Ambiguity of black hole entropy in loop quantum gravity

We reexmine some proposals of black hole entropy in loop quantum gravity (LQG) and consider a new possible choice of the Immirzi parameter which has not been pointed out so far. We also discuss that a new idea is inevitable if we regard the relation between the area spectrum in LQG and that in the quasinormal mode analysis seriously.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, error corrected, PRD published versio

Revisiting chameleon gravity - thin-shells and no-shells with appropriate boundary conditions

We derive analytic solutions of a chameleon scalar field $\phi$ that couples to a non-relativistic matter in the weak gravitational background of a spherically symmetric body, paying particular attention to a field mass $m_A$ inside of the body. The standard thin-shell field profile is recovered by taking the limit $m_A*r_c \to \infty$, where $r_c$ is a radius of the body. We show the existence of "no-shell" solutions where the field is nearly frozen in the whole interior of the body, which does not necessarily correspond to the "zero-shell" limit of thin-shell solutions. In the no-shell case, under the condition $m_A*r_c \gg 1$, the effective coupling of $\phi$ with matter takes the same asymptotic form as that in the thin-shell case. We study experimental bounds coming from the violation of equivalence principle as well as solar-system tests for a number of models including $f(R)$ gravity and find that the field is in either the thin-shell or the no-shell regime under such constraints, depending on the shape of scalar-field potentials. We also show that, for the consistency with local gravity constraints, the field at the center of the body needs to be extremely close to the value $\phi_A$ at the extremum of an effective potential induced by the matter coupling.Comment: 14 pages, no figure

What happens to Q-balls if QQ is so large?

In the system of a gravitating Q-ball, there is a maximum charge $Q_{{\rm max}}$ inevitably, while in flat spacetime there is no upper bound on $Q$ in typical models such as the Affleck-Dine model. Theoretically the charge $Q$ is a free parameter, and phenomenologically it could increase by charge accumulation. We address a question of what happens to Q-balls if $Q$ is close to $Q_{{\rm max}}$. First, without specifying a model, we show analytically that inflation cannot take place in the core of a Q-ball, contrary to the claim of previous work. Next, for the Affleck-Dine model, we analyze perturbation of equilibrium solutions with $Q\approx Q_{{\rm max}}$ by numerical analysis of dynamical field equations. We find that the extremal solution with $Q=Q_{{\rm max}}$ and unstable solutions around it are "critical solutions", which means the threshold of black-hole formation.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, results for large $\kappa$ added, to appear in PR

The universal area spectrum in single-horizon black holes

We investigate highly damped quasinormal mode of single-horizon black holes motivated by its relation to the loop quantum gravity. Using the WKB approximation, we show that the real part of the frequency approaches the value $T_{\rm H}\ln 3$ for dilatonic black hole as conjectured by Medved et al. and Padmanabhan. It is surprising since the area specrtum of the black hole determined by the Bohr's correspondence principle completely agrees with that of Schwarzschild black hole for any values of the electromagnetic charge or the dilaton coupling. We discuss its generality for single-horizon black holes and the meaning in the loop quantum gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, references and comments adde

How does gravity save or kill Q-balls?

We explore stability of gravitating Q-balls with potential $V_4(\phi)={m^2\over2}\phi^2-\lambda\phi^4+\frac{\phi^6}{M^2}$ via catastrophe theory, as an extension of our previous work on Q-balls with potential $V_3(\phi)={m^2\over2}\phi^2-\mu\phi^3+\lambda\phi^4$. In flat spacetime Q-balls with $V_4$ in the thick-wall limit are unstable and there is a minimum charge $Q_{{\rm min}}$, where Q-balls with $Q<Q_{{\rm min}}$ are nonexistent. If we take self-gravity into account, on the other hand, there exist stable Q-balls with arbitrarily small charge, no matter how weak gravity is. That is, gravity saves Q-balls with small charge. We also show how stability of Q-balls changes as gravity becomes strong.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure