Speaker
Description
A quantum ghost that destabilizes the Schwarzschild solution, transforming it into a naked singularity, may seem like a physicist's worst nightmare. However, in this talk, we will argue that this scenario not only represents the natural evolution of a black hole under a conservative high-energy gravity framework, but is also a desirable outcome. There is much evidence that the Einstein-Hilbert action needs to be corrected by the addition of quadratic curvature terms at higher energies; although these terms introduce ghost particles at the quantum level, we will show that during the evaporation of a Schwarzschild black hole the onset of a ghost-driven instability is essential to avoid a pathological evolution. Furthermore, we propose that the endpoint of this instability is a new type of naked singularity, which can exist only within modified theories of gravity. This solution avoids the observable physical inconsistencies associated with standard naked singularities and could potentially exist in our universe. While a complete theory of quantum gravity might ultimately resolve the ghost and singularity issues, our approach provides new insights into how black hole evaporation might occur at higher energies.
