Quantum radiation from quantum gravitational collapse

Abstract

We study quantum radiation emitted during the collapse of a quantized, gravitating, spherical domain wall. The amount of radiation emitted during collapse now depends on the wavefunction of the collapsing wall and the background spacetime. If the wavefunction is initially in the form of a sharp wavepacket, the expectation value of the particle occupation number is determined as a function of time and frequency. The results are in good agreement with our earlier semiclassical analysis and show that the quantum radiation is non-thermal and evaporation accompanies gravitational collapse.