2009/01/31 by Matt Visser · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #gr-qc #hep-th
published as PoS BHs,GRandStrings 2008:001,2008 · V1: 16 pages; 7 figures; Introductory survey talk at the workshop: "Black Holes in General Relativity and String Theory", 24-30 August, 2008, Veli Losinj, Croatia; V2: Some clarifying comments added regarding horizon detection (section 5), two references added, two figures condensed to halve the size of the final PDF file. Now 17 pages. V3: one additional reference
arxiv created 2009/02/05 · arxiv updated 2010/02/26
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 questions: Do black holes "exist"? (For selected values of the word "exist".) Is black hole formation and evaporation unitary? Can one mimic a black hole to arbitrary accuracy? Can one detect the presence of a horizon using local physics?