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Black holes: The membrane paradigm
TLDR
In this article, the physics of black holes are explored in terms of a membrane paradigm which treats the event horizon as a two-dimensional membrane embedded in three-dimensional space, and a 3+1 formalism is used to split Schwarzschild space-time and the laws of physics outside a nonrotating hole.Abstract:
The physics of black holes is explored in terms of a membrane paradigm which treats the event horizon as a two-dimensional membrane embedded in three-dimensional space. A 3+1 formalism is used to split Schwarzschild space-time and the laws of physics outside a nonrotating hole, which permits treatment of the atmosphere in terms of the physical properties of thin slices. The model is applied to perturbed slowly or rapidly rotating and nonrotating holes, and to quantify the electric and magnetic fields and eddy currents passing through a membrane surface which represents a stretched horizon. Features of tidal gravitational fields in the vicinity of the horizon, quasars and active galalctic nuclei, the alignment of jets perpendicular to accretion disks, and the effects of black holes at the center of ellipsoidal star clusters are investigated. Attention is also given to a black hole in a binary system and the interactions of black holes with matter that is either near or very far from the event horizon. Finally, a statistical mechanics treatment is used to derive a second law of thermodynamics for a perfectly thermal atmosphere of a black hole.read more
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Can string theory overcome deep problems in quantum gravity
TL;DR: In this article, the consequences of requiring a reconciliation of quantum mechanics and general relativity have led to a number of distasteful allegations, such as wormhole contributions to the euclidean path integral rendering the parameters of particle physics stochastic.
Journal ArticleDOI
Perturbative String Thermodynamics near Black Hole Horizons
Thomas G. Mertens,Henri Verschelde,Valentin I. Zakharov,Valentin I. Zakharov,Valentin I. Zakharov +4 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide further computations and ideas to the problem of near-Hagedorn string thermodynamics near (uncharged) black hole horizons, building upon their earlier work JHEP 1403 (2014) 086.
Journal ArticleDOI
An analytic model of a rotating hotspot and kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations in X-ray binaries
TL;DR: In this article, an analytic model of a rotating hotspot is proposed, which is based on the magnetic coupling of rotating black hole (BH) with its surrounding accretion disc, and the hotspot in the inner region of the disc is produced by energy transferred from a spinning BH with non-axisymmetric magnetic field.
Journal ArticleDOI
Circular and noncircular nearly horizon-skimming orbits in Kerr spacetimes
TL;DR: In this paper, a detailed analysis of orbital motion in the vicinity of a nearly extremal Kerr black hole was performed, and the authors found a class of very strong-field eccentric orbits whose orbital angular momentum increases with the orbit's inclination with respect to the equatorial plane, while keeping latus rectum and eccentricity fixed.
Book ChapterDOI
Black holes and thermodynamics - The first half century
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the evolution of black hole thermodynamics over five decades, starting in the 1960s, is presented, together with the physical insights by Bekenstein about black hole entropy and the semi-classical derivation by Hawking of the black hole evaporation.