Beyond Einstein's Horizon: Gravitational Condensates and Black Hole Interiors in the Effective Theory of Gravity

Two of the most fundamental problems at the nexus of Einstein's classical General Relativity (GR) and Quantum Field Theory (QFT) are: (1) complete gravitational collapse, presumed in classical GR to lead to a Black Hole (BH) horizon and interior singularity, which generate a number of paradoxes for quantum theory; and (2) the origin and magnitude of the cosmological dark energy driving the accelerated expansion of the Universe. In this Snowmass white paper it is proposed that these twin puzzles on disparate scales are related, and that their resolution depends upon taking full account of the conformal anomaly of quantum matter in gravitational fields. The topological term in the anomaly leads naturally to the introduction of an abelian $3$-form gauge field, whose field strength can account for a variable gravitational condensate with the vacuum dark energy equation of state $p=-ρ$, the magnitude of which depends upon macroscopic boundary conditions rather than ultraviolet cutoffs. The resulting Effective Field Theory (EFT) of low energy quantum gravity results in a non-singular `BH' interior and physical surface replacing the classical event horizon, which is a gravitational condensate star free of any information paradox. The development and predictions of this EFT can be tested by gravitational waves and observational cosmology in the coming decade.

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