Spontaneous breaking of conformal invariance in theories of conformally coupled matter and Weyl gravity

We study the theory of Weyl conformal gravity with matter degrees of freedom in a conformally invariant interaction. Specifically, we consider a triplet of scalar fields and SO(3) non-abelian gauge fields, i.e. the Georgi-Glashow model conformally coupled to Weyl gravity. We show that the equations of motion admit solutions spontaneously breaking the conformal symmetry and the gauge symmetry, providing a mechanism for supplying a scale in the theory. The vacuum solution corresponds to anti-de-Sitter space-time, while localized soliton solutions correspond to magnetic monopoles in asymptotically anti-de-Sitter space-time. The resulting effective action gives rise to Einstein gravity and the residual U(1) gauge theory. This mechanism strengthens the reasons for considering conformally invariant matter-gravity theory, which has shown promising indications concerning the problem of missing matter in galactic rotation curves.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure, revised and added reference

Quantum effects in Acoustic Black Holes: the Backreaction

We investigate the backreaction equations for an acoustic black hole formed in a Laval nozzle under the assumption that the motion of the fluid is one-dimensional. The solution in the near-horizon region shows that as phonons are (thermally) radiated the sonic horizon shrinks and the temperature decreases. This contrasts with the behaviour of Schwarzschild black holes, and is similar to what happens in the evaporation of (near-extremal) Reissner-Nordstrom black holes (i.e. infinite evaporation time). Finally, by appropriate boundary conditions the solution is extended in both the asymptotic regions of the nozzle.Comment: 23 pages, latex, 1 figure; revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Cutoffs, Stretched Horizons and Black Hole Radiators

We argue that if the UV cutoff of an effective field theory with many low energy degrees if freedom is of the order, or below, the scale of the stretched horizon in a black hole background, which in turn is significantly lower than the Planck scale, the black hole radiance rate may not be enhanced by the emission of all the light IR modes. Instead, there may be additional suppressions hidden in the UV completion of the field theory, which really control which light modes can be emitted by the black hole. It could turn out that many degrees of freedom cannot be efficiently emitted by the black hole, and so the radiance rate may be much smaller than its estimate based on the counting of the light IR degrees of freedom. If we apply this argument to the RS2 brane world, it implies that the emission rates of the low energy CFT modes will be dramatically suppressed: its UV completion is given by the bulk gravity on $AdS_5 \times S^5$, and the only bulk modes that could be emitted by a black hole are the 4D s-waves of bulk modes with small 5D momentum, or equivalently, small 4D masses. Further, their emission is suppressed by bulk warping, which lowers the radiation rate much below the IR estimate, yielding a radiation flux $\sim (T_{BH} L)^2 {\cal L}_{hawking} \sim (T_{BH}/M_{Pl})^2 N {\cal L}_{hawking}$, where ${\cal L}_{hawking}$ is the Hawking radiation rate of a single light species. This follows directly from low CFT cutoff $\mu \sim L^{-1} \ll M_{Pl}$, a large number of modes $N \gg 1$ and the fact that 4D gravity in RS2 is induced, $M_{Pl}^2 \simeq N \mu^2$.Comment: LaTeX, 25 pages, 5 .eps figures; v3: references added, presentation improved, published in Physical Review

A Planck-like problem for quantum charged black holes

Motivated by the parallelism existing between the puzzles of classical physics at the beginning of the XXth century and the current paradoxes in the search of a quantum theory of gravity, we give, in analogy with Planck's black body radiation problem, a solution for the exact Hawking flux of evaporating Reissner-Nordstrom black holes. Our results show that when back-reaction effects are fully taken into account the standard picture of black hole evaporation is significantly altered, thus implying a possible resolution of the information loss problem.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX file, Awarded Fifth Prize in the Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition for 200

Two-dimensional black holes in accelerated frames: quantum aspects

By considering charged black hole solutions of a one parameter family of two dimensional dilaton gravity theories, one finds the existence of quantum mechanically stable gravitational kinks with a simple mass to charge relation. Unlike their Einsteinian counterpart (i.e. extreme Reissner-Nordstr\"om), these have nonvanishing horizon surface gravity.Comment: 18 pages, harvmac, 2 figure

Back-reaction effects in acoustic black holes

Acoustic black holes are very interesting non-gravitational objects which can be described by the geometrical formalism of General Relativity. These models can be useful to experimentally test effects otherwise undetectable, as for example the Hawking radiation. The back-reaction effects on the background quantities induced by the analogue Hawking radiation could be the key to indirectly observe it. We briefly show how this analogy works and derive the backreaction equations for the linearized quantum fluctuations in the background of an acoustic black hole. A first order in hbar solution is given in the near horizon region. It indicates that acoustic black holes, unlike Schwarzschild ones, get cooler as they radiate phonons. They show remarkable analogies with near-extremal Reissner-Nordstrom black holes.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure; Talk given at the conference ``Constrained Dynamics and Quantum Gravity (QG05)", Cala Gonone (Italy), September 200