Black Holes and Fundamental Physics

The term black hole is usually associated with a large astrophysical object that has formed due to huge gravitational fields that can arise in the center of massive concentrations (see, e.g., ). However, the black hole is an object in itself which should be studied within the domain of physics, irrespective of the interactions with exterior astrophysical plasmas which excite, and are excited by, the strong gravitational fields of the black hole. Here we want to understand a black hole as a physical object. This program was consciously initiated by Wheeler 2 back in the 1950s. We have not yet understood it entirely, but we have come very far, if we think that, back in 1960, Wheeler, Kruskal and others 3 managed to understand, for the first time, the global causal structure of the complete manifold of the simpler black hole, the Schwarzschild black hole. During the 1960s the black hole became well