several approaches to evading the information paradox, the semiclassical black hole is replaced by an Exotic Compact Object (ECO). It has been conjectured that gravitational waves emitted by the merger of ECOs can reflect off the ECOs…
Several properties of canonical quantum gravity modify space-time structures, sometimes to the degree that no effective line elements exist to describe the geometry. An analysis of solutions, for instance in the context of black holes, then…
Local operators are the basic observables in quantum field theory which encode the physics observed by a local experimentalist. However, when gravity is dynamical, diffeomorphism symmetries are gauged which apparently obstructs a sensible…
Gravitational waves open the possibility to investigate the nature of compact objects and probe the horizons of black holes. Some models of modified gravity predict the presence of horizonless and singularity-free compact objects. Such dark…
We calculate the characteristics of the "black hole shadow" for a rotating, neutral black hole in fourth-order conformal Weyl gravity. It is shown that the morphology is not significantly affected by the underlying framework, except for…
Recently, Chandrasekaran, Penington and Witten (CPW) have shown that the generalized entropy of the Schwarzschild black hole at the bifurcation surface equals the entropy of an extended von Neumann algebra of quantum observables in the…
We discuss the distinction between the notion of partial observable and the notion of complete observable. Mixing up the two is frequently a source of confusion. The distinction bears on several issues related to observability, such as (i)…
The fundamental role played by black holes in our study of microquasars, gamma ray bursts, and the outflows from active galactic nuclei requires an appreciation for, and at times some in-depth analysis of, curved spacetime. We highlight…
Ultra-compact, horizonless objects such as gravastars, boson stars, wormholes and superspinars can mimick most of the properties of black holes. Here we show that these "black hole mimickers" will most likely develop a strong ergoregion…
In a recent work we have argued that nosy energy momentum diffusion due to space-time discreteness at the Planck scale (naturally expected to arise from quantum gravity) can be responsible for the generation of a cosmological constant…
Astrophysical black holes are embedded in surrounding dark and baryonic matter that can measurably perturb the spacetime. We construct a self-consistent spacetime describing a slowly rotating black hole embedded in an external matter…
This is a brief review of critical phenomena in gravitational collapse. The conceptual issues are emphasized and some directions for future research are suggested. The paper is not addressed to the experts in the field -- for them little…
We show that rapidly-spinning black holes can display turbulent gravitational behavior which is mediated by a new type of parametric instability. This instability transfers energy from higher temporal and azimuthal spatial frequencies to…
We find that a uniform scaling of the gravitational free-fall rates and photon-electron scattering rate leaves most dimensionless cosmological observables nearly invariant. This result opens up a new approach to reconciling cosmic microwave…