Regular Black Holes: Towards a New Paradigm of Gravitational Collapse

TL;DR

This paper reviews various models of regular, non-singular black holes and gravitational collapses, aiming to challenge the traditional view of singularities and explore potential quantum gravity implications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of existing regular black hole models and discusses their theoretical and observational significance.

Findings

Regular black hole models eliminate singularities.

These models have distinct observational signatures.

Implications for quantum gravity theories are discussed.

Abstract

Black holes are one of the most fascinating predictions of general relativity. They are the natural product of the complete gravitational collapse of matter and today we have a body of observational evidence supporting the existence of black holes in the Universe. However, general relativity predicts that at the center of black holes there are spacetime singularities, where predictability is lost and standard physics breaks down. It is widely believed that spacetime singularities are a symptom of the limitations of general relativity and must be solved within a theory of quantum gravity. Since we do not have yet any mature and reliable candidate for a quantum gravity theory, researchers have studied toy-models of singularity-free black holes and of singularity-free gravitational collapses in order to explore possible implications of the yet unknown theory of quantum gravity. This book reviews all main models of regular black holes and non-singular gravitational collapses proposed in the literature, and discuss the theoretical and observational implications of these scenarios.