Quantum nature of black holes

TL;DR

This paper revisits Hawking's analysis of black holes, emphasizing the importance of interactions and ultra-high energy vacuum fluctuations, which lead to quantum gravitational effects near black holes.

Contribution

It demonstrates that interactions and vacuum fluctuations are crucial in black hole physics, revealing the quantum-gravitational nature of black hole vicinities.

Findings

Vacuum fluctuations can scatter particles or create pairs at ultra-high energies.

Quantum gravity effects dominate near black holes due to high-energy phenomena.

Interactions significantly alter the understanding of quantum fields around black holes.

Abstract

I reconsider Hawking's analysis of the effects of gravitational collapse on quantum fields, taking into account interactions between the fields. The ultra-high energy vacuum fluctuations, which had been considered to be an awkward peripheral feature of the analysis, are shown to play a key role. By interactions, they can scatter particles to, or create pairs of particle at, ultra-high energies. The energies rapidly become so great that quantum gravity must play a dominant role. Thus the vicinities of black holes are essentially quantum-gravitational regimes.