In this thesis we study higher-dimensional rotating black holes. Such black holes are widely discussed in string theory and brane-world models at present. We demonstrate that even the most general known Kerr-NUT-(A)dS spacetime, describing the general rotating higher-dimensional asymptotically (anti) de Sitter black hole with NUT parameters, is in many aspects similar to its four-dimensional counterpart. Namely, we show that it admits a fundamental hidden symmetry associated with the principal conformal Killing-Yano tensor. Such a tensor generates towers of hidden and explicit symmetries. The tower of Killing tensors is responsible for the existence of irreducible, quadratic in momenta, conserved integrals of geodesic motion. These integrals, together with the integrals corresponding to the tower of explicit symmetries, make geodesic equations in the Kerr-NUT-(A)dS spacetime completely integrable. We further demonstrate that in this spacetime the Hamilton-Jacobi, Klein-Gordon, and stationary string equations allow complete separation of variables and the problem of finding parallel-propagated frames reduces to the set of the first order ordinary differential equations. Moreover, we show that the Kerr-NUT-(A)dS spacetime is the most general Einstein space which possesses all these properties. We also explicitly derive the most general (off-shell) canonical metric admitting the principal conformal Killing-Yano tensor and demonstrate that such a metric is necessarily of the special algebraic type D of the higher-dimensional algebraic classification. The results presented in this thesis describe the new and complete picture of the relationship of hidden symmetries and rotating black holes in higher dimensions.
We demonstrate that the rotating black holes in an arbitrary number of dimensions and without any restrictions on their rotation parameters possess the same `hidden' symmetry as the 4-dimensional Kerr metric. Namely, besides the spacetime symmetries generated by the Killing vectors they also admit the (antisymmetric) Killing-Yano and symmetric Killing tensors.
These are introductory notes on the study of the Dirac equation in curved spacetime and its relation to hidden symmetries of the dynamics. We present general results on the relation between special spacetime tensors and hidden symmetries, both for the full Dirac equation and for its semi-classical limit, the spinning particle. A concrete application of the general results is provided by the case of rotating higher dimensional black holes with cosmological constant, which we discuss. For these metrics the Dirac equation is separable and the relation between this and hidden symmetries is explain…
In this paper, we discuss hidden symmetries in rotating black hole spacetimes. We start with an extended introduction which mainly summarizes results on hidden symmetries in four dimensions and introduces Killing and Killing-Yano tensors, objects responsible for hidden symmetries. We also demonstrate how starting with a principal CKY tensor (that is a closed non-degenerate conformal Killing-Yano 2-form) in 4D flat spacetime one can "generate" 4D Kerr-NUT-(A)dS solution and its hidden symmetries. After this we consider higher-dimensional Kerr-NUT-(A)dS metrics and demonstrate that they possess …
We propose a different approach to the analysis of symmetries in the near-horizon region of black holes. The idea is presented here for spherically symmetric black holes, for which we have shown that the generators of hidden symmetries can be extracted by solving the conformal Killing equation under certain assumptions. Our result is in agreement with that obtained in literature by the analysis of the wave equation in the near-horizon region.
We present a novel family of slowly rotating black hole solutions in four, and higher dimensions, that extend the well known Lense-Thirring spacetime and solve the field equations to linear order in rotation parameter. As "exact metrics" in their own right, the new (non-vacuum) spacetimes feature the following two remarkable properties: i) near the black hole horizon they can be cast in the, manifestly regular, Painlevé-Gullstrand form and ii) they admit exact Killing tensor symmetries. We show these symmetries are inherited from the principal Killing-Yano tensor of the exact rotating black ho…
This is a short pedagogical introduction to the subject of Killing-Stackel and Killing-Yano tensors and their role in the integrability of various types of equations that are of physical interest in curved spacetime, the main application being higher dimensional rotating black holes with cosmological constant.
A framework associating quantum cosmological boundary conditions to minisuperspace hidden symmetries has been introduced in \cite{7}. The scope of the application was, notwithstanding the novelty, restrictive because it lacked a discussion involving realistic matter fields. Therefore, in the herein letter, we extend the framework scope to encompass elements from a scalar-tensor theory in the presence of a cosmological constant. More precisely, it is shown that hidden minisuperspace symmetries present in a pre-big bang model suggest a process from which boundary conditions can be selected.
In this dissertation we study hidden symmetries within the framework of string theory. There are two kinds of hidden symmetries investigated in this work: the first type is associated with dynamics of quantum fields and the second type is related to integrability of strings on various backgrounds. The goals of this thesis are twofold: extension of hidden symmetries known in general relativity to stringy backgrounds in higher dimensions and construction of new integrable string theories. In the context of the first goal we study hidden symmetries of stringy backgrounds, with and without supersy…
The Eisenhart-Duval lift allows embedding non-relativistic theories into a Lorentzian geometrical setting. In this paper we study the lift from the point of view of the Dirac equation and its hidden symmetries. We show that dimensional reduction of the Dirac equation for the Eisenhart-Duval metric in general gives rise to the non-relativistic Levy-Leblond equation in lower dimension. We study in detail in which specific cases the lower dimensional limit is given by the Dirac equation, with scalar and vector flux, and the relation between lift, reduction and the hidden symmetries of the Dirac e…
It is known that odd-dimensional de Sitter space acts as a transparent potential for free fields. Previous studies have explained this phenomena by relating de Sitter free field equations of motion to the time-independent Schrodinger equation with known transparent potentials. In this work we show that de Sitter's transparency is a consequence of an infinite set of "hidden" symmetries. These symmetries arise from an accidental symmetry for the zero-mode of matter fields, as well as the boost isometry of de Sitter space. For simplicity, we consider the case of massive Klein-Gordon theory. We sh…
We study hidden symmetries, the symmetries associated with the Killing tensors, of the near horizon geometry of odd-dimensional Kerr-AdS-NUT black hole in two limits: generic extremal and extremal vanishing horizon (EVH) limits. Starting from Kerr-AdS-NUT black hole in ellipsoidal coordinates which admits integrable geodesic equations, we obtain the near horizon extremal/EVH geometries and their principal and Killing tensors by taking the near horizon limit. We explicitly demonstrate that geodesic equations are separable and integrable on theses near horizon geometries. We also compute the con…
Important classes of null geodesics and hidden symmetries in the Sen black hole are investigated. First, we obtain the principal null geodesics and circular photon orbits. Then, an irreducible rank-two Killing tensor and a conformal Killing tensor are derived, which represent the hidden symmetries. Analyzing the properties of Killing tensors, we clarify why the Hamilton-Jacobi and wave equations are separable in this spacetime. We also investigate the gravitational capture of photons by the Sen black hole and compare the result with those by the various charged/rotating black holes and naked s…
It is well known that the Kerr-NUT-AdS-dS black hole admits two linearly independent Killing vectors and possesses a hidden symmetry generated by a rank-2 Killing tensor. The near-horizon geometry of an extremal Kerr-NUT-AdS-dS black hole admits four linearly independent Killing vectors, and we show how the hidden symmetry of the black hole itself is carried over by means of a modified Killing-Yano potential which is given explicitly. We demonstrate that the corresponding Killing tensor of the near-horizon geometry is reducible as it can be expressed in terms of the Casimir operators formed by…
We present the twisted covariant form hierarchies (TCFH) of type IIA and IIB 10-dimensional supergravities and show that all form bilinears of supersymmetric backgrounds satisfy the conformal Killing-Yano equation with respect to a TCFH connection. We also compute the Killing-Stäckel, Killing-Yano and closed conformal Killing-Yano tensors of all spherically symmetric type II brane backgrounds and demonstrate that the geodesic flow on these solutions is completely integrable by giving all independent charges in involution. We then identify all form bilinears of common sector and D-brane backgro…
We present the TCFH of 11-dimensional supergravity and so demonstrate that the form bilinears of supersymmetric solutions satisfy a generalisation of the conformal Killing-Yano equation with resepct to the TCFH connection. We also compute the Killing-Stäckel, Killing-Yano and closed conformal Killing-Yano tensors of all spherically symmetric M-branes that include the M2-brane, M5-brane, KK-monopole and pp-wave and demonstrate that their geodesic flows are completely integrable by giving all independent conserved charges in involution. We then find that all form bilinears of pp-wave and KK-mono…
We consider a general charged, rotating black hole in five-dimensional STU supergravity, and show that its six-dimensional Kaluza-Klein lift admits a Killing-Yano 3-form with torsion. This underlies its known Killing tensors in five dimensions, and is related to the separability of torsion-modified Dirac equations. In the generalization to gauged supergravity, we present a five-dimensional Killing-Yano 3-form with torsion when two of the gauge fields are equal, and a Killing-Stackel tensor in the general 3-charge Wu solution.
We prove that the most general solution of the Einstein equations with the cosmological constant which admits a principal conformal Killing-Yano tensor is the Kerr-NUT-(A)dS metric. Even when the Einstein equations are not imposed, any spacetime admitting such hidden symmetry can be written in a canonical form which guarantees the following properties: it is of the Petrov type D, it allows the separation of variables for the Hamilton-Jacobi, Klein-Gordon, and Dirac equations, the geodesic motion in such a spacetime is completely integrable. These results naturally generalize the results obtain…
The paper contains a brief review of recent results on hidden symmetries in higher dimensional black hole spacetimes. We show how the existence of a principal CKY tensor (that is a closed non-degenerate conformal Killing-Yano 2-form) allows one to generate a `tower' of Killing-Yano and Killing tensors responcible for hidden symmetries. These symmetries imply complete integrability of geodesic equations and the complete separation of variables in the Hamilton-Jacobi, Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations in the general Kerr-NUT-(A)dS metrics.
The paper contains a brief review of recent results on hidden symmetries in higher dimensional black hole spacetimes. We show how the existence of a principal CKY tensor (that is a closed conformal Killing-Yano 2-form) allows one to generate a `tower' of Killing-Yano and Killing tensors responsible for hidden symmetries. These symmetries imply complete integrability of geodesic equations and the complete separation of variables in the Hamilton-Jacobi, Klein-Gordon, Dirac and gravitational perturbation equations in the general Kerr-NUT-(A)dS metrics. Equations of the parallel transport of frame…
This work is a brief review of applications of hidden symmetries to black hole physics. Symmetry is one of the most important concepts of the science. In physics and mathematics the symmetry allows one to simplify a problem, and often to make it solvable. According to the Noether theorem symmetries are responsible for conservation laws. Besides evident (explicit) spacetime symmetries, responsible for conservation of energy, momentum, and angular momentum of a system, there also exist what is called hidden symmetries, which are connected with higher order in momentum integrals of motion. A rema…
Motivated by the recent work of the hidden conformal symmetry of the Kerr black hole, we investigate the hidden conformal symmetry of a Kerr-Sen black hole and a Kerr-Newman-Kasuya black hole. Our result shows the conformal symmetry is spontaneously broken due to the periodicity of the azimuthal angle. The absorption across section is in consistence with the finite temperature absorption cross section for a 2D CFT. The entropies of the black holes are reproduced by the Cardy formula.
This note surveys how energy generation and strengthening has been used to prove Morawetz estimates for various field equations in Minkowski space, the exterior of the Schwarzschild spacetime, and the exterior of the Kerr spacetime. It briefly outlines an approach to proving a decay estimate for the Maxwell equation outside a Kerr black hole.
We explore the implications of hidden symmetries present in a particular quantum cosmological setting, extending the results reported in \cite{10,11}. In more detail, our case study is constituted by a spatially closed Friedmann-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker universe, in the presence of a conformally coupled scalar field. The $su(1,1)$ hidden symmetries of this model, together with the Hamiltonian constraint, lead to the gauge invariance of its corresponding Bargmann indices. We subsequently show that some factor-ordering choices can be related to the allowed spectrum of Bargmann indices and hen…
We discuss hidden symmetries of M-theory, its feedback on the construction of the M-theory effective action, and a response of the effective action when locality is preserved. In particular, the locality of special symmetries of the duality-symmetric linearized gravity constraints the index structure of the dual to graviton field in the same manner as it is required to separate the levels 0 and 1 generators subalgebra from the infinite-dimensional hidden symmetry algebra of gravitational theory. This conclusion fails once matter fields are taken into account and we give arguments for that. We …
In the present work, using the recently introduced framework of local geometric deformations, special types of vector fields - so-called hidden Killing vector fields - are constructed, which solve the Killing equation not globally, but only locally, i.e. in local subregions of spacetime. Taking advantage of the fact that the vector fields coincide locally with Killing fields and therefore allow the consideration of integral laws that convert into exact physical conservation laws on local scales, balance laws in dynamical systems without global Killing symmetries are derived that mimic as close…
This article reviews the role of hidden symmetries of dynamics in the study of physical systems, from the basic concepts of symmetries in phase space to the forefront of current research. Such symmetries emerge naturally in the description of physical systems as varied as non-relativistic, relativistic, with or without gravity, classical or quantum, and are related to the existence of conserved quantities of the dynamics and integrability. In recent years their study has grown intensively, due to the discovery of non-trivial examples that apply to different types of theories and different numb…
The purpose of this article is to highlight the fascinating, but only very incompletely understood relation between Einstein's theory and its generalizations on the one hand, and the theory of indefinite, and in particular hyperbolic, Kac Moody algebras on the other. The elucidation of this link could lead to yet another revolution in our understanding of Einstein's theory and attempts to quantize it.
We present an automated method for finding hidden symmetries, defined as symmetries that become manifest only in a new coordinate system that must be discovered. Its core idea is to quantify asymmetry as violation of certain partial differential equations, and to numerically minimize such violation over the space of all invertible transformations, parametrized as invertible neural networks. For example, our method rediscovers the famous Gullstrand-Painleve metric that manifests hidden translational symmetry in the Schwarzschild metric of non-rotating black holes, as well as Hamiltonicity, modu…
The Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime in the Kaluza-Klein theory represents a localized stationary and axisymmetric object in four dimensions from the Kaluza-Klein viewpoint. That is, it harbors companion electromagnetic and dilaton fields, thereby showing up the signature of the extra fifth dimension. We explore the separability structure of this spacetime and show that the Hamilton-Jacobi equation for geodesics admits the complete separation of variables only for massless geodesics. This implies the existence of the hidden symmetries in the spacetime, which are generated by the conformal Killing tenso…
We prove the existence of hidden symmetries in the general relativity theory defined by exact solutions with generic off-diagonal metrics, nonholonomic (non-integrable) constraints, and deformations of the frame and linear connection structure. A special role in characterization of such spacetimes is played by the corresponding nonholonomic generalizations of Stackel-Killing and Killing-Yano tensors. There are constructed new classes of black hole solutions and studied hidden symmetries for ellipsoidal and/or solitonic deformations of "prime" Kerr-Sen black holes into "target" off-diagonal met…
Higher order symmetries corresponding to Killing tensors are investigated. The intimate relation between Killing-Yano tensors and non-standard supersymmetries is pointed out. In the Dirac theory on curved spaces, Killing-Yano tensors generate Dirac type operators involved in interesting algebraic structures as dynamical algebras or even infinite dimensional algebras or superalgebras. The general results are applied to space-times which appear in modern studies. One presents the infinite dimensional superalgebra of Dirac type operators on the 4-dimensional Euclidean Taub-NUT space that can be s…
We briefly review the hierarchy for the hyper-Kähler equations and define a notion of symmetry for solutions of this hierarchy. A four-dimensional hyper-Kähler metric admits a hidden symmetry if it embeds into a hierarchy with a symmetry. It is shown that a hyper-Kähler metric admits a hidden symmetry if it admits a certain Killing spinor. We show that if the hidden symmetry is tri-holomorphic, then this is equivalent to requiring symmetry along a higher time and the hidden symmetry determines a `twistor group' action as introduced by Bielawski \cite{B00}. This leads to a construction for the …
The study of higher-dimensional black holes is a subject which has recently attracted a vast interest. Perhaps one of the most surprising discoveries is a realization that the properties of higher-dimensional black holes with the spherical horizon topology and described by the Kerr-NUT-(A)dS metrics are very similar to the properties of the well known four-dimensional Kerr metric. This remarkable result stems from the existence of a single object called the principal tensor. In our review we discuss explicit and hidden symmetries of higher-dimensional black holes. We start with the overview of…
This paper proves the existence of a bounded energy and integrated energy decay for solutions of the massless Vlasov equation in the exterior of a very slowly rotating Kerr spacetime. This combines methods previously developed to prove similar results for the wave equation on the exterior of a very slowly rotating Kerr spacetime with recent work applying the vector-field method to the relativistic Vlasov equation.
We discuss novel generalisations of Killing tensors, which are introduced by considering rational first integrals of geodesic equations. We introduce the notion of inconstructible generalised Killing tensors, which cannot be constructed from ordinary Killing tensors. Moreover, we introduce inconstructible rational first integrals, which are constructed from inconstructible generalised Killing tensors, and provide a method for checking the inconstructibility of a rational first integral. Using the method, we show that the rational first integral of the Collinson-O'Donnell solution is not incons…
