ITP|
|
WS26/27 – Abstract
Stefano Liberati
(SISSA Trieste)
3.12.2026
Beyond the Kerr paradigm: the dynamical fate of black-hole interiors
Black holes are usually pictured as long-lived Kerr geometries formed by gravitational collapse, changed only gradually by slow, nearly adiabatic Hawking evaporation. But is this picture right? Classical black-hole interiors contain spacetime singularities, which quantum gravity is expected to resolve, and Cauchy horizons, which are generically singular under classical and semiclassical perturbations. The usual assumption is that the resulting new physics stays hidden behind the event horizon until late in the evaporation. I will argue that this assumption should be reconsidered. Starting from the hypotheses of the singularity theorems, I will outline a geometric classification of regular black holes and their horizonless counterparts. I will then ask whether their interiors can form and persist in realistic semiclassical collapse. Recent semiclassical numerical results point to cascades of trapped and anti-trapped regions. I will show that complementary analytical models capture this behaviour qualitatively. On this view, black holes may be transient phases of a regular, evolving spacetime, and their interiors may actively shape their final fate.
_____
Biosketch:
Stefano Liberati is Full Professor of Astroparticle and Gravitational Physics at SISSA in Trieste and Director of the Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IFPU). He has also been President of the Italian Society for General Relativity and Gravitational Physics (SIGRAV) and national coordinator of the INFN initiative QUAGRAP on quantum gravity phenomenology. After a PhD in Astrophysics at SISSA under Dennis Sciama and a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Maryland, he has pursued research at the interface of gravitation, astrophysics, and particle physics, with key contributions to quantum gravity phenomenology, analogue gravity, and black hole physics. Author of more than 240 scientific publications, he serves as editor for JCAP, Universe, and Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
