Discrete Spectra of Charged Black Holes

Bekenstein proposed that the spectrum of horizon area of quantized black holes must be discrete and uniformly spaced. We examine this proposal in the context of spherically symmetric charged black holes in a general class of gravity theories. By imposing suitable boundary conditions on the reduced phase space of the theory to incorporate the thermodynamic properties of these black holes and then performing a simplifying canonical transformation, we are able to quantize the system exactly. The resulting spectra of horizon area, as well as that of charge are indeed discrete. Within this quantization scheme, near-extremal black holes (of any mass) turn out to be highly quantum objects, whereas extremal black holes do not appear in the spectrum, a result that is consistent with the postulated third law of black hole thermodynamics.     

Area and entropy spectra of black holes via an adiabatic invariant

By considering and using an adiabatic invariant for black holes, the area and entropy spectra of static spherically-symmetric black holes are investigated. Without using quasi-normal modes of black holes, equally-spaced area and entropy spectra are derived by only utilizing the adiabatic invariant. The spectra for non-charged and charged black holes are calculated, respectively. All these results are consistent with the original Bekenstein spectra.     

Black hole bombs and explosions: from astrophysics to particle physics

Black holes are the elementary particles of gravity, the final state of sufficiently massive stars and of energetic collisions. With a 40-year long history, black hole physics is a fully-blossomed field which promises to embrace several branches of theoretical physics. Here I review the main developments in highly dynamical black holes with an emphasis on high energy black hole collisions and probes of particle physics via superradiance. This write-up, rather than being a collection of well known results, is intended to highlight open issues and the most intriguing results.     

Black holes and information theory

During the past three decades investigators have unveiled a number of deep connections between physical information and black holes whose consequences for ordinary systems go beyond what has been deduced purely from the axioms of information theory. After a self-contained introduction to black hole thermodynamics, we review from its vantage point topics such as the information conundrum that emerges from the ability of incipient black holes to radiate, the various entropy bounds for non-black hole systems (holographic bound, universal entropy bound, etc.) which are most easily derived from black hole thermodynamics, Bousso's covariant entropy bound, the holographic principle of particle physics, and the subject of channel capacity of quantum communication channels.     

Electrostatic self-energy and Bekenstein entropy bound in the massive Schwinger model

We obtain the electrostatic energy of two opposite charges near the horizon of stationary black holes in the massive Schwinger model. Besides the confining aspects of the model, we discuss the Bekenstein entropy upper bound of a charged object using the generalized second law. We show that despite the massless case, in the massive Schwinger model the entropy of the black hole and consequently the Bekenstein bound are altered by the vacuum polarization.     

Notes on Black Hole Phase Transitions

In these notes we present a summary of existing ideas about phase transitions of black hole spacetimes in semiclassical gravity and offer some thoughts on three possible scenarios or mechanisms by which these transitions could take place. We begin with a review of the thermodynamics of a black hole system and emphasize that the phase transition is driven by the large entropy of the black hole horizon. Our first theme is illustrated by a quantum atomic black hole system, generalizing to finite-temperature a model originally offered by Bekenstein. In this equilibrium atomic model, the black hole phase transition is realized as the abrupt excitation of a high energy state, suggesting analogies with the study of two-level atoms. Our second theme argues that the black hole system shares similarities with the defect-mediated Kosterlitz–Thouless transition in condensed matter. These similarities suggest that the black hole phase transition may be more fully understood by focusing upon the dynamics of black holes and white holes, the spacetime analogy of vortex and antivortex topological defects. Finally, we compare the black hole phase transition to another transition driven by an (exponentially) increasing density of states, the Hagedorn transition first found in hadron physics in the context of dual models or the old string theory. In modern string theory the Hagedorn transition is linked by the Maldacena conjecture to the Hawking–Page black hole phase transition in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space, as observed by Witten. Thus, the dynamics of the Hagedorn transition may yield insight into the dynamics of the black hole phase transition. We argue that characteristics of the Hagedorn transition are already contained within the dynamics of classical string systems. Our third theme points to carrying out a full nonperturbative and nonequilibrium analysis of the large N behavior of classical SU(N) gauge theories to understand its Hagadorn transition. By invoking the Maldacena conjecture we can then gain valuable insight into black hole phase transitions in AdS space.     

Stochastic equations in black hole backgrounds and non-equilibrium fluctuation theorems

We apply the non-equilibrium fluctuation theorems developed in the statistical physics to the thermodynamics of black hole horizons. In particular, we consider a scalar field in a black hole background. The system of the scalar field behaves stochastically due to the absorption of energy into the black hole and emission of the Hawking radiation from the black hole horizon. We derive the stochastic equations, i.e. Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations for a scalar field in a black hole background in the ?→0 limit with the Hawking temperature ?κ/2π fixed. We consider two cases, one confined in a box with a black hole at the center and the other in contact with a heat bath with temperature different from the Hawking temperature. In the first case, the system eventually becomes equilibrium with the Hawking temperature while in the second case there is an energy flow between the black hole and the heat bath. Applying the fluctuation theorems to these cases, we derive the generalized second law of black hole thermodynamics. In the present paper, we treat the black hole as a constant background geometry.Since the paper is also aimed to connect two different areas of physics, non-equilibrium physics and black holes physics, we include pedagogical reviews on the stochastic approaches to the non-equilibrium fluctuation theorems and some basics of black holes physics.     

Black hole spectroscopy via adiabatic invariance

During the last years, one had to combine the proposal about how quasinormal frequencies are related with black holes and the proposal about the adiabatic invariance of black holes in order to derive the quantized entropy spectrum and its minimum change for several black holes. In this Letter we exclusively utilize the statement that the black hole horizon area is an adiabatic invariant and derive an equally spaced entropy spectrum of a black hole with its quantum to be equal to the one given by Bekenstein. Interestingly, in our approach no concept of quasi-normal mode is needed.     

Static vacuum solutions in non-Riemannian gravity

In the framework of non-Riemannian geometry, we derive exact static vacuum solutions of the field equations obtained from the full equivalent version of the Einstein–Hilbert action when torsion degrees of freedom are taken into account. By imposing spherical symmetry and a suitable choice for the contorsion degrees of freedom, the static geometry provides deviations on the predictions of the observational tests predicted by General Relativity—namely on the advance of planetary perihelia and the bending of light rays—which we infer. The analytical extension is built in two particular domains of the parameter space. In the first domain we obtain a solution exhibiting an event horizon analogous to that of the Schwarzschild geometry. For the second domain, we show that the metric furnishes an exterior event horizon, and two interior horizons which enclose the singularity. For both branches we examine the effects of torsion corrections on the Hawking radiation. In this scenario the model extends Bekenstein’s black hole geometrical thermodynamics, with an extra work term connected to a torsion parameter.     

Extremal black holes in the Hořava–Lifshitz gravity

We study the near-horizon geometry of extremal black holes in the z=3 Ho?ava–Lifshitz gravity with a flow parameter λ. For λ>1/2, near-horizon geometry of extremal black holes are AdS ₂×S ² with different radii, depending on the (modified) Ho?ava–Lifshitz gravity. For 1/3≤λ≤1/2, the radius v ₂ of S ² is negative, which means that the near-horizon geometry is ill-defined and the corresponding Bekenstein–Hawking entropy is zero. We show explicitly that the entropy function approach does not work for obtaining the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy of extremal black holes.     

Remarks on the Equipartition Rule and Thermodynamics of Reissner-Nordstrom Black Holes

In Verlinde’s work, gravity is explained as an entropic force caused by changes in the information associated with the positions of material bodies. In this paper, we investigate the thermodynamic property of Reissner-Nordstrom black holes from the equipartition rule and holographic scenario. As a result, the first law of thermodynamics of the black holes is recovered.     

Geometrothermodynamics for black holes and de Sitter space

A general method to extract thermodynamic quantities from solutions of the Einstein equation is developed. In 1994, Wald established that the entropy of a black hole could be identified as a Noether charge associated with a Killing vector of a global space-time (pseudo-Riemann) manifold. We reconstruct Wald’s method using geometrical language, e.g., via differential forms defined on the local space-time (Minkowski) manifold. Concurrently, the abstract thermodynamics are also reconstructed using geometrical terminology, which is parallel to general relativity. The correspondence between the thermodynamics and general relativity can be seen clearly by comparing the two expressions. This comparison requires a modification of Wald’s method. The new method is applied to Schwarzschild, Kerr, and Kerr–Newman black holes and de Sitter space. The results are consistent with previous results obtained using various independent methods. This strongly supports the validity of the area theorem for black holes.     

Geometrothermodynamics of black holes

The thermodynamics of black holes is reformulated within the context of the recently developed formalism of geometrothermodynamics. This reformulation is shown to be invariant with respect to Legendre transformations, and to allow several equivalent representations. Legendre invariance allows us to explain a series of contradictory results known in the literature from the use of Weinhold’s and Ruppeiner’s thermodynamic metrics for black holes. For the Reissner–Nordström black hole the geometry of the space of equilibrium states is curved, showing a non trivial thermodynamic interaction, and the curvature contains information about critical points and phase transitions. On the contrary, for the Kerr black hole the geometry is flat and does not explain its phase transition structure.     

Entropy quantization of Reissner-Nordström de Sitter black hole via adiabatic covariant action

Based on the ideas of adiabatic invariant quantity, we attempt to quantize the entropy of a charged black hole in de Sitter spacetime in two different coordinates. The entropy spectrum is obtained by imposing Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rule and the laws of black hole thermodynamics to the modified adiabatic covariant action of the charged black hole. The result shows that the spacing of entropy spectrum is equidistant, and the corresponding horizon area quantum is identical to Bekenstein’s result. Interestingly, in contrast to the quasinormal mode analysis, we note that there is no need to impose the small charge limit for the obtained entropy spectrum of the charged black hole. We also note that the modified adiabatic covariant action gives the same value for the black hole entropy spectrum in different coordinate frames. This is a physically desired result since the entropy spectrum should be invariant under the coordinate transformations.     

Process Physics: Inertia, Gravity and the Quantum

Process Physics models reality as self-organising relational or semantic information using a self-referentially limited neural network model. This generalises the traditional non-process syntactical modelling of reality by taking account of the limitations and characteristics of self-referential syntactical information systems, discovered by Gödel and Chaitin, and the analogies with the standard quantum formalism and its limitations. In process physics space and quantum physics are emergent and unified, and time is a distinct non-geometric process. Quantum phenomena are caused by fractal topologicaldefects embedded in and forming a growing three-dimensional fractal process-space. Various features of the emergent physics are briefly discussed including:quantum gravity, quantum field theory, limited causality and the Born quantum measurement metarule, inertia, time-dilation effects, gravity and the equivalence principle, a growing universe with a cosmological constant, black holes and event horizons, and the emergence of classicality.     

Weak cosmic censorship conjecture in BTZ black holes with scalar fields

The weak cosmic censorship conjecture in the near-extremal BTZ black hole has been tested using test particles and fields.It has been claimed that such a black hole can be overspun.In this paper,we review the thermodynamics and weak cosmic censorship conjecture in BTZ black holes using the scattering of a scalar field.The first law of thermodynamics in the non-extremal BTZ black hole is recovered.For the extremal and near-extremal black holes,due to the divergence of the variation of entropy,we test the weak cosmic censorship conjecture by evaluating the minimum of the function f,and find that both the extremal and near-extremal black holes cannot be overspun.     

Curvature-corrected dilatonic black holes and black hole—string transition

We investigate extremal charged black hole solutions in the four-dimensional string frame Gauss-Bonnet gravity with the Maxwell field and the dilaton. Without curvature corrections, the extremal electrically charged dilatonic black holes have singular horizon and zero Bekenstein entropy. When the Gauss-Bonnet term is switched on, the horizon radius expands to a finite value provided curvature corrections are strong enough. Below a certain threshold value of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling the extremal black hole solutions cease to exist. Since decreasing Gauss-Bonnet coupling corresponds to decreasing string coupling g _s , the situation can tentatively be interpreted as classical indication on the black hole—string transition. Previously the extremal dilaton black holes were studied in the Einstein-frame version of the Gauss-Bonnet gravity. Here we work in the string frame version of the theory with the S-duality symmetric dilaton function as required by the heterotic string theory. The article is published in the original.     

Entropy and action bounds for charged black holes

The entropy upper bound for a charged black hole in equilibrium with thermal radiation is derived by means of a general model-independent approach. This bound in some ways improves that proposed by Bekenstein by taking into account the energy of the electrical field. The corresponding lower bound for the Euclidean action is also obtained. The particular role of black-hole physics in the context under consideration is discussed.     

Thermodynamics and weak cosmic censorship conjecture of 4D Gauss-Bonnet-Maxwell black holes via charged particle absorption

Recently, the non-trivial solutions for 4-dimensional black holes of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity had been discovered. In this paper, considering a charged particle entering into a 4-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet-Maxwell black hole, we calculate the black hole thermodynamic properties using the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. In the normal phase space, the cosmological constant and Gauss-Bonnet parameter are fixed, the black hole satisfies the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and the weak cosmic censorship conjecture (WCCC) is valid. On the other hand, in the case of extended phase space, the cosmological constant and Gauss-Bonnet parameter are treated as thermodynamic variables. The black hole also satisfies the first law of thermodynamics. However, the increase or decrease in the black hole's entropy depends on some specific conditions. Finally, we observe that the WCCC is violated for the near-extremal black holes in the extended phase space.