6 papers · 1 filter
The magic of the gravitational vacuum
Samir D. Mathur
The black hole information paradox challenges us to do something that is seemingly impossible: find a violation of the semiclassical approximation in a region where all curvatures…
Approaching the surface of an Exotic Compact Object
Shokoufe Faraji, Samir D. Mathur
Many approaches to quantum gravity require replacing the traditional black hole geometry with an Exotic Compact Object (ECO), which has a large but not infinite redshift at its sur…
Space cannot stretch too {\it fast}
Samir D. Mathur
We argue that black holes microstates leave an imprint on the gravitational vacuum through their virtual fluctuations. This imprint yields a power law fall off -- rather than an ex…
The Fuzzball Paradigm
Samir D. Mathur, Madhur Mehta
We describe the puzzles that arise in the quantum theory of black holes, and explain how they are resolved in string theory. We review how the Bekenstein entropy is obtained throug…
The secret structure of the gravitational vacuum
Samir D. Mathur
We argue that the vacuum of quantum gravity must contain a hierarchical structure of correlations spanning all length scales. These correlated domains (called `vecros') correspond…
The universal thermodynamic properties of Extremely Compact Objects
Samir D. Mathur, Madhur Mehta
An extremely compact object (ECO) is defined as a quantum object without horizon, whose radius is just a small distance outside its Schwarzschild radius. We show that any ECO o…