Extremal (maximally rotating or maximally charged) and near-extremal black holes are of intense interest both for real astrophysics and in the context of fashionable speculations in high energy physics. They remain perhaps the most misunderstood objects in classical general relativity. In this talk, I will first introduce extremal black holes to a general mathematical audience. I will then discuss the stability problem for extremal (and near-extremal) black holes and describe a new conjectural picture of the moduli space of solutions of the Einstein equations describing gravitational collapse.
This video was produced by the University of Münster, as part of the workshop Mathematics Münster Mid-term Conference.
