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Joint BMI/CMSA Foundation Seminar: The semiclassical energy outflux emerging from a collapsing shell

CMSA EVENTS

When: July 31, 2025
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Where: BHI Seminar Room, 20 Garden Street
Speaker: Noa Zilberman (Princeton University)

When a compact object collapses to form a black hole, quantum field theory predicts the emission of an energy outflux to future null infinity, which later relaxes to Hawking radiation. Within the semiclassical framework, we
derive a simple, closed form, analytical expression for the energy outflux emitted from a spherical thin null shell collapsing to form a black hole. In particular, this energy outflux vanishes (quadratically in r-2M) as the shell
approaches the horizon. This result refutes claims that the Hawking energy outflux originates from the collapsing body, showing instead that it develops in a broad strong-field region. Additionally, this vanishing implies that semiclassical backreaction cannot prevent or significantly affect the classical process of gravitational collapse and horizon formation (as sometimes claimed).

Zoom Link: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/94579568043?pwd=nbuIqWbFgv27PZHhQjbbqzfZVo9U3u.1