Do event horizons exist?

Abstract

Event horizons are the defining feature of classical black holes. They are the key ingredient of the information loss paradox which, as paradoxes in quantum foundations, is built on a combination of predictions of quantum theory and counterfactual classical features: neither horizon formation nor its crossing by a test body is observable. Furthermore, horizons are unnecessary for the production of Hawking-like radiation. We demonstrate that when this radiation is taken into account it prevents horizon crossing/formation in a large class of models. We conjecture that horizon avoidance is a general feature of collapse. The non-existence of event horizons dispels the paradox, but opens up important questions about thermodynamic properties of the resulting objects and correlations between different degrees of freedom.

Honorable Mention in the 2017 Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition

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• Quantum fields during black hole formation: How good an approximation is the Unruh state?
• Static Black Hole and Vacuum Energy: Thin Shell and Incompressible Fluid
• Nomen non est omen: Why it is too soon to identify ultra-compact objects as black holes
• Paradoxes before the paradox: surface gravity and the information loss problem
• Transition to light-like trajectories in thin shell dynamics
• Kinematic and energy properties of dynamical regular black holes
• Can a false vacuum bubble remove the singularity inside a black hole?
• Quantum strong cosmic censorship and black hole evaporation
• Unveiling horizons in quantum critical collapse
• Asymptotic States of Black Holes in KMY Model
• Evading the Trans-Planckian problem with Vaidya spacetimes
• Computation of the semiclassical outflux emerging from a collapsing spherical null shell
• Black hole information paradox without Hawking radiation