Summary

In this book, the authors present current research in the study of the evolution, theory and thermodynamics of black holes. Topics discussed include the effective theory of a matter field near the event horizon of a black hole; dilatonic black holes in 4D Gauss-Bonnet gravity; the relationship between the tunneling rate of a rotating black hole and the first law of black hole thermodynamics; alternative theories of gravity without black holes; exotic smoothness structures for the application of standard Einstein equations to black hole structures; and lower dimensional quantum black holes.