Probing the Edges of the Universe: Black Holes, Horizons and Strings

Prof. Dr. Andrew Strominger, Havard University,

Heinrich Hertz Lecture 2019

The visible universe has edges, known as horizons, which surround black holes and other inaccessible spacetime regions. They are governed by a universal but still-mysterious set of laws discovered a half century ago by Stephen Hawking. These laws tell us that black holes are paradoxically both the simplest and most complex objects into the universe. The resolution of this paradox is a central goal of modern physics. Compelling progress in and future prospects for our understanding of black holes both from string theory and from the recent Event Horizon Telescope image will be described.