Abstract: | In several recent articles we have proposed a novel model of black hole (BH) evaporation that improves upon Hawking’s model in three aspects: (i) The quantum fluctuations of the collapsing shell (or BH) spacetime are included as well as (ii) The time dependence of the emission process and (iii) The back-reaction on the BH by the emitted particles. In the seminar, I will present the model and use it to calculate the quantum state of the emitted radiation, the rate of information release during BH evaporation and the energy density near the BH horizon. Then I will explain how unitarity and the equivalence principle are accomodated within our model. |