Related papers: Gravitational Instability of Exotic Compact Object…
Quantum gravity suggests that the paradox recently put forward by Almheiri et. al. (AMPS) can be resolved if matter does not undergo continuous collapse to a singularity but condenses on the apparent horizon. One can then expect a…
We derive a relativistic field equation for the trace of the metric perturbation beyond the weak field approximation to the Einstein field equations. The dynamics is governed by a massive Klein-Gordon equation on curved space-time, where…
The vacuum must contain virtual fluctuations of black hole microstates for each mass $M$. We observe that the expected suppression for $M\gg m_p$ is counteracted by the large number $Exp[S_{bek}]$ of such states. From string theory we learn…
The ergoregion instability is known to affect very compact objects that rotate very rapidly and do not possess a horizon. We present here a detailed analysis on the relevance of the ergoregion instability for the viability of gravastars.…
Massive objects orbiting a near-extreme Kerr black hole quickly plunge into the horizon after passing the innermost stable circular orbit. The plunge trajectory is shown to be related by a conformal map to a circular orbit. Conformal…
We study gravitational-wave emission from the quasi-circular, extreme mass ratio inspiral of compact objects of mass m0 into massive objects of mass M>>m0 whose external metric is identical to the Schwarzschild metric, except for the…
Five and six dimensional static, spherically symmetric, asymptotically Euclidean black holes, are unstable under gravitational perturbations if their mass is lower than a critical value set by the string tension. The instability is due to…
Black holes in our Universe are rarely truly isolated, being instead embedded in astrophysical environments such as plasma or dark matter. A particularly intriguing possibility is that light scalar fields form bound states around black…
Classical phenomenological aspects of acoustic perturbations on a draining bathtub geometry where a surface with reflectivity $\mathcal{R}$ is set at a small distance from the would-be acoustic horizon, which is excised, are addressed. Like…
Quantum gravity is expected to remove the classical singularity that arises as the end-state of gravitational collapse. To investigate this, we work with a toy model of a collapsing homogeneous scalar field. We show that non-perturbative…
Near a black hole or an ultracompact star, motion of particles is governed by strong gravitational field. Electrically charged particles feel also electromagnetic force arising due to currents inside the star or plasma circling around. We…
We argue that gravitational instability in the outer parts of collapsar disks may lead to fragmentation near the radius where helium photodisintegrates, because of the strong cooling provided by this process. This physics sets clear…
Two new observational windows have been opened to strong gravitational physics: gravitational waves, and very long baseline interferometry. This suggests observational searches for new phenomena in this regime, and in particular for those…
Penrose's singularity theorem implies that if a trapped region forms in a gravitational collapse, then a singularity must form as well within such region. However, it is widely expected that singularities should be generically avoided by…
Exotic compact objects, horizonless spacetimes with reflective properties, have intriguingly been suggested by some quantum-gravity models as alternatives to classical black-hole spacetimes. A remarkable feature of spinning horizonless…
This is the first of several short notes in which I will describe phenomena that illustrate GR=QM. In it I explain that the gravitational attraction that a black hole exerts on a nearby test object is a consequence of a fundamental law of…
We consider compact astrophysical objects formed from dark matter fermions of mass 250 GeV to 100 TeV or from massless fermions hidden by vacuum structure of similar energy scale. These macroscopic objects have maximum stable masses of…
We present numerical waveforms of gravitational-wave echoes from spinning exotic compact objects (ECOs) that result from binary black hole coalescence. We obtain these echoes by solving the Teukolsky equation for the $\psi_4$ associated…
Current ground-based gravitational wave detectors are tuned to capture the collision of compact objects such as stellar origin black holes and neutron stars; over 20 such events have been published to date. Theoretically, however, more…
Self-gravitating non-topological solitons whose potential admits multiple vacua are promising candidates for exotic compact objects. Such objects can arise in several extensions of the Standard Model and could be produced in the early…