Hawking radiation may violate the Penrose cosmic censorship conjecture

TL;DR

This paper suggests that Hawking radiation from charged black holes could lead to the formation of naked singularities, potentially violating the cosmic censorship conjecture in semi-classical gravity.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Hawking evaporation of Reissner-Nordström black holes might violate the Penrose cosmic censorship conjecture by creating horizonless singularities.

Findings

Hawking radiation can turn near-extremal black holes into naked singularities

Charged black holes may lose their horizons during evaporation

The process challenges the validity of the cosmic censorship conjecture

Abstract

We analyze the Hawking evaporation process of Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. It is shown that the characteristic radiation quanta emitted by the charged black holes may turn near-extremal black-hole spacetimes into horizonless naked singularities. The present analysis therefore reveals the intriguing possibility that the semi-classical Hawking evaporation process of black holes may violate the fundamental Penrose cosmic censorship conjecture.