Related papers: Black Holes: from Speculations to Observations
These are the lecture notes for an introductory course on black holes and some aspects of their interaction with the classical and quantum world. The focus is on phenomena of "fundamental physics" in the immediate surroundings of the black…
Although implicit in the discovery of the Schwarzschild solution 40 years earlier, the issues raised by the theory of what are now known as black holes were so unsettling to physicists of Einstein's generation that the subject remained in a…
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…
A brief reference to the two Schwarzschild solutions and what Petrov had to say about them is given. Comments on how the Schwarzschild vacuum solution describes a black hole are also provided. Then we compare the properties, differences and…
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…
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…
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…
This article is based on a pair of lectures given at the 2005 SLAC Summer Institute. Our goal is to motivate why most physicists and astrophysicists accept the hypothesis that the most massive, compact objects seen in many astrophysical…
We study scattering of waves by black holes. Solving a massless scalar field with a point source in the Schwarzschild spacetime, waves scattered by the black hole is obtained numerically. We then reconstruct images of the black hole from…
Black holes in several dimensions and in several theories are studied and discussed. The theories are, general relativity, Kaluza-Klein, Brans-Dicke, Lovelock gravity and string theory.
Black holes are by definition black, and therefore cannot be directly observed by using electromagnetic radiations. Convincing identification of black holes must necessarily depend on the identification of a very specially behaving matter…
We present a new solution in Einstein's General Relativity representing a Schwarzschild black hole immersed in a rotating universe. Such a solution is constructed analytically by means of the last unexplored Lie point symmetry of the Ernst…
The Schwarzschild space is one of the best studied spacetimes and its exhaustive considerations are easily accessible. Nevertheless, by some reasons it is still surrounded by a lot of misconceptions, myths, and "paradoxes". In this…
It is well known that the concept of black hole has been considered very fascinating by scientists even before the introduction of Einstein's general relativity. They should be the final result of an irreversible gravitational collapse of…
What is going on (as of August 2008) at the interface between theoretical general relativity, string-inspired models, and observational astrophysics? Quite a lot. In this mini-survey I will make a personal choice and focus on four specific…
The existence of black holes and of spacetime singularities is a fundamental issue in science. Despite this, observations supporting their existence are scarce, and their interpretation unclear. We overview how strong a case for black holes…
We obtain a new self-similar solution to the Einstein's equations in four-dimensions, representing the collapse of a spherically symmetric, minimally coupled, massless, scalar field. Depending on the value of certain parameters, this…
We investigate the shadow of an exact black hole solution of Einstein's equations recently proposed by Cardoso et al., to describe a supermassive black hole immersed in a dark matter halo. We analyze and discuss the light rings and the…
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (1915-2015). The first nontrivial solution of the Einstein field equations was derived by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916. This Note will focus mainly on the…
The existence of black holes and of spacetime singularities is a fundamental issue in science. Despite this, observations supporting their existence are scarce, and their interpretation unclear. We overview how strong a case for black holes…