Quantum Gravity of Dust Collapse: Shock Waves from Black Holes

Phys Rev Lett. 2022 Mar 25;128(12):121301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.121301.

Abstract

We study the quantum gravitational collapse of spherically symmetric pressureless dust. Using an effective equation derived from a polymer quantization in the connection-triad phase space variables of general relativity, we find numerically, for a variety of initial dust configurations, that (i) trapped surfaces form and disappear as an initially collapsing density profile evolves into an outgoing shock wave; (ii) black hole lifetime is proportional to the square of its mass; and (iii) there is no mass inflation at inner apparent horizons. These results provide a substantially different view of black hole formation and subsequent evolution than found from semiclassical analyses.