Speaker
Andrea Puhm
(UC Santa Barbara)
Description
To unify quantum mechanics and general relativity it has
been argued that effective field theory has to break down at
the horizon of black holes. To establish this premature
breakdown of general relativity a dynamical mechanism needs
to be provided. I will discuss the possibility of quantum
tunneling as a means to avoid the formation of a horizon in
the gravitational collapse process. Surprisingly, the
amplitude to tunnel into microstate geometries built from
key ingredients of string theory - extra dimensions,
topology and fluxes - is not parametrically suppressed.
