This thesis focuses on the recent firewall controversy surrounding evaporating black holes, and shows that in the best understood example concerning electrically charged black holes with a flat event horizon in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime, the firewall does not arise. The firewall, which surrounds a sufficiently old black hole, threatens to develop into a huge crisis since it could occur even when spacetime curvature is small, which contradicts general relativity. However, the end state for asymptotically flat black holes is ill-understood since their curvature becomes unbounded. This issue is avoided by working with flat charged black holes in AdS. The presence of electrical charge is crucial since black holes inevitably pick up charges throughout their long lifetime. These black holes always evolve toward extremal limit, and are then destroyed by quantum gravitational effects. This happens sooner than the time required to decode Hawking radiation so that the firewall never sets in, as conjectured by Harlow and Hayden. Motivated by the information loss paradox, the author also investigates the possibility that “monster” configurations might exist, with an arbitrarily large interior bounded by a finite surface area. Investigating such an object in AdS shows that in the best understood case, such an object -- much like a firewall -- cannot exist.

Application of New Cybernetics in Physics describes the application of new cybernetics to physical problems and the resolution of basic physical paradoxes by considering external observer influence. This aids the reader in solving problems that were solved incorrectly or have not been solved. Three groups of problems of the new cybernetics are considered in the book: (a) Systems that can be calculated based on known physics of subsystems. This includes the external observer influence calculated from basic physical laws (ideal dynamics) and dynamics of a physical system influenced even by low noise. (b) Emergent systems. This includes external noise from the observer by using the black box model (complex dynamics), external noise from the observer by using the observer’s intuition (unpredictable dynamics), defining boundaries of application of scientific methods for system behavior prediction, and the role of the observer’s intuition for unpredictable systems. (c) Methods for solution of basic physical paradoxes by using methods of the new cybernetics: the entropy increase paradox, Schrödinger’s cat paradox (wave package reduction in quantum mechanics), the black holes information paradox, and the time wormholes grandfather paradox. All of the above paradoxes have the same resolution based on the principles of new cybernetics. Indeed, even a small interaction of an observer with an observed system results in their time arrows’ alignment (synchronization) and results in the paradox resolution and appearance of the universal time arrow. Provides solutions to the basic physical paradoxes and demonstrates their practical actuality for modern physics Describes a wide class of molecular physics and kinetic problems to present semi-analytical and semi-qualitative calculations of solvation, flame propagation, and high-molecular formation Demonstrates the effectiveness in application to complex molecular systems and other many-component objects Includes numerous illustrations to support the text

This book reflects the resurgence of interest in the quantum properties of black holes, culminating most recently in controversial discussions about firewalls. On the thermodynamic side, it describes how new developments allowed the inclusion of pressure/volume terms in the first law, leading to a new understanding of black holes as chemical systems, experiencing novel phenomena such as triple points and reentrant phase transitions. On the quantum-information side, the reader learns how basic arguments undergirding quantum complementarity have been shown to be flawed; and how this suggests that a black hole may surround itself with a firewall: a violent and chaotic region of highly excited states. In this thorough and pedagogical treatment, Robert Mann traces these new developments from their roots to our present-day understanding, highlighting their relationships and the challenges they present for quantum gravity.

The AdS/CFT correspondence is a powerful tool in studying strongly coupled phenomena in gauge field theories, using results from a weakly coupled gravity background studied in the realm of string theory. AdS/CFT was first successfully applied to the study of phenomena such as the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy ions collisions. Soon it was realized that its applicability can be extended, in a more phenomenological approach, to condensed matter systems and to systems described by fluid dynamics. The set of tutorial reviews in this volume is intended as an introduction to and survey of the principle of the AdS/CFT correspondence in its field/string theoretic formulation, its applicability to holographic QCD and to heavy ions collisions, and to give a first account of processes in fluid dynamics and condensed matter physics, which can be studied with the use of this principle. Written by leading researchers in the field and cast into the form of a high-level but approachable multi-author textbook, this volume will be of benefit to all postgraduate students, and newcomers from neighboring disciplines wishing to find a comprehensive guide for their future research.

Written by foremost experts, this short book gives a clear description of the physics of quantum black holes. The reader will learn about quantum black holes in four and higher dimensions, primordial black holes, the production of black holes in high energy particle collisions, Hawking radiation, black holes in models of low scale quantum gravity and quantum gravitational aspects of black holes.

Stephen W. Hawking, widely believed to have been one of be one of the world’s greatest minds, presents a series of seven lectures— covering everything from big bang to black holes to string theory—. These lectures not only capture the brilliance of Hawking’'s mind, but his characteristic wit as well. In The Illustrated Theory of Everything, Hawking begins with a history of ideas about the universe, from Aristotle’s determination that the Earth is round to Hubble’s discovery, more than 2,000 years later, that the universe is expanding. Using that as a launching pad, he explores the reaches of modern physics, including theories on the origin of the universe (e.g., the Big Bang), the nature of black holes, and space-time. Finally, he poses the questions left unanswered by modern physics, especially how to combine all the partial theories into a “unified theory of everything.” “If we find the answer to that,” he claims, “it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason.” A great popularizer of science as well as a brilliant scientist, Hawking believes that advances in theoretical science should be “understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists.” In this book, he offers a fascinating voyage of discovery about the cosmos and our place in it. It is a book for anyone who has ever gazed at the night sky and wondered what was up there and how it came to be.

The Fourth Edition of Introduction to Cosmology provides a concise, authoritative study of cosmology at an introductory level. Starting from elementary principles and the early history of cosmology, the text carefully guides the student on to curved spacetimes, special and general relativity, gravitational lensing, the thermal history of the Universe, and cosmological models, including extended gravity models, black holes and Hawking's recent conjectures on the not-so-black holes. Introduction to Cosmology, Fourth Edition includes: New theoretical approaches and in-depth material on observational astrophysics and expanded sections on astrophysical phenomena Illustrations throughout and comprehensive references with problems at the end of each chapter and a rich index at the end of the book Latest observational results from WMAP9, ACT, and Planck, and all cosmological parameters have been brought up to date. This text is invaluable for undergraduate students in physics and astrophysics taking a first course in cosmology. Extensively revised, this latest edition extends the chapter on cosmic inflation to the recent schism on eternal inflation and multiverses. Dark matter is discussed on galaxy and cluster scales, and dark matter candidates are presented, some requiring a five-dimensional universe and several representing various types of exotica. In the context of cosmic structures the cold dark matter paradigm is described. Dark energy models include the cosmological constant, quintessence and other single field models, f(R) models and models requiring extra dimensions.