118550405
Gravitational solitons, hairy black holes and phase transitions in BHT massive gravity
Hairy black holes and gravitational solitons in three dimensions for the new (BHT) massive gravity theory are considered at the special case when there is a unique maximally symmetric solution. Following the Brown-York approach with suitable counterterms, it is shown that the soliton possesses a fixed negative mass which coincides with that of AdS spacetime regardless the value of the integration constant that describes it. The soliton is then regarded as a degenerate ground state labeled by a modulus parameter. The Euclidean action is shown to be finite and independent of modulus and hair parameters for both classes of solutions, reproducing the hairy black hole free energy. Modular invariance implies that the gravitational hair becomes determined by the modulus parameter. Cardy formula is shown to agree with the semiclassical entropy provided the modulus parameter of the ground state is spontaneously fixed, suggesting that the hairy black hole is in a broken phase. Indeed, it is found that the critical temperature Tc = (2πl)−1 characterizes a first order phase transition between the static hairy black hole and the soliton which, due to the existence of gravitational hair, can take place in the semiclassical regime.
59475602
Chemical potentials in three-dimensional higher spin anti-de Sitter gravity
A bstractWe indicate how to introduce chemical potentials for higher spin charges in higher spin anti-de Sitter gravity in a manner that manifestly preserves the original asymptotic W-symmetry. This is done by switching on a non-vanishing component of the connection along the temporal (thermal) circles. We first recall the procedure in the pure gravity case (no higher spin) where the only “chemical potentials” are the temperature and the chemical potential associated with the angular momentum. We then generalize to the higher spin case. We find that there is no tension with the WN or W∞ asymptotic algebra, which is obviously unchanged by the introduction of the chemical potentials. Our argument is not perturbative in the chemical potentials.
118515677
Higher spin black hole entropy in three dimensions
A bstractA generic formula for the entropy of three-dimensional black holes endowed with a spin-3 field is found, which depends on the horizon area A and its spin-3 analogue $ \varphi_{+}^{{{1 \left/ {3} \right.}}} $, given by the reparametrization invariant integral of the induced spin-3 field at the spacelike section of the horizon. From this result it can be shown that the absolute value of $ {\varphi_{+}} $ has to be bounded from above according to $ {{\left| {{\varphi_{+}}} \right|}^{{{1 \left/ {3} \right.}}}}\leq {A \left/ {{\sqrt{3}}} \right.} $. The entropy formula is constructed by requiring the first law of thermodynamics to be fulfilled in terms of the global charges obtained through the canonical formalism. For the static case, in the weak spin-3 field limit, our expression for the entropy reduces to the result found by Campoleoni, Fredenhagen, Pfenninger and Theisen, which has been recently obtained through a different approach.
124142447
Higher Spin Black Holes
We review some relevant results in the context of higher spin black holes in three-dimensional spacetimes, focusing on their asymptotic behaviour and thermodynamic properties. For simplicity, we mainly discuss the case of gravity nonminimally coupled to spin-three fields, being nonperturbatively described by a Chern–Simons theory of two independent \(\mathit{sl}\left (3, \mathbb{R}\right )\) gauge fields. Since the analysis is particularly transparent in the Hamiltonian formalism, we provide a concise discussion of their basic aspects in this context; and as a warming up exercise, we briefly analyze the asymptotic behaviour of pure gravity, as well as the BTZ black hole and its thermodynamics, exclusively in terms of gauge fields. The discussion is then extended to the case of black holes endowed with higher spin fields, briefly signaling the agreements and discrepancies found through different approaches. We conclude explaining how the puzzles become resolved once the fall off of the fields is precisely specified and extended to include chemical potentials, in a way that it is compatible with the asymptotic symmetries. Hence, the global charges become completely identified in an unambiguous way, so that different sets of asymptotic conditions turn out to contain inequivalent classes of black hole solutions being characterized by a different set of global charges.
121809511
Eleven-dimensional CJS supergravity and the D'Auria–Fré group
Abstract An action for eleven-dimensional standard supergravity genuinely invariant under the D'Auria–Fre group is proposed. The construction of the action is carried out through a generalization of the Stelle–West–Grignani–Nardelli formalism. The action is genuinely invariant under this group without the need to impose auxiliary conditions such as a torsion-free condition.
16594811
Higher spin gravity in 3D: Black holes, global charges and thermodynamics
Abstract Global charges and thermodynamic properties of three-dimensional higher spin black holes that have been recently found in the literature are revisited. Since these solutions possess a relaxed asymptotically AdS behavior, following the canonical approach, it is shown that the global charges, and in particular the energy, acquire explicit nontrivial contributions given by nonlinear terms in the deviations with respect to the reference background. It is also found that there are cases for which the first law of thermodynamics can be readily worked out in the canonical ensemble, i.e., without work terms associated to the presence of higher spin fields, and remarkably, the semiclassical higher spin black hole entropy is exactly reproduced from Cardy formula.
121868118
Radiative effects and dimension 5 operators arising from quantum gravity
We examine radiative corrections arising from Lorentz violating dimension five operators presumably associated with Planck scale physics as recently considered by Myers and Pospelov. We find that observational data result in bounds on the dimensionless parameters of the order 10−15. These represent the most stringent bounds on Lorentz violation to date.
118853593
The theta parameter in loop quantum gravity: effects on quantum geometry and black hole entropy
The precise analog of the theta-quantization ambiguity of Yang-Mills theory exists for the real SU(2) connection formulation of general relativity. As in the former case theta labels representations of large gauge transformations, which are super-selection sectors in loop quantum gravity. We show that unless theta=0, the (kinematical) geometric operators such as area and volume are not well defined on spin network states. More precisely the intersection of their domain with the dense set Cyl in the kinematical Hilbert space H of loop quantum gravity is empty. The absence of a well defined notion of area operator acting on spin network states seems at first in conflict with the expected finite black hole entropy. However, we show that the black hole (isolated) horizon area--which in contrast to kinematical area is a (Dirac) physical observable--is indeed well defined, and quantized so that the black hole entropy is proportional to the area. The effect of theta is negligible in the semiclassical limit where proportionality to area holds.
14983134
Spin foam diagrammatics and topological invariance
We provide a simple proof of the topological invariance of the Turaev–Viro model (corresponding to simplicial 3D pure Euclidean gravity with cosmological constant) by means of a novel diagrammatic formulation of the state sum models for quantum BF theories. Moreover, we prove the invariance under more general conditions allowing the state sum to be defined on arbitrary cellular decompositions of the underlying manifold. Invariance is governed by a set of identities corresponding to local gluing and rearrangement of cells in the complex. Due to the fully algebraic nature of these identities our results extend to a vast class of quantum groups. The techniques introduced here could be relevant for investigating the scaling properties of non-topological state sums, proposed as models of quantum gravity in 4D, under refinement of the cellular decomposition.
44018557
Screening Effects in Relativistic Models of Dense Matter at Finite Temperature
We investigate screening effects of the medium on the potential interaction between two static 'charges' for different models of dense plasmas in the one-boson exchange approximation. The potential can exhibit an oscillatory behavior, which is related to the analytic structure of the corresponding boson propagators in the complex $q$-plane. We have first revisited the one-pion exchange in a nuclear medium. In addition to Friedel oscillations, which are associated to branch cuts in the $q$-plane, there appears another oscillatory component, which arises from a pole on the pion propagator. This pole is located appart from the axes, giving rise to an oscillating Yukawa-like potential. Therefore, we call this phenomenon 'Yukawa oscillations'. This phenomenon does not appear in the Debye component of the QED screened potential, even if the coupling constant is artificially increased. We have also studied a model of QCD quark-gluon plasma. In this case, the one-gluon propagator also shows this kind of poles. At high densities and/or temperatures, where one expects perturbative QCD to be valid, the pole shifts towards large momenta.
24706542
Black hole entropy and isolated horizons thermodynamics.
We present a statistical mechanical calculation of the thermodynamical properties of (nonrotating) isolated horizons. The introduction of the Planck scale allows for the definition of a universal horizon temperature (independent of the mass of the black hole) and a well-defined notion of energy (as measured by suitable local observers) proportional to the horizon area in Planck units. The microcanonical and canonical ensembles associated with the system are introduced. Black hole entropy and other thermodynamical quantities can be consistently computed in both ensembles and results are in agreement with Hawking's semiclassical analysis for all values of the Immirzi parameter.