Related papers: Emergent Relativity
It is proposed that the event horizon of a black hole is a quantum phase transition of the vacuum of space-time analogous to the liquid-vapor critical point of a bose fluid. The equations of classical general relativity remain valid…
Gravity stands out among the fundamental interactions because of its apparent incompatibility with having a quantum description. Moreover, thermodynamic aspects of gravitation theory appears as puzzling features of some classical solutions…
Recently, Almheiri et. al. argued, via a delicate thought experiment, that it is not consistent to simultaneosuly require that (a) Hawking radiation is pure, (b) effective field theory is valid outside a stretched horizon and (c) infalling…
Black holes are extreme manifestations of general relativity, so one might hope that exotic quantum effects would be amplified in their vicinities, perhaps providing clues to quantum gravity. The commonly accepted treatment of quantum…
Black holes are an apparently unavoidable prediction of classical General Relativity, at least if matter obeys the strong energy condition rho + 3p > 0. However quantum vacuum fluctuations generally violate this condition, as does the eq.…
Motivations for the existence of a fundamental preferred frame range from pure phenomenology to attempts to solve the non-renormalizability of quantum gravity, the problem of time (and scale), and the cosmological constant problem(s). In…
We consider the fundamental issues which dominate the question about the existence or non-existence of black hole horizons and singularities from both of the theoretical and observational points of view, and discuss some of the ways that…
Up to now, Einstein's general theory of relativity has passed all experimental tests. But yet we know that it is not a fundamental theory and that it is incompatible with quantum theory. While several extended and improved gravitational…
Einstein's general theory of relativity poses many problems to the quantum theory of point particle fields. Among them is the fate of a massive point particle. Since its rest mass exists entirely within its Schwarzschild radius, in the…
In an attempt to re-establish space-time as an essential frame for formulating quantum gravity - rather than an "emergent" one -, we find that exact invariance under scale transformations is an essential new ingredient for such a theory.…
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…
The occurrence of a spacetime singularity indicates the breakdown of Einstein gravitation theory in these extreme regimes. We consider here the singularity issue and various black hole paradoxes at classical and quantum levels. It is…
The gravitational force harbours a fundamental instability against collapse. In standard General Relativity without Quantum Mechanics, this implies the existence of black holes as natural, stable solutions of Einstein's equations. If one…
In this essay we argue that once quantum gravitational effects change the classical geometry of a black hole and remove the curvature singularity, the black hole would not evaporate entirely but approach a remnant. In a modified…
Many discussion about the black hole conundrums, such as singularity and information loss, suggested that there must be some essential irreconcilable conflict between quantum theory and classical gravity theory, which cannot be solved with…
The information loss paradox is usually stated as an incompatibility between general relativity and quantum mechanics. However, the assumptions leading to the problem are often overlooked and, in fact, a careful inspection of the main…
Almost all of the entropy in the universe is in the form of Bekenstein--Hawking (BH) entropy of super-massive black holes. This entropy, if it satisfies Boltzmann's equation $S=\log{\cal N}$, hence represents almost all the accessible phase…
We study selected aspects of quantum gravity phenomenology inspired by the gravitational analogy in Bose--Einstein condensates (BECs). We first review the basic ideas and formalism of analogue gravity in BECs, with particular emphasis on…
A key test of any quantum theory of gravity is its ability to reproduce the known thermodynamic properties of black holes. A statistical mechanical description of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy once seemed remote, but today we suffer an…
In 2014, in a famous paper Hawking strongly criticized the firewall paradox by claiming that it violates the equivalence principle and breaks the CPT invariance of quantum gravity. He proposed that the final result of the gravitational…