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Farshid Soltani

Publications and source records attributed to Farshid Soltani.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

A loop quantization of the marginally bound Lema\^itre-Tolman-Bondi dust model

We present a loop quantization of the marginally bound Lema\^itre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) model, describing the gravitational collapse of pressureless dust in spherical symmetry. The full quantum LTB model is constructed as a collection of non-interacting shells, each governed by an individual single-shell loop quantum dynamics. We show that the single-shell evolution is non-singular and that wave packets initially peaked on a collapsing trajectory undergo a bounce at Planckian energy densities and subsequently follow an expanding classical trajectory, resolving the classical central curvature singularity. We also compare the loop quantum theory with the Wheeler-DeWitt quantization of the same model. Finally, we briefly comment on the accuracy of the loop quantum gravity effective theory in reproducing this full quantum dynamics. Specifically, we find that initially collapsing wave packets generically develop an interference pattern at the bounce, which suppresses the accuracy of the effective theory near the center of the dust cloud.

gr-qc

Stellar collapse with pressure in effective loop quantum gravity

We explore semiclassical stellar collapse scenarios with pressure within the framework of effective loop quantum gravity. The objective of this work is to generalize existent models of semiclassical dust collapse and examine the role of pressure in the formation of shell-crossing singularities in a semiclassical context. Numerical investigations show that the shell-focusing singularity characterizing the end state of any classical stellar collapse is here resolved by quantum gravitational effects and replaced by a bounce of the star. However, they also show that shell-crossing singularities remain a general feature of these models and that the inclusion of pressure does not alter the qualitative picture emerging from semiclassical models of inhomogeneous dust collapse. Given the absence of a shell-focusing singularity and the possibility of extending spacetime in the future of the trapped region formed by gravitational collapse, the investigation of the causal structure of the spacetime describing the semiclassical collapse of a star is inevitably tied to a better understanding of the physics of these shell-crossing singularities.

gr-qc

Global Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates for Reissner-Nordström spacetime

I derive a smooth and global Kruskal-Szekeres coordinate chart for the maximal extension of the non-extremal Reissner-Nordström geometry that provides a generalization to the standard inner and outer Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates. The Kruskal-Szekeres diagram associated to this coordinate chart, whose existence is an interesting fact in and on itself, provides a simple alternative with a transparent physical interpretation to the conformal diagram of the spacetime.

gr-qc

Painlevé-Gullstrand coordinates discontinuity in the quantum Oppenheimer-Snyder model

A metric that describes a collapsing star and the surrounding black hole geometry accounting for quantum gravity effects has been derived independently by different research groups. There is consensus regarding this metric up until the star reaches its minimum radius, but there is disagreement about what happens past this event. The discrepancy stems from the appearance of a discontinuity in the Hamiltonian evolution of the metric components in Painlevé-Gullstrand coordinates. Here we show that the continuous geometry that describes this phenomenon is represented by a discontinuous metric when written in these coordinates. The discontinuity disappears by changing coordinates. The discontinuity found in the Hamiltonian approach can therefore be interpreted as a coordinate effect. The geometry continues regularly into an expanding white hole phase, without the occurrence of a shock wave caused by a physical discontinuity.

gr-qc

On the geometry of the black-to-white hole transition within a single asymptotic region

We write explicitly the complete Lorentzian metric of a singularity-free spacetime where a black hole transitions into a white hole located in its same asymptotic region. In particular, the metric interpolates between the black and white horizons. The metric satisfies the Einstein field equations up to the tunneling region. The matter giving rise to the black hole is described by the Oppenheimer-Snyder model, corrected with loop-quantum-cosmology techniques in the quantum region. The interior quantum geometry is fixed by a local Killing symmetry, broken at the horizon transition. At large scale, the geometry is determined by two parameters: the mass of the hole and the duration of the transition process. The latter is a global geometrical parameter. We give the full metric outside the star in a single coordinate patch.

gr-qc

A spin foam framework for the black-to-white hole transition

Black holes formation and evolution have been extensively studied at the classical level. However, not much is known regarding the end of their lives, a phase that requires to consider the quantum nature of the gravitational field. A black-to-white hole transition can capture the physics of this phenomenon, in particular the physics of the residual small black holes at the end of the Hawking evaporation. This work shows how the spin foam formalism is able to describe this non-perturbative phenomenon. A thorough examination of the black hole spacetime region in which quantum effects cannot be neglected indicates that the scenario in which the black hole geometry undergoes a quantum transition in a white hole geometry is natural and conservative. This quantum transition is then studied using the spin foam formalism and the resulting transition amplitude is explicitly computed.

gr-qc

The End of a Black Hole's Evaporation -- Part I

At the end of Hawking evaporation, the horizon of a black hole enters a physical region where quantum gravity cannot be neglected. The physics of this region has not been much explored. We characterise its physics and introduce a technique to study it.

gr-qc