Black holes on the largest and the smallest scales
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durovcikova-dominika-phd-physics-2026-thesis.pdf
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Author(s)
Ďurovčíková, Dominika
Advisor(s)
Eilers, Anna-Christina
Simcoe, Robert A.
Date Issued
May 2026
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Black holes are objects whose gravitational pull is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. Even though their theoretical existence was already foreshadowed a few centuries ago and then solidified at the beginning of the 20th century, observational evidence has only accumulated in the last handful of decades. Since then, black holes have inspired a wide range of research across astrophysics, from transient events, through galaxy evolution, to cosmology, and they also remain the cornerstone of theoretical research probing the interface of quantum physics and gravity. In this thesis, I explore black holes from both of these angles.
In Part I, I examine black holes as astrophysical phenomena, focusing in particular on highly accreting supermassive black holes known as quasars. These luminous objects allow us to access early cosmic epochs and hold clues to how the earliest supermassive black holes assembled. Using observations of distant quasars with both ground- and space-based observatories, I find that black holes in the early Universe likely grew through short-lived quasar accretion phases, which imply either highly efficient growth or the possibility of growth episodes that are invisible to our current methods. I also use quasars to probe the early cosmos, thereby chronicling one of the major phase transitions in the early Universe -- the Epoch of Reionization -- as well as uncovering sites where the first generation of stars could potentially still be found.
In Part II, I consider black holes as theoretical phenomena and explore their role at the confluence of the two leading, yet disparate theories in modern physics -- quantum physics and general relativity. Even though we still do not know if and how gravity should be quantized, the application of quantum field theory to classical curved spacetimes is very relevant to the physics just outside a black hole horizon. This regime yields a range of fascinating effects, such as black hole evaporation, that remain experimentally unverified. One such example is the Unruh effect, which predicts that an observer moving in a curved spacetime should experience a thermal flux of particles that arise only as a result of this acceleration. Drawing on quantum measurement techniques, I present a scheme consisting of a high-precision force sensor that promises to enable the first detection of this effect in a laboratory setting.
Taken together, the two parts of this thesis highlight the unique role that black holes play in bridging a vast range of scales, from the large-scale evolution of the Universe to the small-scale interplay of quantum fields and gravity. By combining astrophysical observations and quantum measurement techniques, I hope to emphasize the dual importance of black holes as both cosmic laboratories and conceptual probes, and offer new avenues to deepen our understanding of their origin, growth, and underlying physical nature.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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