The nature of the gravitational vacuum

Abstract

The vacuum must contain virtual fluctuations of black hole microstates for each mass $M$. We observe that the expected suppression for $M\gg m_p$ is counteracted by the large number $Exp[S_{bek}]$ of such states. From string theory we learn that these microstates are extended objects that are resistant to compression. We argue that recognizing this `virtual extended compression-resistant' component of the gravitational vacuum is crucial for understanding gravitational physics. Remarkably, such virtual excitations have no significant effect for observable systems like stars, but they resolve two important problems: (a) gravitational collapse is halted outside the horizon radius, removing the information paradox; (b) spacetime acquires a `stiffness' against the curving effects of vacuum energy; this ameliorates the cosmological constant problem posed by the existence of a planck scale $\Lambda$.

arXiv comment7 pages, 2 figures (Essay awarded an honorable mention in the Gravity Research Foundation 2019 Awards for Essays on Gravitation)

References in corpus (6)

• The information paradox: A pedagogical introduction
• Virtual Black Holes
• Microscopic Quantum Mechanics of the p=ρUniverse
• Modave Lectures on Fuzzballs and Emission from the D1-D5 System
• Tunneling into Microstate Geometries: Quantum Effects Stop Gravitational Collapse
• An equation of state in the limit of high densities

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Quasi-normal modes and microscopic description of 2D black holes
• Effective models of non-singular quantum black holes