(In)determinism Inside Black Holes

Abstract: In classical General Relativity, the values of fields on spacetime are uniquely determined by their initial values within its 'domain of dependence'. However, it may occur that the spacetime under consideration extends beyond this domain, and fields, therefore, are not entirely determined by their initial data. Such a naive failure of determinism occurs inside all physically relevant black holes.

The boundary of the region determined by the initial data is called the 'Cauchy horizon'. Penrose has proposed ('strong cosmic censorship conjecture') that the Cauchy horizon is actually unstable in the sense that the slightest perturbation caused by remnant fields convert it to a final singularity. Whether or not this is the case -- and thus whether there is a real problem with determinism -- has been debated recently.

In this talk I ask whether quantum effects will come to the rescue of strong cosmic censorship.

HEP - theorymathematical physicsquantum physics

Audience: researchers in the topic

( video )

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Purdue HET

Series comments: The recorded talks will be available on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxU3vHZccQj64m9zsQR74D5WP1z1g4t1J

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