How Do Black Holes Form?

Abstract: Mathematical General Relativity is held together by a couple of deep conjectures. Many mathematicians like to think that by proving these (or finding counterexamples), they will finally be able to underpin (or challenge) the beliefs that Physicists and Astrophysicists have held for decades. Arguably the grandest such example is the ''Final State Conjecture'': generic vacuum spacetimes undergoing gravitational collapse will eventually resemble the Kerr solution in their exterior. At present, there is not a single example of this conjecture, nor a single vacuum spacetime with a complete future asymptotic region describing black hole formation. I will review what is known, and describe some work (still in progress) with Athanasiou in this direction.

general relativity and quantum cosmology

Audience: researchers in the topic

BHI Colloquium