Related papers: Naked Black Holes
Black and white holes play remarkably contrasting roles in general relativity versus observational astrophysics. While there is overwhelming observational evidence for the existence of compact objects that are "cold, dark, and heavy", which…
One of the fundamental unanswered questions in the general theory of relativity is whether ``naked'' singularities, that is singular events which are visible from infinity, may form with positive probability in the process of gravitational…
Stupendously large black holes exceeding $10^{11} M_\odot$ could exist, supported by recent observations of unexpectedly massive black holes at high redshifts. These objects may constitute a part of dark matter or even dark energy. One…
Black holes are the simplest objects in the universe. They correspond to extreme deformations of spacetime geometry, and can exist even devoid of matter. In general relativity, (electro)vacuum black holes are uniquely determined by their…
We provide evidence that ``super-extremal'' black hole space-times (either with charge larger than mass or angular momentum larger than mass), which contain naked singularities, are unstable under linearized perturbations. This is given by…
Constraints on the geometries of static spherically symmetric black holes are obtained by requiring that the spacetime curvature be analytic at the event horizon. Further constraints are obtained by requiring that the semiclassical trace…
The cosmic censorship conjecture posits that singularities forming to the future of a regular Cauchy surface are hidden by an event horizon. Consequently any topological structures will ultimately collapse within the horizon of a set of…
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…
An outstanding problem in gravitation theory and relativistic astrophysics today is to understand the final outcome of an endless gravitational collapse. Such a continual collapse would take place when stars more massive than few times the…
The work on black holes immersed in external fields is reviewed in both test-field approximation and within exact solutions. In particular we pay attention to the effect of the expulsion of the flux of external fields across charged and…
While extreme black hole spacetimes with smooth horizons are known at the level of mathematics, we argue that the horizons of physical extreme black holes are effectively singular. Test particles encounter a singularity the moment they…
We investigate extremal electrically charged black holes in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory with a cosmological constant inspired by string theory. These solutions are not static, and a timelike singularity eventually appears which is not…
We investigate the occurrence and nature of a naked singularity in the gravitational collapse of an inhomogeneous dust cloud described by a non self-similar higher dimensional Tolman spacetime. The necessary condition for the formation of a…
In the firewall proposal, it is assumed that the firewall lies near the event horizon and should not be observable except by infalling observers, who are presumably terminated at the firewall. However, if the firewall is located near where…
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…
We investigate the possibility of cosmic censorship violation in string theory using a characteristic double-null code, which penetrates horizons and is capable of resolving the spacetime all the way to the singularity. We perform…
It is shown that an exactly static and spherically symmetric black hole event horizon cannot be embedded in a time-dependent geometry. Forcing it to do so results in a naked null singularity at the would-be horizon. Therefore, since the…
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…
Classical black holes and event horizons are highly non-local objects, defined in relation to the causal past of future null infinity. Alternative, quasilocal characterizations of black holes are often used in mathematical, quantum, and…
We investigate what are the key physical features that cause the development of a naked singularity, rather than a black hole, as the end-state of spherical gravitational collapse. We show that sufficiently strong shearing effects near the…