Quantum phase transitions and the breakdown of classical general relativity

By G. Chapline, E. Hohlfeld, R. Laughlin, D. Santiago. 2000

182 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract It is proposed that the infinite-red-shift surface of a black hole is a quantum phase transition of the vacuum of space-time analogous to the liquid-vapour critical point of a Bose fluid. The equations of classical general relativity remain valid arbitrarily close to the horizon yet fail there through the divergence of a characteristic coherence length Ε. The integrity of global time, required for conventional quantum mechanics to be defined, is maintained. The metric inside the event horizon is different from that predicted by classical general relativity and may be de Sitter space. The deviations from classical behaviour lead to distinct spectroscopic and bolometric signatures that can, in principle, be observed at large distances from the black hole.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2f4433198bb291a00b510ac571b2b8b550425296

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Citations in the corpus

Analogue Gravity (2005, background): “Based on taking a superfluid analogy rather literally they mooted an actual physical breakdown of general relativity at the horizon of a black hole [76].”
Stable dark energy stars (2005, methodology): “In this model, and in the related picture developed by Laughlin et al [22], the quan-”
Black holes: complementarity or firewalls? (2012, background): “ntext in Ref. [31] (though see [23] for comments). Additional earlier suggestions that the geometry end at the horizon, or that the interior geometry is very dierent from Schwarzschild, include Ref. [24], whose connection with general relativity is not clear, Ref. [25], using sources that violate va”
An apologia for firewalls (2013, background): “Other proposals that lead to similar behavior include [85, 86, 87, 88, 89].”
Quantum-Spacetime Phenomenology (2008, background): “[537, 358, 166]), in which spacetime itself is seen as a sort of emerging critical-point entity.”
Gravitational Condensate Stars: An Alternative to Black Holes (2001, unknown): “The proper length (cid:96) determined by the stress tensor of the conformal anomaly takes the place of the ‘healing length’ introduced, but left undetermined in the analogy of the horizon in GR to the non-relativistic quantum critical surface of a sound horizon in [10].”