Semiclassical environment of collapsing shells

Abstract

We explore in detail the semiclassical environment of collapsing shells of matter, and determine the semiclassical flux measured by a variety of observers. This study is a preliminary step in a broader investigation of thermodynamic properties of the geometry of collapsing objects. Specifically, in this paper we consider spherically symmetric null and timelike collapsing shells which form an event horizon, and calculate the flux measured by observers both inside and outside the shell, and both inside and outside the event horizon, and find nontrivial results in most of the cases. Additionally, we also investigate the environment of a shell which collapses but \emph{does not} form a horizon, halting at some radius larger than the Schwarzschild radius, and find that such an object generically gives rise to a pulse of radiation which is sharply peaked as it travels inwards and is reflected at the origin, and eventually emerges from the shell in a "thermalized" form. Our results have potential consequences in addressing questions pertaining, e.g. to black hole entropy and backreaction.

14 pages, 15 figures, revtex4; v2 : minor changes to match version accepted by PRD

References in corpus (8)

• The information paradox: A pedagogical introduction
• A Primer for Black Hole Quantum Physics
• Fate of gravitational collapse in semiclassical gravity
• Observation of Incipient Black Holes and the Information Loss Problem
• Quantum Radiation from Quantum Gravitational Collapse
• Radiation from collapsing shells, semiclassical backreaction and black hole formation
• Properties of Black Hole Radiation From Tunnelling
• Construction of a Penrose Diagram for a Spatially Coherent Evaporating Black Hole

Cited by in corpus (7)

• New perspectives on Hawking radiation
• A quantum peek inside the black hole event horizon
• Semiclassical constant-density spheres in a regularized Polyakov approximation
• Semiclassical relativistic stars
• Particle creation in gravitational collapse to a horizonless compact object
• Burst particle creation in gravitational collapse to a horizonless compact object
• Observables in quantum field theory on a collapsing black hole background