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The recent advancements in black hole imaging have opened a new era of probing horizon-scale physics with electromagnetic radiation. However, a feature of the observed images, a bright ring encircling a relatively dark region, has not sufficiently proved the existence of event horizons. It thus requires extreme care when studying the possibility of using such image features to examine quantum effects that may change the classical picture of black holes slightly or drastically. In this work, we investigate the image of a horizonless compact object, whose interior metric satisfies the 4D semi-classical Einstein equation non-perturbatively for the Planck constant, and whose entropy agrees with the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. Although the absence of an event horizon allows light rays to pass through the dense interior, the extremely strong redshift significantly darkens the image, making it almost identical to the classical black-hole image. In particular, if there is light emission a bit inside the surface of the object, the intensity around the inner shadow is slightly enhanced, which could be a future observable prediction to characterize the object. We also find through a phenomenological parameter that the image is further darkened due to interactions inside. Thus, the image is consistent with current observations, and the object could be a candidate for black holes in quantum theory., Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Matching published version

One quantum characterization of a black hole motivated by (local) holography and thermodynamics is that it maximizes thermodynamic entropy for a given surface area. In the context of quantum gravity, this could be more fundamental than the classical characterization by a horizon. As a step, we explore this possibility by solving the 4D semi-classical Einstein equation with many matter fields, and find a picture of a black hole. For spherical static highly-excited configurations, we apply local typicality and estimate the entropy including self-gravity to derive its upper bound. The saturation condition uniquely determines the entropy-maximized configuration: self-gravitating quanta condensate into a radially-uniform dense configuration with no horizon, where the self-gravity and a large quantum pressure induced by the curvatures are balanced and no singularity appears. The interior metric is a self-consistent and non-perturbative solution for Planck's constant. The maximum entropy, given by the volume integral of the entropy density, agrees with the Bekenstein-Hawking formula through self-gravity, deriving the Bousso bound for thermodynamic entropy. Finally, 10 future prospects are discussed, leading to the speculative view that the configuration represents semi-classically a quantum-gravitational condensate with holographic bulk dynamics., Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures. Rewrote the story and physical view as a new work (in particular, changed title, abstract, Sec.1, and Sec.7 completely, and made a new formulation in Sec.2); modified many places; and added new footnotes, appendixes, and references

We study the interior metric of 4D spherically symmetric static black holes by using the semi-classical Einstein equation and find a consistent class of geometries with large curvatures. We approximate the matter fields by conformal fields and consider the contribution of the 4D Weyl anomaly, giving a state-independent constraint. Combining this with an equation of state yields an equation that determines the interior geometry completely. We explore the solution space of the equation in a non-perturbative manner for $\hbar$. First, we find four types of asymptotic behaviors and examine the general features of the solutions. Then, by imposing physical conditions, we obtain approximately a general class of interior geometries: various combinations of dilute and dense structures without a horizon or singularity. This represents the diversity of the interior structure. Finally, we show that the number of possible patterns of such interior geometries corresponds to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy., Comment: 32 pages, many figures

We study the effect of self-gravity on entropy by directly solving the 4D semi-classical Einstein equation. In particular, we focus on whether the Bekenstein-Hawking formula holds when self-gravity is extremely strong. As an example, we consider a simple spherically symmetric static configuration consisting of many quanta and construct a self-consistent non-perturbative solution for $\hbar$ in which the entropy exactly follows the area law for many local degrees of freedom of any kind. This can be a candidate for black holes in quantum theory. It represents a compact dense configuration with near-Planckian curvatures, and the interior typically behaves like a local thermal state due to particle creation. Here, the information content is stored in the interior bulk, and the self-gravity plays an essential role in changing the entropy from the volume law to the area law. We finally discuss implications to black holes in quantum gravity and a speculative view of entropy as a gravitational charge., Comment: 20 pages + 3 figures. Version published in Nuclear Physics B. (With keeping the main results, change the title and abstract; modified and expanded Introduction and Conclusion including relations with other works and several new discussions; added references.)

In the background of a gravitational collapse, we compute the transition amplitudes for the creation of particles for distant observers due to higher-derivative interactions in addition to Hawking radiation. The amplitudes grow exponentially with time and become of order 1 when the collapsing matter is about a Planck length outside the horizon. As a result, the effective theory breaks down at the scrambling time, invalidating its prediction of Hawking radiation. Planckian physics comes into play to decide the fate of black-hole evaporation., Comment: 24 pages, no figure, reference added, minor modification

We study a spherical black hole formed slowly in a heat bath in the context of ordinary field theory, which we expect to have the typical properties of black holes. We assume that the matter field is conformal and that the metric satisfies the semi-classical Einstein equation $G_{\mu\nu}=8\pi G \langle \psi| T_{\mu\nu}|\psi \rangle$, where $|\psi \rangle$ is the wave function of the matter field. Then as a necessary condition, its trace part must be satisfied, $G^\mu{}_\mu=8\pi G \langle \psi| T^\mu{}_\mu|\psi \rangle$, whose right-hand side is independent of $|\psi \rangle$ and is determined only by the metric through the 4-dimensional Weyl anomaly. With some physically reasonable assumptions, this equation restricts the interior metric to a certain class. Such metrics are approximately warped products of $AdS_2$ and $S^2$ with almost Planckian curvature. Among them, we find one that is consistent with Hawking radiation and is smoothly connected to the exterior Schwarzschild metric slightly outside the Schwarzschild radius. This leads to a picture that the black hole is a dense object with a surface (not a horizon), which evaporates due to Hawking-like radiation when taken out of the bath. Other solutions represent objects that are larger in size than a black hole, which may be useful for analyzing ultra-dense stars., Comment: 13 pages +5 figures. Version to be published in Phys. Rev. D (Extended Sec2 and added Appendix A)

For an effective field theory in the background of an evaporating black hole with spherical symmetry, we consider non-renormalizable interactions and their relevance to physical effects. The background geometry is determined by the semi-classical Einstein equation for an uneventful horizon where the vacuum energy-momentum tensor is small for freely falling observers. Surprisingly, after Hawking radiation appears, the transition amplitude from the Unruh vacuum to certain multi-particle states grows exponentially with time for a class of higher-derivative operators after the collapsing matter enters the near-horizon region, despite the absence of large curvature invariants. Within the scrambling time, the uneventful horizon transitions towards a firewall, and eventually the effective field theory breaks down., Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures

We describe 4D evaporating black holes as quantum field configurations by solving the semi-classical Einstein equation $G_{\mu\nu}=8\pi G \langle \psi|T_{\mu\nu}|\psi \rangle$ and quantum matter fields in a self-consistent manner. As the matter fields we consider $N$ massless free scalar fields ($N$ is large). We find a spherically symmetric self-consistent solution of the metric $g_{\mu\nu}$ and state $|\psi\rangle$. Here, $g_{\mu\nu}$ is locally $AdS_2\times S^2$ geometry, and $|\psi\rangle$ provides $\langle \psi|T_{\mu\nu}|\psi \rangle=\langle0|T_{\mu\nu}|0 \rangle+T_{\mu\nu}^{(\psi)}$, where $|0\rangle$ is the ground state of the matter fields in the metric and $T_{\mu\nu}^{(\psi)}$ consists of the excitation of s-waves that describe the collapsing matter and Hawking radiation with the ingoing negative energy flow. This object is supported by a large tangential pressure $\langle0|T^\theta{}_\theta|0 \rangle$ due to the vacuum fluctuation of the bound modes with large angular momenta. This describes the interior of the black hole when the back reaction of the evaporation is considered. The black hole is a compact object with a surface (instead of horizon) that looks like a conventional black hole from the outside and eventually evaporates without a singularity. If we count the number of self-consistent configurations $\{|\psi\rangle\}$, we reproduce the area law of the entropy. This tells that the information is carried by the s-waves inside the black hole. $|\psi\rangle$ also describes the process that the negative ingoing energy flow created with Hawking radiation is superposed on the collapsing matter to decrease the total energy while the total energy density remains positive. As a special case, we consider conformal matter fields and show that the interior metric is determined by the matter content of the theory, which leads to a new constraint to the matter content., Comment: ver4: We added a new paragraph to Sec.2.1. and made Appendix B

Assuming that the vacuum energy-momentum tensor is not exceptionally large, we consider 4D evaporating black holes with spherical symmetry and evaluate the proper distance $\Delta L$ between the time-like apparent horizon and the surface of the collapsing matter after it has entered the apparent horizon. We show that $\Delta L$ can never be larger than $\mathcal{O}(n^{3/2}\ell_p)$ when the black hole is evaporated to $1/n$ of its initial mass, as long as $n \ll a^{2/3}/\ell_p^{2/3}$ (where $a$ is the Schwarzschild radius and $\ell_p$ is the Planck length). For example, the distance between the matter and the apparent horizon must be Planckian at the Page time., Comment: 16 pages

We study analytically the spacetime geometry of the black-hole formation and evaporation. As a simplest model of the collapse, we consider a spherical thin shell, and take the back-reaction from the negative energy of the quantum vacuum state. For definiteness, we will focus on quantum effects of s-waves. We obtain an analytic solution of the semi-classical Einstein equation for this model, that provides an overall description of the black hole geometry form the formation to evaporation. As an application of this result, we find its interesting implication that, after the collapsing shell enters the apparent horizon, the proper distance between the shell and the horizon remains as small as the Planck length even when the difference in their areal radii is of the same order as the Schwarzschild radius. The position of the shell would be regarded as the same place to the apparent horizon in the semi-classical regime of gravity., Comment: 42 pages, 8 figures, minor modification

We investigate a thermally isolated quantum many-body system with an external control represented by a step protocol of a parameter. The propagator at each step of the parameter change is described by thermodynamic quantities under some assumptions. For the time evolution of such systems, we formulate a path integral over the trajectories in the thermodynamic state space. In particular, for quasi-static operations, we derive an effective action of the thermodynamic entropy and its canonically conjugate variable. Then, the symmetry for the uniform translation of the conjugate variable emerges in the path integral. This leads to the entropy as a Noether invariant in quantum mechanics., Comment: 13 pages. This provides a new formulation for the result discussed in arXiv:1611.07268 which has been withdrawn

Static, spherically symmetric solutions to the semi-classical Einstein equation are studied, including the effect of the quantum energy-momentum tensor for conformal matters with 4D Weyl anomaly. Through both perturbative and non-perturbative methods, we show that the quantum effect can play a crucial role in shaping the near-horizon geometry, and that the existence of the horizon requires fine-tuning., Comment: 35 pages, minor modification

We analyze time evolution of a spherically-symmetric collapsing matter from a point of view that black holes evaporate by nature. We consider conformal matters and solve the semi-classical Einstein equation $G_{\mu\nu}=8\pi G \langle T_{\mu\nu} \rangle$ by using the 4-dimensional Weyl anomaly with a large $c$ coefficient. Here $\langle T_{\mu\nu} \rangle$ contains the contribution from both the collapsing matter and Hawking radiation. The solution indicates that the collapsing matter forms a dense object and evaporates without horizon or singularity, and it has a surface but looks like an ordinary black hole from the outside. Any object we recognize as a black hole should be such an object., Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures. Typos fixed and references added

We investigate a thermally isolated quantum many-body system with an external control represented by a time-dependent parameter. We formulate a path integral in terms of thermal pure states and derive an effective action for trajectories in a thermodynamic state space, where the entropy appears with its conjugate variable. In particular, for quasi-static operations, the symmetry for the uniform translation of the conjugate variable emerges in the path integral. This leads to the entropy as a Noether invariant., Comment: 12 pages. Explanations have been added in ver.2, Introduction has been substantially revised in ver.3, Withdrawal because our new paper arXiv:1812.06375 provides a better formulation for the result of this paper

We study a classical many-particle system with an external control represented by a time-dependent extensive parameter in a Lagrangian. We show that thermodynamic entropy of the system is uniquely characterized as the Noether invariant associated with a symmetry for an infinitesimal non-uniform time translation $t\to t+\eta\hbar \beta$, where $\eta$ is a small parameter, $\hbar$ is the Planck constant, $\beta$ is the inverse temperature that depends on the energy and control parameter, and trajectories in the phase space are restricted to those consistent with quasi-static processes in thermodynamics., Comment: Discussions clarified, typos fixed, references added, but the result unchanged

We analyze time evolution of a spherically symmetric collapsing matter from a point of view that black holes evaporate by nature. We first consider a spherical thin shell that falls in the metric of an evaporating Schwarzschild black hole of which the radius $a(t)$ decreases in time. The important point is that the shell can never reach $a(t)$ but it approaches $a(t)-a(t)\frac{d a(t)}{d t}$. This situation holds at any radius because the motion of a shell in a spherically symmetric system is not affected by the outside. In this way, we find that the collapsing matter evaporates without forming a horizon. Nevertheless, a Hawking-like radiation is created in the metric, and the object looks the same as a conventional black hole from the outside. We then discuss how the information of the matter is recovered. We also consider a black hole that is adiabatically grown in the heat bath and obtain the interior metric. We show that it is the self-consistent solution of $G_{\mu\nu}=8\pi G \langle T_{\mu\nu} \rangle$ and that the four-dimensional Weyl anomaly induces the radiation and a strong angular pressure. Finally, we analyze the internal structures of the charged and the slowly rotating black holes., Comment: Appear in Physical Review D. Typos fixed. References, clarifications and new appendixes added

We discuss a sufficiently large 4-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole which is in equilibrium with a heat bath. In other words, we consider a black hole which has grown up from a small one in the heat bath adiabatically. We express the metric of the interior of the black hole in terms of two functions: One is the intensity of the Hawking radiation, and the other is the ratio between the radiation energy and the pressure in the radial direction. Especially in the case of conformal matters we check that it is a self-consistent solution of the semi-classical Einstein equation, $G_{\mu\nu}=8\pi G \langle T_{\mu\nu}\rangle$. It is shown that the strength of the Hawking radiation is proportional to the c-coefficient, that is, the coefficient of the square of the Weyl tensor in the 4-dimensional Weyl anomaly., Comment: 10 pages. Detail discussions and references added. Accepted Int. J. Mod. Phys. A

We study the Einstein gravity equations projected on a timelike surface, which represents the time evolution of what we call a gravitational screen. We show that such a screen behaves like a viscous bubble with a surface tension and an internal energy, and that the Einstein equations take the same forms as non-equilibrium thermodynamic equations for a viscous bubble. We provide a consistent dictionary between gravitational and thermodynamical variables. In the non-viscous cases there are three thermodynamic equations which characterize a bubble dynamics: These are the first law, the Marangoni flow equation and the Young-Laplace equation. In all three equations the surface tension plays a central role: In the first law it appears as a work term per unit area, in the Marangoni flow its gradient drives a force, and in the Young-Laplace equation it contributes to a pressure proportional to the surface curvature. The gravity equations appear as a natural generalization of these bubble equations when the bubble itself is viscous and dynamical. In particular, it shows that the mechanism of entropy production for the viscous bubble is mapped onto the production of gravitational waves. We also review the relationship between surface tension and temperature, and discuss black-hole thermodynamics., Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures. This is the published version in Classical and Quantum Gravity. Typos are modified, references are added, discussions (especially, of section 6) are clarified but the main results do not change

We construct a self-consistent model which describes a black hole from formation to evaporation including the back reaction from the Hawking radiation. In the case where a null shell collapses, at the beginning the evaporation occurs, but it stops eventually, and a horizon and singularity appear. On the other hand, in the generic collapse process of a continuously distributed null matter, the black hole evaporates completely without forming a macroscopically large horizon nor singularity. We also find a stationary solution in the heat bath, which can be regarded as a normal thermodynamic object., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures

We study a self-consistent solution of the semi-classical Einstein equation including the back reaction from the Hawking radiation. Our geometry is constructed by connecting flat space and the outgoing Vaidya metric at the locus of the shock wave. In order to prove that this is the self-consistent solution, we first show that the Weyl anomaly is canceled if we take the effects of the fluctuations of the metric into account. We further demonstrate that the Hawking radiation occurs even if the geometry has no horizon. Then, the energy-momentum tensor is found to be consistent with the semi-classical Einstein equation. Since our geometry has neither horizon nor singularity, all matters inside the black hole finally come back to infinity. Therefore, no information is lost by the black hole evaporation. Furthermore, we take into account the gray-body factor. We construct a stationary solution for a black hole in the heat bath and estimate the entropy. The entropy-area law is reproduced by the volume integration of the entropy density over the inside of the horizon, and the black hole can be treated as an ordinary thermodynamic object., Comment: Withdrawn because the authors no longer think it is correct

We study spacetime thermodynamics for non-equilibrium processes. We first generalize the formulation of spacetime thermodynamics by using an observer outside the horizon. Then we construct the entropy balance equation of spacetime thermodynamics for non-equilibrium processes in f(R) gravity. The coefficients of the expansion and shear terms are equal to the viscosities of the black hole membrane paradigm, and a new entropy production term appears., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; Revised argument