Hawking radiation may violate the Penrose cosmic censorship conjecture

Abstract

We analyze the Hawking evaporation process of Reissner–Nordström black holes. It is shown that the characteristic radiation quanta emitted by the charged black holes may turn near-extremal black-hole spacetimes into horizonless naked singularities. This analysis therefore reveals the intriguing possibility that the semi-classical Hawking evaporation process of black holes may violate the fundamental Penrose cosmic censorship conjecture.