München 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 2: Philosophy of Cosmology II

AGPhil 2.2: Vortrag

Montag, 18. März 2019, 17:15–17:45, HS 10

Black hole "singularity": breakdown of general relativity theory? — •Kiril Maltsev — St Catherine's College, Manor Road, OX1 3UJ Oxford, UK

The existence of singular space-time solutions in general relativity can be interpreted in one of the two ways: either as a

1. theory deficiency, or 2. as opening up a new horizon of understanding the physical world.

We will argue that black hole thermodynamics supports the view that GR indeed breaks down when it comes to description of a black hole phenomenon. We will stress the difference between coordinate singularity and physical singularity, when discussing the Schwarzschild metric. Subsequently, we will outline that certain singular structures in GR are not a feature characteristic of particularly chosen coordinates but, according to Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems, an inevitable feature of GR, if specific energy and causality conditions are satisfied. The arguments in favour of theory breakdown will center on comparison of black hole mechanics with the 0th, 1st and 2nd law of thermodynamics, and the quest for a microscopic account of Bekenstein entropy. We will also comment on what the lack of a precise singularity definition, the concept of white hole, the wormhole construction in Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates, and neutron star physics reveal. Finally, we will give an outlook on LQG and M-theory, which proceed to describe a black hole without presuming a singularity. (200 words)