Black Holes and the Structure of Spacetime

Prange Prize Lecture

Black holes are fascinating objects predicted by Einstein's theory of 
general relativity.
Though they were initially viewed as pathological and unphysical 
solutions, they were later understood
to be a solid and generic outcome of  the theory.
They are objects where the distortion of space and time is so extreme 
that it defies imagination.
Black holes give rise to paradoxes whose resolution requires us to modify
our conception of spacetime. We will review how black holes went from 
being apparently unphysical solutions
to a central  tool  for  discovering  new perspectives on the nature of 
spacetime.

Hosted by Sankar Das Sarma