Related papers: A critical appraisal of the singularity theorems
This is a translation of an article written originally in Portuguese for the journal Gazeta de F\'isica, in a special edition celebrating the 2020 Nobel prize in physics. The text targets a broad audience and focuses on the key ideas and…
Black holes are one of the most fascinating predictions of general relativity. They are the natural product of the complete gravitational collapse of matter and today we have a body of observational evidence supporting the existence of…
This article is an introduction to causal properties of General Relativity. Topics include the Raychaudhuri equation, singularity theorems of Penrose and Hawking, the black hole area theorem, topological censorship, and the Gao-Wald…
Black holes are a continuing source of mystery. Although their classical properties have been understood since the 1970's, their quantum properties raise some of the deepest questions in theoretical physics. Some of these questions have…
We present here an overview of our basic understanding and recent developments on spacetime singularities in the Einstein theory of gravity. Several issues related to physical significance and implications of singularities are discussed.…
The influential theorems of Hawking and Penrose demonstrate that spacetime singularities are ubiquitous features of general relativity, Einstein's theory of gravity. The utility of classical general relativity in describing gravitational…
We analyze the singularities of the two-point function in a conformal field theory at finite temperature. In a free theory, the only singularity is along the boundary light cone. In the holographic limit, a new class of singularities…
We present two alternative perspectives for the resolution of Hawking's information puzzle in black hole evaporation. The two views are deeply contrasting, yet they share several common aspects. One of them is the central role played by the…
The main aim of this thesis is to study the properties of trapped surfaces in spacetimes with symmetries and their possible relation with the theory of black holes. We will concetrate specially on one aspect of this possible equivalence,…
The singularity theorems of classical general relativity are briefly reviewed. The extent to which their conclusions might still apply when quantum theory is taken into account is discussed. There are two distinct quantum loopholes: quantum…
An overview is provided of the singularity theorems in cosmological contexts at a level suitable for advanced graduate students. The necessary background from tensor and causal geometry to understand the theorems is supplied, the…
The Schwarzschild solution was the first exact solution to Einstein's 1915 field equations, found by Karl Schwarzschild as early as 1916. And yet, physicists, mathematicians and philosophers have struggled for decades with the…
We present a number of open problems within general relativity. After a brief introduction to some technical mathematical issues and the famous singularity theorems, we discuss the cosmic censorship hypothesis and the Penrose inequality,…
What happens at spacetime singularities is poorly understood. The Penrose-Wall singularity theorem constrains possible scenarios, but until recently its key assumption--the generalized second law (GSL)--had only been proven perturbatively,…
At the 20-th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics there was a plenary talk devoted to the recent developments in classical Relativity. In that talk the problems of gravitational collapse, collisions of black holes, and of black…
We consider a class of quasiregular singularities characterized by points possessing two future-directed light cones and two past-directed light cones. Such singularities appear in the $1+1$ trousers spacetime and the Deutsch-Politzer…
We reexamine the focusing effect crucial to the theorems that predict the emergence of spacetime singularities and various results in the general theory of black holes in general relativity. Our investigation incorporates the fully…
The Hawking-Penrose singularity theorem states that a singularity forms inside a black hole in general relativity. To remove this singularity one must resort to a more fundamental theory. Using a corrected dynamical equation arising in loop…
The Hawking-Penrose theorem is not covariant under field redefinitions. Should the invariance under such transformations be a true principle in Nature, spacetime singularities become dubious objects. We here review the concept of covariant…
We establish analogues of the Hawking and Penrose singularity theorems based on (a) averaged energy conditions with exponential damping; (b) conditions on local stress-energy averages inspired by the Quantum Energy Inequalities satisfied by…