Emergence of the fuzzy horizon through gravitational collapse

For most black holes in string theory, the Schwarzschild radius in string units decreases as the string coupling is reduced. We formulate a correspondence principle, which states that (i) when the size of the horizon drops below the size of a string, the typical black hole state becomes a typical state of strings and D-branes with the same charges, and (ii) the mass does not change abruptly during the transition. This provides a statistical interpretation of black hole entrop...

To an outside observer, a black hole's event horizon appears to behave exactly like a dynamical fluid membrane. We extend this membrane paradigm to black holes in general $f(R)$ theories of gravity. We derive the stress tensor and various transport coefficients of the fluid and find that the membrane behaves as a non-Newtonian fluid except for the special case of Einstein gravity. Using Euclidean methods, we study the thermodynamics of the membrane. We speculate on what theor...

We analyze string production in the background of a Schwarzschild black hole, after developing first quantized methods which capture string-theoretic nonadiabatic effects which can exceed naive extrapolations of effective field theory. Late-time infalling observers are strongly boosted in the near horizon region relative to early observers and formation matter. In the presence of large boosts in flat spacetime, known string and D-brane scattering processes exhibit enhanced st...

We develop an microscopic model of the M-theory Schwarzschild black hole using the Banks-Fischler-Shenker-Susskind Matrix formulation of quantum gravity. The underlying dynamics is known to be chaotic, which allows us to use methods from Random Matrix Theory and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics to propose a coarse-grained bottom-up picture of the event horizon -- and the associated Hawking evaporation phenomenon. The analysis is possible due to a hierarchy between the va...

We point out that in the limit of large number of dimensions a wide class of non-extremal neutral black holes has a universal near horizon limit. The limiting geometry is the two-dimensional black hole of string theory with a two-dimensional target space. Its conformal symmetry explains properties of massless scalars found recently in the large D limit. In analogy to the situation for NS fivebranes, the dynamics near the horizon does not decouple from the asymptotically flat ...

In this paper we propose that bubbles of AdS within Minkowski spacetime, stabilized at a finite radius by stiff matter and an electromagnetic gas, can be an alternative endpoint of gravitational collapse. The bubbles are horizonless with a size up to 12.5% larger than their Schwarzschild radius depending on their charge. We argue that they are stable against small perturbations, and have thermodynamical properties similar to those of real black holes. We provide a realization...

This paper puts forward a conjecture that there are no black holes in M theory. We will show that a mechanism to prevent black hole formation is needed in 4 dimensions to make string theory a viable high energy model of quantum gravity. Black hole formation may be averted by a gravity regulation mechanism based on string condensation. In this scenario, black holes are replaced by `hot holograms' that form during gravitational collapse. The geometric conditions based on the pr...

We review recent progress in understanding black hole structure and dynamics via matrix theory.

We elaborate on the recent claim [arXiv:1702.03583] that non-perturbative effects in $\alpha'$, which are at the core of the FZZ duality, render the region just behind the horizon of the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})_k/U(1)$ black hole singular already at the classical level ($g_s=0$). We argue that the 2D classical $SL(2,\mathbb{R})_k/U(1)$ black hole could shed some light on quantum black holes in higher dimensions including large black holes in $AdS_5\times S^5$.

We study the physical properties of four-dimensional, string-theoretical, horizonless "fuzzball" geometries by imaging their shadows. Their microstructure traps light rays straying near the would-be horizon on long-lived, highly redshifted chaotic orbits. In fuzzballs sufficiently near the scaling limit this creates a shadow much like that of a black hole, while avoiding the paradoxes associated with an event horizon. Observations of the shadow size and residual glow can pote...