Hawking radiation may violate the Penrose cosmic censorship conjecture

Abstract

We analyze the Hawking evaporation process of Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. It is shown that the characteristic radiation quanta emitted by the charged black holes may turn near-extremal black-hole spacetimes into horizonless naked singularities. The present analysis therefore reveals the intriguing possibility that the semi-classical Hawking evaporation process of black holes may violate the fundamental Penrose cosmic censorship conjecture.