Is the Carter-Israel conjecture correct?

Abstract

According to the Carter-Israel conjecture, the end-state of the gravitational collapse of matter is a Kerr-Newman black hole. Nevertheless, neither the theory nor observations can confirm that. In this talk, we discuss the possibility that the collapsing matter can create a super-spinning compact object with no event horizon, and we show how near future observations at sub-millimeter wavelength of SgrA* can test this scenario for the black hole candidate in the Galactic Center.

4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of "21th Rencontres de Blois: Windows on the Universe" (Blois, France, 21-27 June 2009)