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Can we observe fuzzballs or firewalls?
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  • Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
  • Open Access
  • Published: 25 July 2018

Can we observe fuzzballs or firewalls?

  • Bin Guo1,
  • Shaun Hampton1 &
  • Samir D. Mathur1 

Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2018, Article number: 162 (2018) Cite this article

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A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv.

Abstract

In the fuzzball paradigm the information paradox is resolved because the black hole is replaced by an object with no horizon. One may therefore ask if observations can distinguish a traditional hole from a fuzzball. We give arguments for why the fuzzball structure should lie close to the horizon; i.e., it should be a ‘tight’ fuzzball. We find: (a) It is very difficult to reflect quanta off the surface of such a fuzzball, mainly because geodesics starting near the horizon radius cannot escape to infinity unless their starting direction is very close to radial. (b) If infalling particles interact with the emerging radiation before they are engulfed by the horizon, then we say that we have a ‘firewall behavior’. We consider several types of interactions, but find no evidence for firewall behavior in any theory that obeys causality. (c) Photons with wavelengths larger than the black hole radius can be

scattered off the emerging radiation, but a very small fraction of the backscattered photons will be able to escape back to infinity.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, U.S.A.

    Bin Guo, Shaun Hampton & Samir D. Mathur

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  1. Bin Guo
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  3. Samir D. Mathur
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Correspondence to Shaun Hampton.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1711.01617

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Cite this article

Guo, B., Hampton, S. & Mathur, S.D. Can we observe fuzzballs or firewalls?. J. High Energ. Phys. 2018, 162 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2018)162

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  • Received: 20 March 2018

  • Accepted: 02 July 2018

  • Published: 25 July 2018

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2018)162

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Keywords

  • Black Holes
  • Black Holes in String Theory
  • Models of Quantum Gravity
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