Regular black holes from thin-shell collapse

Bueno, Pablo; Cano, Pablo A.; Hennigar, Robie A.; Murcia, Ángel J.

Abstract

We establish that regular black holes can form from gravitational collapse in all D≥5. Our model builds on a recent construction that realized regular black holes as exact solutions to purely gravitational theories that incorporate an infinite tower of higher curvature corrections [P. Bueno, Regular black holes from pure gravity, Phys. Lett. B 861, 139260 (2025).PYLBAJ0370-269310.1016/j.physletb.2025.139260]. We identify a two-dimensional Horndeski theory that captures the spherically symmetric dynamics of the theories in question and use this to prove a Birkhoff theorem and obtain the generalized Israel junction conditions. Armed with these tools, we consider the collapse of thin shells of pressureless matter, showing that this leads generically to the formation of regular black holes. The interior dynamics we uncover is intricate, consisting of shell bounces and white hole explosions into a new universe. The result is that regular black holes are the unique spherically symmetric solutions of the corresponding theories and also the end point of gravitational collapse of matter. Along the way, we establish evidence for a solution-independent upper bound on the curvature, suggestive of Markov's limiting curvature hypothesis.

Citation

Bueno, P., Cano, P. A., Hennigar, R. A., & Murcia, Á. J. (2025). Regular black holes from thin-shell collapse. Physical Review D, 111(10), Article 104009. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.104009

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 28, 2025
• Online Publication Date: May 6, 2025
• Publication Date: May 15, 2025
• Deposit Date: May 29, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 29, 2025
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 111
• Issue: 10
• Article Number: 104009
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.104009
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3967096