Quantizing Gravitational Collapse

Abstract

I summarize some results obtained from a canonical quantization of gravitational collapse. The quantization is carried out in Kuchar variables on the LeMaitre-Tolman-Bondi family of spacetimes. I show how mass quantization, the black hole entropy and Hawking radiation may be understood in these models. Hawking radiation is obtained in the WKB approximation but the first order quantum gravity correction makes the near-horizon spectrum non-thermal, suggesting that unitarity is preserved. The quantization may be used to study quantum gravity effects in collapse leading to the formation of both covered and naked singularities.