4 research outputs found
Probing the Constituent Structure of Black Holes
Based on recent ideas, we propose a framework for the description of black
holes in terms of constituent graviton degrees of freedom. Within this
formalism a large black hole can be understood as a bound state of N
longitudinal gravitons. In this context black holes are similar to baryonic
bound states in quantum chromodynamics which are described by fundamental quark
degrees of freedom. As a quantitative tool we employ a quantum bound state
description originally developed in QCD that allows to consider black holes in
a relativistic Hartree like framework. As an application of our framework we
calculate the cross section for scattering processes between graviton emitters
outside of a Schwarzschild black hole and absorbers in its interior, that is
gravitons. We show that these scatterings allow to directly extract structural
observables such as the momentum distribution of black hole constituents.Comment: Extended version, accepted for publication in JHE
Towards a Quantum Theory of Solitons
We formulate a quantum coherent state picture for topological and
non-topological solitons. We recognize that the topological charge arises from
the infinite occupation number of zero momentum quanta flowing in one
direction. Thus, the Noether charge of microscopic constituents gives rise to a
topological charge in the macroscopic description. This fact explains the
conservation of topological charge from the basic properties of coherent
states. It also shows that no such conservation exists for non-topological
solitons, which have finite mean occupation number. Consequently, they can have
an exponentially-small but non-zero overlap with the vacuum, leading to vacuum
instability. This amplitude can be interpreted as a coherent state description
of false vacuum decay. Next we show that we can represent topological solitons
as a convolution of two sectors that carry information about topology and
energy separately, which makes their difference very transparent. Finally, we
show how interaction among the solitons can be understood from basic properties
of quantum coherent states.Comment: Matches version published at Nuclear Physics