3,976 research outputs found
Black-Hole Uncertainty Entails an Intrinsic Time Arrow. a Note on the Hawking-Penrose Controversy
Any theory that states that the basic laws of physics are time-symmetric must
be strictly deterministic. Only determinism enables time reversal of entropy
increase. A contradiction therefore arises between two statements of Hawking. A
simulation of a system under time reversal shows how an intrinsic time arrow
re-emerges, destroying the time reversal, when even slight failure of
determinism occurs.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
The Superscattering Matrix for Two Dimensional Black Holes
A consistent Euclidean semi classical calculation is given for the
superscattering operator in the RST model for states with a constant flux
of energy. The operator is CPT invariant. There is no loss of quantum
coherence when the energy flux is less than a critical rate and complete loss
when the energy flux is critical.Comment: 12 pages (R/94/4
The Gravitational Hamiltonian in the Presence of Non-Orthogonal Boundaries
This paper generalizes earlier work on Hamiltonian boundary terms by omitting
the requirement that the spacelike hypersurfaces intersect the
timelike boundary orthogonally. The expressions for the action and
Hamiltonian are calculated and the required subtraction of a background
contribution is discussed. The new features of a Hamiltonian formulation with
non-orthogonal boundaries are then illustrated in two examples.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX. The action is altered to include a corner
term which results in a different value for the non-orthogonal term. An
additional appendix with Euclidean results is included. To appear in Class.
Quant. Gra
Quantum Coherence in Two Dimensions
The formation and evaporation of two dimensional black holes are discussed.
It is shown that if the radiation in minimal scalars has positive energy, there
must be a global event horizon or a naked singularity. The former would imply
loss of quantum coherence while the latter would lead to an even worse
breakdown of predictability. CPT invariance would suggest that there ought to
be past horizons as well. A way in which this could happen with wormholes is
described.Comment: 11 pages, DAMTP-R93/15, CALT-68-1861, Tex, 3 appended uuencoded
figure
Second Law Violations in Lovelock Gravity for Black Hole Mergers
We study the classical second law of black hole thermodynamics, for Lovelock
theories (other than General Relativity), in arbitrary dimensions. Using the
standard formula for black hole entropy, we construct scenarios involving the
merger of two black holes in which the entropy instantaneously decreases. Our
construction involves a Kaluza-Klein compactification down to a dimension in
which one of the Lovelock terms is topological. We discuss some open issues in
the definition of the second law which might be used to compensate this entropy
decrease.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, v2 Title change & minor revisions to match
published version, v3 fixed accidental deletion of author name
Wormholes in spacetimes with cosmological horizons
A generalisation of the asymptotic wormhole boundary condition for the case
of spacetimes with a cosmological horizon is proposed. In particular, we
consider de Sitter spacetime with small cosmological constant. The wave
functions selected by this proposal are exponentially damped in WKB
approximation when the scale factor is large but still much smaller than the
horizon size. In addition, they only include outgoing gravitational modes in
the region beyond the horizon. We argue that these wave functions represent
quantum wormholes and compute the local effective interactions induced by them
in low-energy field theory. These effective interactions differ from those for
flat spacetime in terms that explicitly depend on the cosmological constant.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX 2.O9, no figure
Black-hole information puzzle: A generic string-inspired approach
Given the insight steming from string theory, the origin of the black-hole
(BH) information puzzle is traced back to the assumption that it is physically
meaningful to trace out the density matrix over negative-frequency Hawking
particles. Instead, treating them as virtual particles necessarily absorbed by
the BH in a manner consistent with the laws of BH thermodynamics, and tracing
out the density matrix only over physical BH states, the complete evaporation
becomes compatible with unitarity.Comment: 8 pages, revised, title changed, to appear in Eur. Phys. J.
Gravitational wave background from binary systems
Basic aspects of the background of gravitational waves and its mathematical
characterization are reviewed. The spectral energy density parameter
, commonly used as a quantifier of the background, is derived for an
ensemble of many identical sources emitting at different times and locations.
For such an ensemble, is generalized to account for the duration of
the signals and of the observation, so that one can distinguish the resolvable
and unresolvable parts of the background. The unresolvable part, often called
confusion noise or stochastic background, is made by signals that cannot be
either individually identified or subtracted out of the data. To account for
the resolvability of the background, the overlap function is introduced. This
function is a generalization of the duty cycle, which has been commonly used in
the literature, in some cases leading to incorrect results. The spectra
produced by binary systems (stellar binaries and massive black hole binaries)
are presented over the frequencies of all existing and planned detectors. A
semi-analytical formula for is derived in the case of stellar
binaries (containing white dwarfs, neutron stars or stellar-mass black holes).
Besides a realistic expectation of the level of background, upper and lower
limits are given, to account for the uncertainties in some astrophysical
parameters such as binary coalescence rates. One interesting result concerns
all current and planned ground-based detectors (including the Einstein
Telescope). In their frequency range, the background of binaries is resolvable
and only sporadically present. In other words, there is no stochastic
background of binaries for ground-based detectors.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figure
Can Extremal Black Holes Have Non-Zero Entropy ?
We give several pieces of evidence to show that extremal black holes cannot
be obtained as limits of non-extremal black holes. We review arguments in the
literature showing that the entropy of extremal black holes is zero, while that
of near-extremal ones obey the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. However, from the
counting of degeneracy of quantum (BPS) states of string theory the entropy of
extremal stringy black holes obeys the area law. An attempt is made to
reconcile these arguments.Comment: 18 pages, RevTEX; last section modified, version to appear in Mod.
Phys. Lett.
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