3:30–4:30 pm
If you wish to attend, please send request to Tiffany Kurns to receive ZOOM link.
Black Holes and Spacetime Singularities
Gary Horowitz, University of California, Santa Barbara
Host: Young-Kee Kim
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One of the most profound predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity is the existence of black holes. Despite recent data coming from gravitational wave detectors and the Event Horizon Telescope, there are still fundamental mysteries about these objects. I will start by describing some of these mysteries and recent progress toward understanding them, but then turn to something even more exotic. Inside black holes are spacetime singularities: regions where general relativity breaks down and must be replaced by a quantum theory of gravity. It may be possible for these singularities to also occur outside black holes, where they could be seen by distant observers. I will describe some attempts to find examples of these so-called “naked” singularities.