Black holes as solitons

We remark that exact classical Schwarzschild-like solutions to Einstein's (and possibly f gravity) equations provide examples of realistic solitons.     

Black holes as collapsed polymers

We propose that a large Schwarzschild black hole (BH) is a bound state of highly excited, long, closed strings at the Hagedorn temperature. According to our proposal, the interior of the BH consists, on average, of a uniform distribution of matter with low curvature and large quantum fluctuations about the average. This proposal represents a dramatic departure from any conventional state of matter and from the longstanding expectation that the interior of a BH should look like empty space except for a very small, dense core (the singularity). Standard effective field theory in terms of the metric and other quantum fields is incapable of describing such a state in a meaningful way. However, in polymer physics, such states can be described by a mean field theory in terms of the polymer concentration. We therefore propose that the interior of the BH be described in terms of an effective free‐energy density which is a function of the string concentration or entropy density; this density being a highly non‐perturbative quantity in terms of the metric and other quantum fields. For a macroscopic BH, our proposed free‐energy density contains only linear and quadratic terms, in analogy with that of the theory of collapsed polymers. We calculate the coefficient of the linear term under the accepted assumption that the dominant interaction of the strings at large distances is the gravitational interaction and the coefficient of the quadratic term by relying on explicit string calculations to determine the rate of interaction in terms of the string coupling. Using the effective free energy, we find that the size of the bound state is determined dynamically by the string attractive interactions and derive scaling relations for the entropy, energy and size of the bound state. We show that these agree with the scaling relations of the BH; in particular, with the area law for the BH entropy. The fact that the entropy is not extensive is a result of having strong correlations in the interior state, and the specific form of the entropy‐area law originates from the inverse scaling of the effective temperature with the bound‐state radius. We also find that the energy density of the bound state is equal to its pressure.     

Black holes and beyond

The black hole information paradox forces us into a strange situation: we must find a way to break the semiclassical approximation in a domain where no quantum gravity effects would normally be expected. Traditional quantizations of gravity do not exhibit any such breakdown, and this forces us into a difficult corner: either we must give up quantum mechanics or we must accept the existence of troublesome ‘remnants’. In string theory, however, the fundamental quanta are extended objects, and it turns out that the bound states of such objects acquire a size that grows with the number of quanta in the bound state. The interior of the black hole gets completely altered to a ‘fuzzball’ structure, and information is able to escape in radiation from the hole. The semiclassical approximation can break at macroscopic scales due to the large entropy of the hole: the measure in the path integral competes with the classical action, instead of giving a subleading correction. Putting this picture of black hole microstates together with ideas about entangled states leads to a natural set of conjectures on many long-standing questions in gravity: the significance of Rindler and de Sitter entropies, the notion of black hole complementarity, and the fate of an observer falling into a black hole.     

Black holes are coloured

It is shown that a black hole may act as the source of Yang-Mills fields. This result is used to consider briefly the implications for black hole evaporation within the context of gauge theories of strong interactions.     

Black holes without singularities

The conventional interpretation of the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems is that gravitational collapse, signified by the presence of a closed trapped surface, generally leads to the formation of a singularity. Consideration is given here to an alternative interpretation according to which collapse scenarios may give rise, not to singularities, but to chronology violation instead. An example is given of a singularity-free, chronology-violating space-time with a (non-achronal) closed trapped surface. In a large class of singularity-free space-times, the presence of a closed trapped surface, achronal or not, necessitates a violation of chronology. Moreover, all closed trapped surfaces and chronology violations are confined to black holes; weak cosmic censorship must hold in the sense that the region of the space-time visible from infinity is globally hyperbolic.Expanded version of essay given Honorable Mention in the 1986 Gravity Foundation Award.     

Black holes under external influence

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 rotating black holes which are approaching extremal states. Recently this effect has been shown to occur for black hole solutions in string theory. We also discuss black holes surrounded by rings and disks and rotating black holes accelerated by strings. The content corresponds to the lecture given at ICGC 2000 in Kharagpur. Sections 2–6 are based on the text of the lecture on ‘Electromagnetic fields around black holes and Meissner effect’ given at the 3rd ICRA workshop in Pescara 1999 (to be published with T Ledvinka in Nuovo Cimento).     

Black holes on gravitational instantons

In this paper, we classify and construct five-dimensional black holes on gravitational instantons in vacuum Einstein gravity, with R×U(1)×U(1)$\mathbb{R}\times U(1)\times U(1)$ isometry. These black holes have spatial backgrounds which are Ricci-flat gravitational instantons with U(1)×U(1)$U(1)\times U(1)$ isometry, and are completely regular space–times outside the event horizon. Most of the known exact five-dimensional vacuum black-hole solutions can be classified within this scheme. Amongst the new space–times presented are static black holes on the Euclidean Kerr and Taub-bolt instantons. We also present a rotating black hole on the Eguchi–Hanson instanton.     

Black holes in the Brans-Dicke

It is shown that a stationary space containing a black hole is a solution of the Brans-Dicke field equations if and only if it is a solution of the Einstein field equations. This implies that when the star collapses to form a black hole, it loses that fraction (about 7%) of its measured gravitational mass that arises from the scalar interaction. This mass loss is in addition to that caused by emission of scalar or tensor gravitational radiation. Another consequence is that there will not be any scalar gravitational radiation emitted when two black holes collide.     

Black holes and Newtonian physics

It is argued that one-way passage is inconsistent with Newtonian physics and thus the dark bodies as thought of by Michell and Laplace cannot be considered as exact analogues of relativistic black holes.     

Black holes associated with galaxies

A small and a large black hole are naturally associated with a galaxy of total massM and spherical halo radiusR. Also of massM, the large black hole is a spatial contraction of the galaxy down to its Schwarzschild radius,r r, with=2GM/c ²R, whereG/c ²=4.78×10^–17 kpc/M is Newton's gravitational constant divided by the speed of light squared. The small black hole is ther r contraction of the large hole, i.e., the iterated double contraction of the galaxy itself, with the resulting massm=M=2GM ²/c²R. In the case of the Milky Way (M=7.0×10¹¹ M andR=15 kpc) the latter equation for the small black hole mass yieldsm=3.1×10⁶ M , which is close to the observed value for the mass of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Black holes of the small type may evolve to the large by mass accretion, perhaps during a quasar phase. Vast regions of the universe may in fact be populated by large black holes—missing mass—which validates the cosmological principle and effects the closure of the universe.     

Black holes and everyday physics

Black holes have piqued much curiosity. But thus far they have been important only in remote subjects like astrophysics and quantum gravity. We show that the situation can be improved. By a judicious application of black hole physics, one can obtain new results in everyday physics. For example, black holes yield a quantum universal upper bound on the entropy-to-energy ratio for ordinary thermodynamical systems which was unknown earlier. It can be checked, albeit with much labor, by ordinary statistical methods. Black holes set a limitation on the number of species of elementary particles-quarks, leptons, neutrinos-which may exist. And black holes lead to a fundamental limitation on the rate at which information can be transferred for given message energy by any communication system.This Essay received the first award from the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 1981-Ed.