PhD thesis defense (Tyler McMaken): Quantum effects inside rotating, accreting black holes

Date presented: Tuesday, July 16 at 10:00 AM
Location: JILA Auditorium, University of Colorado Boulder

Thesis title: Quantum Effects Inside Rotating, Accreting Black Holes
Abstract: Models of rotating black holes generally possess not only an event horizon, which marks the point of no return, but also an inner horizon, beyond which lies an observable singularity and potentially a wormhole to a new universe. However, if any matter or radiation falls into the black hole, these sources of accretion will trigger an instability that may destroy the inner horizon and anything beyond. Here the effects of a quantum field near the inner horizon are examined to understand how Hawking radiation and renormalized stress-energies respond to this instability in the context of semiclassical gravity.