Related papers: Black hole event horizons are cosmologically coupl…
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…
Using the result obtained in a prevoius paper, in which I found an upper limit on the region of particle creation in the vicinity of the event horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole, and by assuming that all the created energy will be…
We investigate whether black holes can be defined without using event horizons. In particular we focus on the thermodynamic properties of event horizons and the alternative, locally defined horizons. We discuss the assumptions and…
Working in a semi-classical setting, we consider solutions of the Einstein equations that exhibit light trapping in finite time according to distant observers. In spherical symmetry, we construct near-horizon quantities from the assumption…
Black holes behave as thermodynamic systems, and a central task of any quantum theory of gravity is to explain these thermal properties. A statistical mechanical description of black hole entropy once seemed remote, but today we suffer an…
A detailed description of how black holes grow in full, non-linear general relativity is presented. The starting point is the notion of dynamical horizons. Expressions of fluxes of energy and angular momentum carried by gravitational waves…
Recently, it was hypothesized that some supermassive black holes (SMBHs) may couple to the cosmic expansion. The mass of these SMBHs increase as the cubic power of the cosmic scale factor, leaving the energy density of the SMBHs unchanged…
The introduction of coordinates representing the points of view of various observers results in the possibility of horizons when acceleration and gravitation are included. A horizon is a surface of possible light beams in a region of space…
Black holes in general relativity are characterized by their trapping horizon, a one-way membrane that can be crossed only inwards. The existence of trapping horizons in astrophysical black holes can be tested observationally using a…
We explore possible effects of vacuum energy on the evolution of black holes. If the universe contains a cosmological constant, and if black holes can absorb energy from the vacuum, then black hole evaporation could be greatly suppressed.…
Dynamical black holes have an apparent horizon as one of their characteristics. The later might be null, time-like, or space-like surfaces that define the evolution of a black hole. Our study examines how an apparent horizon's behavior is…
For distant observers black holes are trapped spacetime domains bounded by apparent horizons. We review properties of the near-horizon geometry emphasizing the consequences of two common implicit assumptions of semiclassical physics. The…
To derive black hole thermodynamics in any quantum theory of gravity, one must introduce constraints that ensure that a black hole is actually present. For a large class of black holes, the imposition of such ``horizon constraints'' allows…
In the de Sitter-invariant approach to gravitation, all solutions to the gravitational field equations are spacetimes that reduce locally to de Sitter. Consequently, besides including an event horizon, the de Sitter-invariant black hole…
In general relativity, nonsingular black holes contain (at least) a Cauchy horizon, a null hypersurface beyond which determinism breaks down. Even though the strong cosmic censorship conjecture establishes the impossibility of extending…
Event horizons are (generically) not physically observable. In contrast, apparent horizons (and the closely related trapping horizons) are generically physically observable --- in the sense that they can be detected by observers working in…
Understood in terms of pure states evolving into mixed states, the possibility of information loss in black holes is closely related to the global causal structure of spacetime, as is the existence of event horizons. However, black holes…
Supermassive black holes have been detected in all galaxies that contain bulge components when the galaxies observed were close enough so that the searches were feasible. Together with the observation that bigger black holes live in bigger…
The supposed information paradox for black holes is based on the fundamental misunderstanding that black holes are usefully defined by event horizons. Understood in terms of locally defined trapping horizons, the paradox disappears:…
Quantum physics at scales large compared to the Planck scale is described in the framework of classical space-time geometries. A criterion for selecting these backgrounds out of quantized gravity is proposed. It leads to an instability of…