3,995 research outputs found
Are There Topological Black Hole Solitons in String Theory?
We point out that the celebrated Hawking effect of quantum instability of
black holes seems to be related to a nonperturbative effect in string theory.
Studying quantum dynamics of strings in the gravitational background of black
holes we find classical instability due to emission of massless string
excitations. The topology of a black hole seems to play a fundamental role in
developing the string theory classical instability due to the effect of sigma
model instantons. We argue that string theory allows for a qualitative
description of black holes with very small masses and it predicts topological
solitons with quantized spectrum of masses. These solitons would not decay into
string massless excitations but could be pair created and may annihilate also.
Semiclassical mass quantization of topological solitons in string theory is
based on the argument showing existence of nontrivial zeros of beta function of
the renormalization group.Comment: 12 pages, TeX, requires phyzzx.tex, published in Gen. Rel. Grav. 19
(1987) 1173; comment added on December 18, 199
String theory extensions of Einstein-Maxwell fields: the static case
We present a new approach for generation of solutions in the four-dimensional
heterotic string theory with one vector field and in the five-dimensional
bosonic string theory starting from the static Einstein-Maxwell fields. Our
approach allows one to construct the solution classes invariant with respect to
the total subgroup of the three-dimensional charging symmetries of these string
theories. The new generation procedure leads to the extremal
Israel-Wilson-Perjes subclass of string theory solutions in a special case and
provides its natural continuous extension to the realm of non-extremal
solutions. We explicitly calculate all string theory solutions related to
three-dimensional gravity coupled to an effective dilaton field which arises
after an appropriate charging symmetry invariant reduction of the static
Einstein-Maxwell system.Comment: 19 pages in late
A Quantum Mechanical Model of the Reissner-Nordstrom Black Hole
We consider a Hamiltonian quantum theory of spherically symmetric,
asymptotically flat electrovacuum spacetimes. The physical phase space of such
spacetimes is spanned by the mass and the charge parameters and of the
Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole, together with the corresponding canonical
momenta. In this four-dimensional phase space, we perform a canonical
transformation such that the resulting configuration variables describe the
dynamical properties of Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black holes in a natural manner.
The classical Hamiltonian written in terms of these variables and their
conjugate momenta is replaced by the corresponding self-adjoint Hamiltonian
operator, and an eigenvalue equation for the ADM mass of the hole, from the
point of view of a distant observer at rest, is obtained. Our eigenvalue
equation implies that the ADM mass and the electric charge spectra of the hole
are discrete, and the mass spectrum is bounded below. Moreover, the spectrum of
the quantity is strictly positive when an appropriate self-adjoint
extension is chosen. The WKB analysis yields the result that the large
eigenvalues of the quantity are of the form , where
is an integer. It turns out that this result is closely related to
Bekenstein's proposal on the discrete horizon area spectrum of black holes.Comment: 37 pages, Plain TeX, no figure
Building blocks of a black hole
What is the nature of the energy spectrum of a black hole ? The algebraic
approach to black hole quantization requires the horizon area eigenvalues to be
equally spaced. As stressed long ago by by Mukhanov, such eigenvalues must be
exponentially degenerate with respect to the area quantum number if one is to
understand black hole entropy as reflecting degeneracy of the observable
states. Here we construct the black hole states by means of a pair of "creation
operators" subject to a particular simple algebra, a slight generalization of
that for the harmonic oscillator. We then prove rigorously that the n-th area
eigenvalue is exactly 2 raised to the n-fold degenerate. Thus black hole
entropy qua logarithm of the number of states for fixed horizon area comes out
proportional to that area.Comment: PhysRevTeX, 14 page
Cosmological Dark Energy: Prospects for a Dynamical Theory
We present an approach to the problem of vacuum energy in cosmology, based on
dynamical screening of Lambda on the horizon scale. We review first the
physical basis of vacuum energy as a phenomenon connected with macroscopic
boundary conditions, and the origin of the idea of its screening by particle
creation and vacuum polarization effects. We discuss next the relevance of the
quantum trace anomaly to this issue. The trace anomaly implies additional terms
in the low energy effective theory of gravity, which amounts to a non-trivial
modification of the classical Einstein theory, fully consistent with the
Equivalence Principle. We show that the new dynamical degrees of freedom the
anomaly contains provide a natural mechanism for relaxing Lambda to zero on
cosmological scales. We consider possible signatures of the restoration of
conformal invariance predicted by the fluctuations of these new scalar degrees
of freedom on the spectrum and statistics of the CMB, in light of the latest
bounds from WMAP. Finally we assess the prospects for a new cosmological model
in which the dark energy adjusts itself dynamically to the cosmological horizon
boundary, and therefore remains naturally of order H^2 at all times without
fine tuning.Comment: 50 pages, Invited Contribution to New Journal of Physics Focus Issue
on Dark Energ
Quantum Diffeomorphisms and Conformal Symmetry
We analyze the constraints of general coordinate invariance for quantum
theories possessing conformal symmetry in four dimensions. The character of
these constraints simplifies enormously on the Einstein universe . The global conformal symmetry algebra of this space determines
uniquely a finite shift in the Hamiltonian constraint from its classical value.
In other words, the global Wheeler-De Witt equation is {\it modified} at the
quantum level in a well-defined way in this case. We argue that the higher
moments of should not be imposed on the physical states {\it a priori}
either, but only the weaker condition . We
present an explicit example of the quantization and diffeomorphism constraints
on for a free conformal scalar field.Comment: PlainTeX File, 37 page
Stable gravastars with generalised exteriors
New spherically symmetric gravastar solutions, stable to radial
perturbations, are found by utilising the construction of Visser and Wiltshire.
The solutions possess an anti--de Sitter or de Sitter interior and a
Schwarzschild--(anti)--de Sitter or Reissner--Nordstr\"{o}m exterior. We find a
wide range of parameters which allow stable gravastar solutions, and present
the different qualitative behaviours of the equation of state for these
parameters.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Perturbation theory for self-gravitating gauge fields I: The odd-parity sector
A gauge and coordinate invariant perturbation theory for self-gravitating
non-Abelian gauge fields is developed and used to analyze local uniqueness and
linear stability properties of non-Abelian equilibrium configurations. It is
shown that all admissible stationary odd-parity excitations of the static and
spherically symmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills soliton and black hole solutions have
total angular momentum number , and are characterized by
non-vanishing asymptotic flux integrals. Local uniqueness results with respect
to non-Abelian perturbations are also established for the Schwarzschild and the
Reissner-Nordstr\"om solutions, which, in addition, are shown to be linearly
stable under dynamical Einstein-Yang-Mills perturbations. Finally, unstable
modes with are also excluded for the static and spherically
symmetric non-Abelian solitons and black holes.Comment: 23 pages, revtex, no figure
Gravastar Solutions with Continuous Pressures and Equation of State
We study the gravitational vacuum star (gravastar) configuration as proposed
by other authors in a model where the interior de Sitter spacetime segment is
continuously extended to the exterior Schwarzschild spacetime. The multilayered
structure in previous papers is replaced by a continuous stress-energy tensor
at the price of introducing anisotropy in the (fluid) model of the gravastar.
Either with an ansatz for the equation of state connecting the radial and
tangential pressure or with a calculated equation of state with
non-homogeneous energy/fluid density, solutions are obtained which in all
aspects satisfy the conditions expected for an anisotropic gravastar. Certain
energy conditions have been shown to be obeyed and a polytropic equation of
state has been derived. Stability of the solution with respect to possible
axial perturbation is shown to hold.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures. Latest version contains new and updated
references along with some clarifying remarks in the stability analysi
Entropy from the foam II
A simple model of spacetime foam, made by two different types of wormholes in
a semiclassical approximation, is taken under examination: one type is a
collection of Schwarzschild wormholes, while the other one is made by
Schwarzschild-Anti-de Sitter wormholes. The area quantization related to the
entropy via the Bekenstein-Hawking formula hints a possible selection between
the two configurations. Application to the charged black hole are discussed.Comment: Revtex 3.0, 10 pages, Replaced version with minor changes and one
ref. adde
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