Singularities, black holes, and cosmic censorship: A tribute to Roger Penrose

Abstract

In the light of his recent (and fully deserved) Nobel Prize, this pedagogical paper draws attention to a fundamental tension that drove Penrose's work on general relativity. His 1965 singularity theorem (for which he got the prize) does not in fact imply the existence of black holes (even if its assumptions are met). Similarly, his versatile definition of a singular space-time does not match the generally accepted definition of a black hole (derived from his concept of null infinity). To overcome this, Penrose launched his cosmic censorship conjecture(s), whose evolution we discuss. In particular, we review both his own (mature) formulation and its later, inequivalent reformulation in the PDE literature. As a compromise, one might say that in "generic" or "physically reasonable" space-times, weak cosmic censorship postulates the appearance and stability of event horizons, whereas strong cosmic censorship asks for the instability and ensuing disappearance of Cauchy horizons. As an encore, an appendix by Erik Curiel reviews the early history of the definition of a black hole.