This textbook gradually introduces the reader to several topics related to black hole physics with a didactic approach. It starts with the most basic black hole solution, the Schwarzschild metric, and discusses the basic classical properties of black hole solutions as seen by different probes. Then it reviews various theorems about black hole properties as solutions to Einstein gravity coupled to matter fields, conserved charges associated with black holes, and laws of black hole thermodynamics. Next, it elucidates semiclassical and quantum aspects of black holes, which are relevant in ongoing and future research. The book is enriched with many exercises and solutions to assist in the learning.The textbook is designed for physics graduate students who want to start their research career in the field of black holes; postdocs who recently changed their research focus towards black holes and want to get up-to-date on recent and current research topics; advanced researchers intendingto teach (or learn) basic and advanced aspects of black hole physics and the associated mathematical tools. Besides general relativity, the reader needs to be familiar with standard undergraduate physics, like thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics. Moreover, familiarity with basic quantum field theory in Minkowski space is assumed. The book covers the rest of the needed background material in the main text or the appendices.

Autorentext

Daniel Grumiller is an Austrian physicist and a Professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITP) at TU Wien in Vienna. He received his PhD from there in 2001 and joined the ITP faculty in 2009 after postdoc positions at Leipzig U. and MIT. His main research covers black hole holography and "lower-dimensional" gravity, on which he has been lecturing since 2004. His long-term research goal is a comprehensive understanding of quantum gravity, in particular the fate of evaporating black holes and their microscopic structure. M.M. Sheikh-Jabbari is an Iranian physicist and a Professor at Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM) in Tehran. He received his PhD from Sharif Uni. in Tehran in Feb. 1998 and joined IPM as a faculty member in Jan. 2005, after some years of postdoctoral fellowships at IPM, ICTP (Trieste, Italy) and Stanford Uni. His main research covers different areas in Theoretical High Energy Physics, of course including various aspects of black holes, while he has worked on cosmology, in particular the early universe, inflationary models and particle physics phenomenology.