Do black holes radiate?

Abstract

The prediction that black holes radiate due to quantum effects is often considered one of the most secure in quantum field theory in curved space-time. Yet this prediction rests on two dubious assumptions: that ordinary physics may be applied to vacuum fluctuations at energy scales increasing exponentially without bound; and that quantum-gravitational effects may be neglected. Various suggestions have been put forward to address these issues: that they might be explained away by lessons from sonic black hole models; that the prediction is indeed successfully reproduced by quantum gravity; that the success of the link provided by the prediction between black holes and thermodynamics justifies the prediction. This paper explains the nature of the difficulties, and reviews the proposals that have been put forward to deal with them. None of the proposals put forward can so far be considered to be really successful, and simple dimensional arguments show that quantum-gravitational effects might well alter the evaporation process outlined by Hawking. Thus a definitive theoretical treatment will require an understanding of quantum gravity in at least some regimes. Until then, no compelling theoretical case for or against radiation by black holes is likely to be made. The possibility that non-radiating "mini" black holes exist should be taken seriously; such holes could be part of the dark matter in the Universe. Attempts to place observational limits on the number of "mini" black holes (independent of the assumption that they radiate) would be most welcome.

review article, 80 pp., 3 included eps figures, IOP macros (included)

References in corpus (37)

• The holographic principle
• Potential Sensitivity of Gamma-Ray Burster Observations to Wave Dispersion in Vacuo
• Relativity in space-times with short-distance structure governed by an observer-independent (Planckian) length scale
• The Stretched Horizon and Black Hole Complementarity
• The Thermodynamics of Black Holes
• Dumb Holes and the Effects of High Frequencies on Black Hole Evaporation
• Dilaton Gravity in Two Dimensions
• Quantum Gravity: a Progress Report
• Spectroscopy of the quantum black hole
• A Primer for Black Hole Quantum Physics
• The scattering matrix approach for the quantum black hole, an overview
• Entropy Bounds and Black Hole Remnants
• Hawking Radiation Without Transplanckian Frequencies
• Black Hole Evaporation in the Presence of a Short Distance Cutoff
• Trans-Planckian redshifts and the substance of the space-time river
• Proof of the Generalized Second Law for Quasistationary Semiclassical Black Holes
• Quantum metric fluctuations and Hawking radiation
• Non-Archimedean character of quantum buoyancy and the generalized second law of thermodynamics
• Hawking radiation from dilaton gravity in 1 + 1 dimensions: a pedagogical review
• Calculation of the emergent spectrum and observation of primordial black holes
• Generalization of the model of Hawking radiation with modified high frequency dispersion relation
• Diffuse $\gamma$-ray background and primordial black hole constraints on the spectral index of density fluctuations
• Hawking radiation on a falling lattice
• The strong and weak holographic principles
• Black hole radiation with high frequency dispersion
• 4D quantum black hole physics from 2D models?
• Quantum field aspect of Unruh problem
• Focusing and the Holographic Hypothesis
• The Stress-Energy Operator
• High Temperature Matter and Gamma Ray Spectra from Microscopic Black Holes
• Numerical Study of Hawking Radiation Photosphere Formation around Microscopic Black Holes
• Black hole area quantization
• `Operational' Energy Conditions
• Kappa - Poincare dispersion relations and the black hole radiation
• Moving Mirrors and Thermodynamic Paradoxes
• Black-hole radiation, the fundamental area unit, and the spectrum of particle species
• Red-shifts near black holes

Cited by in corpus (55)

• Analogue Gravity
• Hawking temperature in the tunneling picture
• Black Hole Thermodynamics
• GUP Assisted Hawking Radiation of Rotating Acoustic Black Holes
• Inconsistency of quantum--classical dynamics, and what it implies
• A Commentary on Ruppeiner Metrics for Black Holes
• On the Universality of Hawking Radiation
• Black Hole Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
• Role of evaporation in gravitational collapse
• New perspectives on Hawking radiation
• Reheating constraints in quintessential inflation
• A quantum peek inside the black hole event horizon
• Quintessential inflation at low reheating temperatures
• Propagation in a thermal graviton background
• Black hole kinematics: the "in"-vacuum energy density and flux for different observers
• Light Primordial Exotic Compact Objects as All Dark Matter
• Hawking spectrum for a fiber-optical analog of the event horizon
• The Theory of Optical Black Hole Lasers
• Semiclassical black holes expose forbidden charges and censor divergent densities
• Non-Unitary and Unitary Transitions in Generalized Quantum Mechanics, New Small Parameter and Information Problem Solving
• Deformed Density Matrix and Quantum Entropy of the Black Hole
• Black Hole as a Quantum Field Configuration
• Back-reaction in canonical analogue black holes
• Different reheating mechanisms in quintessence inflation
• Hawking radiation in optics and beyond
• Spectroscopy of a canonically quantized horizon
• Explanatory Depth in Primordial Cosmology: A Comparative Study of Inflationary and Bouncing Paradigms
• An exact derivation of the Hawking effect in canonical formulation
• Resonant Hawking radiation as an instability
• The implications of noninertial motion on covariant quantum spin
• Hawking Radiation Under Generalized Uncertainty Principle
• Pure States, Mixed States and Hawking Problem in Generalized Quantum Mechanics
• UV And IR Effects On Hawking Radiation
• Planckian Physics Comes Into Play At Planckian Distance From Horizon
• Breakdown of Lorentz Invariance for Spin-1/2 Particle Motion in Curved Space-Time with Applications to Muon Decay
• From Uneventful Horizon to Firewall in D-Dimensional Effective Theory
• Remarks on distinguishability of Schwarzschild spacetime and thermal Minkowski spacetime using Resonance Casimir-Polder interaction
• Instabilities in an optical black-hole laser
• The two faces of Hawking radiation
• Comment on "Insensitivity of Hawking Radiation to an invariant Planck-scale cutoff"
• Unruh effect for inertial observers through vacuum correlations
• The Hawking temperature of dynamical black holes via conformal transformations
• Hawking temperature in dispersive media: Analytical and numerical study
• State reduction and energy extraction from black holes
• An Implication of "Gravity as the Weakest Force"
• About detecting very low mass black holes in LAr detectors
• A Stringy Effect on Hawking Radiation
• Quantum nature of black holes
• Recalculation of the spectrum of radiation emitted during gravitational collapse
• Hawking radiation, quantum fields, and tunneling
• Excavations at the gravitationally collapsed site: Recent findings
• Black hole information paradox without Hawking radiation
• Backreaction of stimulated Hawking radiation in an optical analogue
• UV Effects and Short-Lived Hawking Radiation: Alternative Resolution of Information Paradox
• Conformalons: a new class of black hole mimickers