You're warmly invited in-person to our annual Higgs lecture with Nobel Laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft.

The quantum black hole with (almost) no equations

How to reconcile Einstein’s theory of General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics is a notorious problem. Special relativity, on the other hand, was united completely with quantum mechanics when the Standard Model, including Higgs mechanism, was formulated as a relativistic quantum field theory.

Since Stephen Hawking shed new light on quantum mechanical effects in black holes, it was hoped that black holes may be used to obtain a more complete picture of Nature’s laws in that domain, but he arrived at claims that are difficult to use in this respect. Was he right? What happens with information sent into a black hole?

The discussion is not over; in this lecture it is shown that a mild conical singularity at the black hole horizon may be inevitable, while it doubles the temperature of quantum radiation emitted by a black hole, we illustrate the situation with only few equations.

Speaker bio

Professor Gerardus 'Gerard' ’t Hooft is a renowned Dutch theoretical physicist, best known for his groundbreaking work in gauge theories and quantum mechanics. Born in Den Helder in the Netherlands in 1946, he earned his PhD from the University of Utrecht in 1972 with a thesis on the renormalisation of Yang-Mills fields. Since 1977, he has been a full professor at Utrecht University, contributing extensively to our understanding of fundamental forces, black holes, and quantum gravity.

A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, Professor ’t Hooft was honoured with the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics alongside Martinus Veltman for their contributions to the quantum structure of electroweak interactions. His accolades also include the Wolf Prize, the Lorentz Medal, and over a dozen honorary doctorates worldwide.

Beyond academia, his influence extends to space—asteroid 9491 Thooft is named after him.

About the Higgs Lecture

The Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences is delighted to present the Annual Higgs Lecture. The inaugural Annual Higgs Lecture was delivered in December 2012 by its name bearer, Professor Peter Higgs, who returned to King's after graduating in 1950 with a first-class honours degree in Physics, and who famously predicted the Higgs Boson particle.

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