Quantum gravity of dust collapse: shock waves from black holes

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We study the quantum gravitational collapse of spherically symmetric pressureless dust.

• Using an effective equation derived from a polymer quantization in the connection-triad phase space variables of general relativity, we find numerically, for a variety of initial dust configurations, that (i) trapped surfaces form and disappear as an initially collapsing density profile evolves into an outgoing shockwave; (ii) black hole lifetime is proportional to the square of its mass; and (iii) there is no mass inflation at inner apparent horizons.
• These results provide a substantially different view of black hole formation and subsequent evolution than found from semiclassical analyses.