Quantum hair and the string-black hole correspondence

We consider a thought experiment in which an energetic massless string probes a "stringhole" (a heavy string lying on the correspondence curve between strings and black holes) at large enough impact parameter for the regime to be under theoretical control. The corresponding, explicitly unitary, $S$-matrix turns out to be perturbatively sensitive to the microstate of the stringhole: in particular, at leading order in $l_s/b$, it depends on a projection of the stringhole's Lorentz-contracted quadrupole moment. The string-black hole correspondence is therefore violated if one assumes quantum hair to be exponentially suppressed as a function of black-hole entropy. Implications for the information paradox are briefly discussed.Comment: 11 pages, no figures, typos corrected, discussion and references added, version accepted for publication in Class. and Quantum Gravit

Gravitational Radiation from Massless Particle Collisions

We compute classical gravitational bremsstrahlung from the gravitational scattering of two massless particles at leading order in the (center of mass) deflection angle $\theta\sim 4 G \sqrt{s}/b = 8 G E/b \ll 1$. The calculation, although non-perturbative in the gravitational constant, is surprisingly simple and yields explicit formulae --in terms of multidimensional integrals-- for the frequency and angular distribution of the radiation. In the range $b^{-1} < \omega < (GE)^{-1}$, the GW spectrum behaves like $\log (1/GE\omega) d \omega$, is confined to cones of angular sizes (around the deflected particle trajectories) ranging from $O(\theta)$ to $O(1/\omega b)$, and exactly reproduces, at its lower end, a well-known zero-frequency limit. At $\omega > (GE)^{-1}$ the radiation is confined to cones of angular size of order $\theta (GE\omega)^{-1/2}$ resulting in a scale-invariant ($d\omega/\omega$) spectrum. The total efficiency in GW production is dominated by this "high frequency" region and is formally logarithmically divergent in the UV. If the spectrum is cutoff at the limit of validity of our approximations (where a conjectured bound on GW power is also saturated), the fraction of incoming energy radiated away turns out to be $\frac{1}{2 \pi} \theta ^2 \log \theta^{-2}$ at leading logarithmic accuracy.Comment: Reference to related work added. Version accepted by Classical & Quantum Gravit

A supersymmetric matrix model: II. Exploring higher-fermion-number sectors

Continuing our previous analysis of a supersymmetric quantum-mechanical matrix model, we study in detail the properties of its sectors with fermion number F=2 and 3. We confirm all previous expectations, modulo the appearance, at strong coupling, of {\it two} new bosonic ground states causing a further jump in Witten's index across a previously identified critical 't Hooft coupling $\lambda_c$. We are able to elucidate the origin of these new SUSY vacua by considering the $\lambda \to \infty$ limit and a strong coupling expansion around it.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Emerging Hawking-like Radiation from Gravitational Bremsstrahlung Beyond the Planck Scale

We argue that, as a consequence of the graviton's spin-2, its bremsstrahlung in trans-planckian-energy ($E\gg M_P$) gravitational scattering at small deflection angle can be nicely expressed in terms of helicity-transformation phases and their transfer within the scattering process. The resulting spectrum exhibits deeply sub-planckian characteristic energies of order $M_P^2/E \ll M_P$ (reminiscent of Hawking radiation), a suppressed fragmentation region, and a reduced rapidity plateau, in broad agreement with recent classical estimates.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Comments and references added. Typos corrected. Fig. 3 modified. Title modified. Same as published articl

A note on C-Parity Conservation and the Validity of Orientifold Planar Equivalence

We analyze the possibility of a spontaneous breaking of C-invariance in gauge theories with fermions in vector-like - but otherwise generic - representations of the gauge group. QCD, supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, and orientifold field theories, all belong to this class. We argue that charge conjugation is not spontaneously broken as long as Lorentz invariance is maintained. Uniqueness of the vacuum state in pure Yang-Mills theory (without fermions) and convergence of the expansion in fermion loops are key ingredients. The fact that C-invariance is conserved has an interesting application to our proof of planar equivalence between supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and orientifold field theory on R4, since it allows the use of charge conjugation to connect the large-N limit of Wilson loops in different representations.Comment: 9 pages, LaTex. v2: minor changes, accepted to Phys.Lett.

Dimensionally reduced SYM4_4 at large-NN: an intriguing Coulomb approximation

We consider the light-cone (LC) gauge and LC quantization of the dimensional reduction of super Yang Mills theory from four to two dimensions. After integrating out all unphysical degrees of freedom, the non-local LC Hamiltonian exhibits an explicit ${\cal N}=(2,2)$ supersymmetry. A further SUSY-preserving compactification of LC-space on a torus of radius $R$, allows for a large-$N$ numerical study where the smooth large-$R$ limit of physical quantities can be checked. As a first step, we consider a simple, yet quite rich, "Coulomb approximation" that maintains an ${\cal N}=(1,1)$ subgroup of the original supersymmetry and leads to a non-trivial generalization of 't Hooft's model with an arbitrary --but conserved-- number of partons. We compute numerically the eigenvalues and eigenvectors both in momentum and in position space. Our results, so far limited to the sectors with 2, 3 and 4 partons, directly and quantitatively confirm a simple physical picture in terms of a string-like interaction with the expected tension among pairs of nearest-neighbours along the single-trace characterizing the large-$N$ limit. Although broken by our approximation, traces of the full ${\cal N}=(2,2)$ supersymmetry are still visible in the low-lying spectrum.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, Footnote page 3 replaced, Note Added at the end, 4 References adde

Summary and Outlook

This will be more of an outlook than a summary ..

Observation angles, Fermi coordinates, and the Geodesic-Light-Cone gauge

We show that the angular directions locally measured by a static geodesic observer in a generic cosmological background and expressed in the system of Fermi Normal Coordinates always coincide with those expressed in the Geodesic-Light-Cone (GLC) gauge, up to a local transformation which exploits the residual gauge freedom of the GLC coordinates. This is not the case for other gauges - like, for instance, the synchronous and longitudinal gauge - commonly used in the context of observational cosmology. We also make an explicit proposal for the GLC gauge-fixing condition that ensures a full identification of its angles with the observational ones.Comment: 14 pages, version accepted for publication on JCA