Related papers: Is there a black hole minimum mass?
After recalling the definition of black holes, and reviewing their energetics and their classical thermodynamics, one expounds the conjecture of Bekenstein, attributing an entropy to black holes, and the calculation by Hawking of the…
It has recently become fashionable to regard black holes as elementary particles. By taking this suggestion seriously it is possible to cobble together an elementary particle physics based estimate for the decay rate $(\hbox{black hole})_i…
We argue that a process where a fuzzy space splits in two others can be used to explain the origin of the black hole entropy, and why a "generalized second law of thermodynamics" appears to hold in the presence of black holes. We reach the…
We present a general sufficient condition for the formation of black holes due to concentration of angular momentum. This is expressed in the form of a universal inequality, relating the size and angular momentum of bodies, and is proven in…
We show by explicit computations that there is a superficial inconsistency between the conventional first law of black hole thermodynamics and Bekenstein-Hawking area law for three types of regular black holes. The corrected form of the…
In this paper we follow a new approach for particle creation by a localized strong gravitational field. The approach is based on a definition of the physical vacuum drawn from Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Using the fact that the…
The Hawking process results in a monotonic decrease of the black hole mass, but a biased random walk of the black hole angular momentum. We demonstrate that this stochastic process leads to a significant fraction of primordial black holes…
We study the consequences of supersymmetry for primordial black hole (PBH) abundance constraints. PBHs with mass less than about 10^{11}g will emit supersymmetric particles when they evaporate. In most models of supersymmetry the lightest…
Hawking evaporation of black holes in the early Universe is expected to copiously produce all kinds of particles, regardless of their charges under the Standard Model gauge group. For this reason, any fundamental particle, known or…
Using a unified approach we study the entropy of extremal black holes through the entropy of an electrically charged thin shell. We encounter three cases in which a shell can be taken to its own gravitational or horizon radius and become an…
Recent discoveries of primordial black hole (PBH) candidates by means of high cadence microlensing open the way to a physical understanding of the formation of dark matter as a chapter in the thermal history of the Universe. Two…
Black holes monopolize nowadays the center stage of fundamental physics. Yet, they are poorly understood objects. Notwithstanding, from their generic properties, one can infer important clues to what a fundamental theory, a theory that…
We give several pieces of evidence to show that extremal black holes cannot be obtained as limits of non-extremal black holes. We review arguments in the literature showing that the entropy of extremal black holes is zero, while that of…
We show that primordial (nearly) extremal black holes with a wide range of masses from the Planck scale to around $10^9$ g could be cosmologically stable and explain dark matter, given a dark electromagnetism and a heavy dark electron. For…
Black hole mass, along with mass accretion rate, is a fundamental property of active galactic nuclei. Black hole mass sets an approximate upper limit to AGN energetics via the Eddington limit. We collect and compare all AGN black hole mass…
It is possible to find initial states for gravitational collapse whose entropy approximately saturates the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the final black hole. The prototypical example of such a state is that envisaged by Zurek and Thorne,…
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…
An accelerating observer sees a thermal bath of radiation at the Hawking temperature which is proportional to the acceleration. Also, in string theory there is a Hagedorn temperature beyond which one cannot go without an infinite amount of…
High energy collisions of particles may have created tiny black holes in the early Universe, which might leave stable remnants instead of fully evaporating as a result of Hawking radiation. If the reheating temperature was sufficiently…
A simple regular black hole solution satisfying the weak energy condition is obtained within Einstein--non--linear electrodynamics theory. We have computed the thermodynamic properties of this black hole by a careful analysis of the…