Kernphysikalisches Kolloquium

Location: ITP, Science Campus Riedberg, Max-von-Laue-Str. 1, room 02.116
Time: Thursday, November 1, 2012, 16:30-17:30 (plus 10min for discussion)
Contact: hees@fias.uni-frankfurt.de

Gravitational collapse and the quantum: horizons, Hawking radiation and all that

Roberto Casadio (University of Bologna)

We start with a brief review of the semiclassical picture of gravitational collapse and black-hole formation, in which (part of the) matter is quantised and gravity provides the classical background, and the famous Hawking radiation. This picture will lead us to reconsider the two main concepts involved, namely horizons in General Relativity and particles as localised objects in QFT. We shall then review some recent approaches that might help us to build a fully quantum picture of gravitational collapse and circumvent the problem of UV divergences in QFT by including gravity in a non-perturbative way.