Drop an ice cube into boiling water, and it will melt away until nothing is left. A black hole in space behaves much the same way — except the 'boiling water' is space itself, which continuously siphons energy out of the hole.
In the new work, physicists traced the fate of a special class of black holes: those that not only have mass but also carry an electric charge. Such holes are described by the Reissner–Nordström solution in de Sitter space (a model of a universe that expands at a constant rate). The authors included two key processes: quantum radiation that carries off energy, like water evaporating from a puddle, and particle pair production that gradually removes the charge, like static electricity draining from a charged comb.
The authors also checked whether special states, such as when the hole's temperature matches that of its surroundings, are stable. They found they are not: extra energy flowing in or out due to electromagnetic effects knocks the system off balance. So the classical 'rest points' do not survive once quantum corrections are included.
During evaporation, a black hole can reach a temperature at which it shines brighter than the surface of the Sun, but only for a very brief moment.