The inconsistency of a model for internal structure of black holes

The recent claim that a black hole can be treated as a relativistic gas of micro black holes (planckions) is shown to be physically inconsistent and in fact is grossly in error. Any deductions made about black holes from such models must therefore be treated with caution.     

Black holes and black hole thermodynamics without event horizons

We investigate whether black holes can be defined without using event horizons. In particular we focus on the thermodynamic properties of event horizons and the alternative, locally defined horizons. We discuss the assumptions and limitations of the proofs of the zeroth, first and second laws of black hole mechanics for both event horizons and trapping horizons. This leads to the possibility that black holes may be more usefully defined in terms of trapping horizons. We also review how Hawking radiation may be seen to arise from trapping horizons and discuss which horizon area should be associated with the gravitational entropy.     

Information recovery from black holes

We argue that if black hole entropy arises from a finite number of underlying quantum states, then any particular such state can be identified from infinity. The finite density of states implies a discrete energy spectrum, and, in general, such spectra are non-degenerate except as determined by symmetries. Therefore, knowledge of the precise energy, and of other commuting conserved charges, determines the quantum state. In a gravitating theory, all conserved charges including the energy are given by boundary terms that can be measured at infinity. Thus, within any theory of quantum gravity, no information can be lost in black holes with a finite number of states. However, identifying the state of a black hole from infinity requires measurements with Planck scale precision. Hence observers with insufficient resolution will experience information loss. First Award in the 2006 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation.     

Black holes as collapsed polymers

We propose that a large Schwarzschild black hole (BH) is a bound state of highly excited, long, closed strings at the Hagedorn temperature. According to our proposal, the interior of the BH consists, on average, of a uniform distribution of matter with low curvature and large quantum fluctuations about the average. This proposal represents a dramatic departure from any conventional state of matter and from the longstanding expectation that the interior of a BH should look like empty space except for a very small, dense core (the singularity). Standard effective field theory in terms of the metric and other quantum fields is incapable of describing such a state in a meaningful way. However, in polymer physics, such states can be described by a mean field theory in terms of the polymer concentration. We therefore propose that the interior of the BH be described in terms of an effective free‐energy density which is a function of the string concentration or entropy density; this density being a highly non‐perturbative quantity in terms of the metric and other quantum fields. For a macroscopic BH, our proposed free‐energy density contains only linear and quadratic terms, in analogy with that of the theory of collapsed polymers. We calculate the coefficient of the linear term under the accepted assumption that the dominant interaction of the strings at large distances is the gravitational interaction and the coefficient of the quadratic term by relying on explicit string calculations to determine the rate of interaction in terms of the string coupling. Using the effective free energy, we find that the size of the bound state is determined dynamically by the string attractive interactions and derive scaling relations for the entropy, energy and size of the bound state. We show that these agree with the scaling relations of the BH; in particular, with the area law for the BH entropy. The fact that the entropy is not extensive is a result of having strong correlations in the interior state, and the specific form of the entropy‐area law originates from the inverse scaling of the effective temperature with the bound‐state radius. We also find that the energy density of the bound state is equal to its pressure.     

Evolution of primordial black holes in a radiation and phantom energy environment

In this work we extend previous work on the evolution of a primordial black hole (PBH) to address the presence of a dark energy component with a super-negative equation of state as a background, investigating the competition between the radiation accretion, the Hawking evaporation and the phantom accretion, the latter two causing a decrease on black hole mass. It is found that there is an instant during the matter-dominated era after which the radiation accretion becomes negligible compared to the phantom accretion. The Hawking evaporation may become important again depending on a mass threshold. The evaporation of PBHs is quite modified at late times by these effects, but only if the generalized second law of thermodynamics is violated.     

Particle creation by charged black holes

A simple derivation is given for the leading term (n=1) in the Schwinger formula for the pair creation by a constant electric field. The same approach is applied then to the charged particle production by a charged black hole. In this case, as distinct from that of a constant electric field, the probability of the charged particle production depends essentially on the particle energy. The production rate by black holes is found in the nonrelativistic and ultrarelativistic limits. The range of values for the mass and charge of a black hole is indicated where the discussed mechanism of radiation dominates the Hawking one.     

Magnetically charged regular black hole in a model of nonlinear electrodynamics

We obtain a magnetically charged regular black hole in general relativity. The source to the Einstein field equations is nonlinear electrodynamic field in a physically reasonable model of nonlinear electrodynamics (NED). “Physically” here means the NED model is constructed on the basis of three conditions: the Maxwell asymptotic in the weak electromagnetic field limit; the presence of vacuum birefringence phenomenon; and satisfying the weak energy condition (WEC). In addition, we analyze the thermodynamic properties of the regular black hole in two ways. According to the usual black hole thermodynamics, we calculate the heat capacity at constant charge, from which we know the smaller black hole is more stable. We also employ the horizon thermodynamics to discuss the thermodynamic quantities, especially the heat capacity at constant pressure.     

Black hole thermodynamics from a possible model for internal structure

Treating a black hole as a relativistic gas of microblack holes (planckions) which have fermionic character, expressions for some thermodynamic quantities are obtained. These have the same structure as those obtained by Hawking by other considerations.     

Regular black holes in UV self-complete quantum gravity

In this Letter we investigate the role of regular (curvature singularity-free) black holes in the framework of UV self-complete quantum gravity. The existence of a minimal length, shielding the trans-Planckian regime to any physical probe, is self-consistently included into the black hole probe itself. In this way we obtain to slightly shift the barrier below the Planck length, with the UV self-complete scenario self-consistently confirmed.     

Thermal statistical ensembles of classical extreme black holes

New statistical ensembles of classical extreme black holes are introduced. Each ensemble is proven to represent a non extreme, finite temperature black hole. This mean or average black hole is surrounded by a mean electromagnetic field and a so-called apparent matter, which is the large scale trace of the averaged upon small scale fluctuations of the gravitational and electromagnetic fields. However, the total mass and the total charge of space-time is not modified by the averaging.     

Regular black holes in quadratic gravity

The first-order correction of the perturbative solution of the coupled equations of the quadratic gravity and nonlinear electrodynamics is constructed, with the zeroth-order solution coinciding with the ones given by Ayón-Beato and Garcí a and by Bronnikov. It is shown that a simple generalization of the Bronnikov's electromagnetic Lagrangian leads to the solution expressible in terms of the polylogarithm functions. The solution is parametrized by two integration constants and depends on two free parameters. By the boundary conditions the integration constants are related to the charge and total mass of the system as seen by a distant observer, whereas the free parameters are adjusted to make the resultant line element regular at the center. It is argued that various curvature invariants are also regular there that strongly suggests the regularity of the spacetime. Despite the complexity of the problem the obtained solution can be studied analytically. The location of the event horizon of the black hole, its asymptotics and temperature are calculated. Special emphasis is put on the extremal configuration.     

Anti-de Sitter quotients,bubbles of nothing,and black holes

In 3+1 dimensions there are anti-de Sitter quotients which are black holes with toroidal event horizons. By analytic continuation of the Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter solution (and appropriate identifications) one finds two one parameter families of spacetimes that contain these quotient black holes. One of these families consists of B-metrics (“bubbles of nothing”), the other of black hole spacetimes. All of them have vanishing conserved charges. I. Bengtsson was supported by VR.     

Black hole critical phenomena without black holes

Studying the threshold of black hole formation via numerical evolution has led to the discovery of fascinating nonlinear phenomena. Power-law mass scaling, aspects of universality, and self-similarity have now been found for a large variety of models. However, questions remain. Here I briefly review critical phenomena, discuss some recent results, and describe a model which demonstrates similar phenomena without gravity.     

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.     

Problems with tunneling of thin shells from black holes

It is shown that exp(−2 Im(∫ p dr)) is not invariant under canonical transformations in general. Specifically for shells tunneling out of black holes, this quantity is not invariant under canonical transformations. It can be interpreted as the transmission coefficient only in the cases in which it is invariant under canonical transformations. Although such cases include alpha decay, they do not include the tunneling of shells from black holes. The simplest extension to this formula which is invariant under canonical transformations is proposed. However, it is shown that this gives half the correct temperature for black holes.      

Hamiltonian evolution and quantization for extremal black holes

We present and contrast two distinct ways of including extremal black holes in a Lorentzian Hamiltonian quantization of spherically symmetric Einstein-Maxwell theory. First, we formulate the classical Hamiltonian dynamics with boundary conditions appropriate for extremal black holes only. The Hamiltonian contains no surface term at the internal infinity, for reasons related to the vanishing of the extremal hole surface gravity, and quantization yields a vanishing black hole entropy. Second, we give a Hamiltonian quantization that incorporates extremal black holes as a limiting case of nonextremal ones, and examine the classical limit in terms of wave packets. The spreading of the packets, even the ones centered about extremal black holes, is consistent with continuity of the entropy in the extremal limit, and thus with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy even for the extremal holes. The discussion takes place throughout within Lorentz-signature spacetimes.     

Ricci nilsoliton black holes

We follow a constructive approach and find higher-dimensional black holes with Ricci nilsoliton horizons. The spacetimes are solutions to the Einstein equation with a negative cosmological constant and generalise therefore, Anti-de Sitter black hole spacetimes. The approach combines a work by Lauret–which relates the so-called Ricci nilsolitons and Einstein solvmanifolds–and an earlier work by the author. The resulting black hole spacetimes are asymptotically Einstein solvmanifolds and thus, are examples of solutions which are not asymptotically Anti-de Sitter. We show that any nilpotent group in dimension n≤6$n\le 6$ has a corresponding Ricci nilsoliton black hole solution in dimension (n+2)$(n+2)$. Furthermore, we show that in dimensions (n+2)>8$(n+2)>8$, there exist an infinite number of locally distinct Ricci nilsoliton black hole metrics.     

Thermodynamic instability of 3D Einstein-Born-Infeld AdS black holes

Super-entropic black holes possess finite-area but noncompact event horizons and violate the reverse isoperimetric inequality. It has been conjectured that such black holes always have negative specific heat at constant volume \begin{document}$ C_{V} $\end{document} or negative specific heat at constant pressure \begin{document}$ C_{P} $\end{document} whenever \begin{document}$ C_{V}>0 $\end{document}, making them unstable in extended thermodynamics. In this paper, we describe a test of this instability conjecture with a family of nonlinear electrodynamic black holes, namely 3D Einstein-Born-Infeld (EBI) AdS black holes. Our results show that when nonlinear electrodynamics effects are weak, the instability conjecture is valid. However, the conjecture can be violated in some parameter region when nonlinear electrodynamics effects are strong enough. This observation thus provides a counter example to the instability conjecture, which suggests that super-entropic black holes may be thermodynamically stable.     

Vector unparticle enhanced black holes: Exact solutions and thermodynamics

Tensor and scalar unparticle couplings to matter have been shown to enhance gravitational interactions and provide corrections to the Schwarzschild metric and associated black hole structure. We derive an exact solution to the Einstein equations for vector unparticles, and conclusively demonstrate that these induce Riessner–Nordström (RN)-like solutions where the role of the “charge” is defined by a composite of unparticle phase space parameters. These black holes admit double-horizon structure, although unlike the RN metric these solutions have a minimum inner horizon value. In the extremal limit, the Hawking temperature is shown to vanish. As with the scalar/tensor case, the (outer) horizon is shown via entropy considerations to behave like a fractal surface of spectral dimension dH=2dU$d_H=2d_U$.     

Black holes and the classical model of a particle in Einstein non-linear electrodynamics theory

Modified by a logarithmic term, the non-linear electrodynamics (NED) model of the Born–Infeld (BI) action is reconsidered. Unlike the standard BI action, this choice provides interesting integrals of the Einstein-NED equations. It is found that the spherical matching process for a regular black hole entails indispensable surface stresses that vanish only for a specific value of the BI parameter. This solution represents a classical model of an elementary particle whose radius coincides with the horizon. In flat spacetime, a charged particle becomes a conducting shell with a radius proportional to the BI parameter.