Recently, a coherent picture of the quantum mechanics of an evaporating black hole has been presented which reconciles unitarity with the predictions of the equivalence principle. The thermal nature of a black hole as viewed in a distant reference frame arises from entanglement between the hard and soft modes, generated by the chaotic dynamics at the string scale. In this paper, we elaborate on this picture, particularly emphasizing the importance of the chaotic nature of the string (UV) dynamics across all low energy species in generating large (IR) spacetime behind the horizon. Implications of this UV/IR relation include O(1) breaking of global symmetries at the string scale and a self-repair mechanism of black holes restoring the smoothness of their horizons. We also generalize the framework to other systems, including Rindler, de Sitter, and asymptotically flat spacetimes, and find a consistent picture in each case. Finally, we discuss the origin of the particular construction adopted in describing the black hole interior as well as the outside of a de Sitter horizon. We argue that the construction is selected by the quantum-to-classical transition, in particular the applicability of the Born rule in a quantum mechanical world.
Universal spacetimes are exact solutions to all higher-order theories of gravity. We study these spacetimes in four dimensions and provide necessary and sufficient conditions for universality for all Petrov types except of type II. We show that all universal spacetimes in four dimensions are algebraically special and Kundt. Petrov type D universal spacetimes are necessarily direct products of two 2-spaces of constant and equal curvature. Furthermore, type II universal spacetimes necessarily possess a null recurrent direction and they admit the above type D direct product metrics as a limit. Su…
Universal spacetimes are spacetimes for which all conserved symmetric rank-2 tensors, constructed as contractions of polynomials from the metric, the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives of arbitrary order, are multiples of the metric. Consequently, metrics of universal spacetimes solve vacuum equations of all gravitational theories with Lagrangian being a polynomial curvature invariant constructed from the metric, the Riemann tensor and its derivatives of arbitrary order. In the literature, universal metrics are also discussed as metrics with vanishing quantum corrections and as class…
We study almost universal spacetimes - spacetimes for which the field equations of any generalized gravity with the Lagrangian constructed from the metric, the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives of arbitrary order reduce to one single differential equation and one algebraic condition for the Ricci scalar. We prove that all d-dimensional Kundt spacetimes of Weyl type III and traceless Ricci type N are almost universal. Explicit examples of Weyl type II almost universal Kundt metrics are also given. The considerable simplification of the field equations of higher-order gravity theories…
We study type II universal metrics of the Lorentzian signature. These metrics simultaneously solve vacuum field equations of all theories of gravitation with the Lagrangian being a polynomial curvature invariant constructed from the metric, the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives of an arbitrary order. We provide examples of type II universal metrics for all composite number dimensions. On the other hand, we have no examples for prime number dimensions and we prove the non-existence of type II universal spacetimes in five dimensions. We also present type II vacuum solutions of selecte…
Horava gravity theory possesses global Lifshitz space as a solution and has been conjectured to provide a natural framework for Lifshitz holography. We derive the conditions on the two derivative Horava gravity Lagrangian that are necessary for static, asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes with flat transverse dimensions to contain a universal horizon, which plays a similar thermodynamic role as the Killing horizon in general relativity. Specializing to z=2 in 1+2 dimensions, we then numerically construct such regular solutions over the whole spacetime. We calculate the mass for these solutions a…
We construct a generalized Smarr formula which could provide a thermodynamic route to derive the covariant field equation of general theories of gravity in dynamic spacetimes. Combining some thermodynamic variables and a new chemical potential conjugated to the number of degree of freedom on the holographic screen, we find a universal Cardy-Verlinde formula and give its braneworld interpretation. We demonstrate that the associated AdS-Bekenstein bound is tighten than the previous expression for multi-charge black holes in the gauged supergravities. The Cardy-Verlinde formula and the AdS-Bekens…
We define a perturbative S-matrix in a local patch of de Sitter background in the limit when the curvature length scale ($\ell$) is large and study the 'soft' behavior of the scalar QED amplitudes in de Sitter spacetime in generic dimensions. We obtain the leading and subleading perturbative corrections to flat space soft photon theorems in the large $\ell$ limit, and comment on the universality of these corrections. We compare our results with the electromagnetic memory tails obtained earlier in $d=4$ using classical radiation analysis.
We calculate Sorkin's spacetime entanglement entropy of a Gaussian scalar field for complementary regions in the 2d cylinder spacetime and show that it has the Calabrese-Cardy form. We find that the cut-off dependent term is universal when we use a covariant UV cut-off. In addition, we show that the relative size-dependent term exhibits complementarity. Its coefficient is however not universal and depends on the choice of pure state. It asymptotes to the universal form within a natural class of pure states.
Classical soft photon and soft graviton theorems determine long wavelength electromagnetic and gravitational waveforms for a general classical scattering process in terms of the electric charges and asymptotic momenta of the ingoing and outgoing macroscopic objects. Performing Fourier transformation of the electromagnetic and gravitational waveforms in the frequency variable one finds electromagnetic and gravitational waveforms at late and early retarded time. Here extending the formalism developed in \cite{1912.06413}, we derive sub-subleading electromagnetic and gravitational waveforms which…
We have studied scattering of a probe particle by a four dimensional AdS-Schwarzschild black hole at large impact factor. Our analysis is consistent perturbatively to leading order in the AdS radius and black hole mass parameter. Next we define a proper "soft limit" of the radiation and extract out the "soft factor" from it. We find the correction to the well known flat space Classical Soft graviton theorem due to the presence of an AdS background.
It may be a common understanding at present that, once event horizons are in thermal equilibrium, the entropy-area law holds inevitably. However, no rigorous verification is given to such a very strong universality of the law in multi-horizon spacetimes. In this article, based on thermodynamically consistent and rigorous discussion, we investigate thermodynamics of Schwarzschild-deSitter spacetime in which the temperatures of two horizons are different. We recognize that three independent state variables exist in thermodynamics of the horizons. One of the three variables represents the effect …
We explore the spacetime structure near non-extremal horizons in any spacetime dimension greater than two and discover a wealth of novel results: 1. Different boundary conditions are specified by a functional of the dynamical variables, describing inequivalent interactions at the horizon with a thermal bath. 2. The near horizon algebra of a set of boundary conditions, labeled by a parameter $s$, is given by the semi-direct sum of diffeomorphisms at the horizon with "spin-$s$ supertranslations". For $s=1$ we obtain the first explicit near horizon realization of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs algebra. …
We consider perturbations of the $4$ dimensional Reissner-Nordström spacetime induced by the probe scattering of a point particle with charge and mass moving on an unbound trajectory with an asymptotically large velocity. The resulting classical radiative solutions are the gravitational and electromagnetic bremmstrahlung. We use these classical solutions to derive the universal photon and graviton soft factor contributions at the tree level, which have the same form as noted in the literature. The soft factor expressions enable us to investigate the tail contribution to the memory effect in la…
In this paper, the following two propositions are proven under the dominant energy condition for the matter field in the higher-dimensional spherically symmetric spacetime in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in the presence of a cosmological constant $Λ$. First, for $Λ\le 0$ and $α\ge 0$ without a fine-tuning to give a unique anti-de Sitter vacuum, where $α$ is the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant, vanishing generalized Misner-Sharp mass is equivalent to the maximally symmetric spacetime. Under the fine-tuning, it is equivalent to the vacuum class I spacetime. Second, under the fine-tuning with $α>…
We discuss some aspects of soft hairy black holes and a new kind of "soft hairy cosmologies", including a detailed derivation of the metric formulation, results on flat space, and novel observations concerning the entropy. Remarkably, like in the case with negative cosmological constant, we find that the asymptotic symmetries for locally flat spacetimes with a horizon are governed by infinite copies of the Heisenberg algebra that generate soft hair descendants. It is also shown that the generators of the three-dimensional Bondi-Metzner-Sachs algebra arise from composite operators of the affine…
We study universal electromagnetic (test) fields, i.e., p-forms fields F that solve simultaneously (virtually) any generalized electrodynamics (containing arbitrary powers and derivatives of F in the field equations) in n spacetime dimensions. One of the main results is a sufficient condition: any null F that solves Maxwell's equations in a Kundt spacetime of aligned Weyl and traceless-Ricci type III is universal (in particular thus providing examples of p-form Galileons on curved Kundt backgrounds). In addition, a few examples in Kundt spacetimes of Weyl type II are presented. Some necessary …
We investigate thermodynamic behaviors of the $D$-dimensional gravity coupled to a dynamical unit timelike vector, the aether, present two kinds of exact charged solutions and study the linearized wave spectrum of this theory. There is an universal horizon behind the Killing horizon in these aether black holes. It is interesting that there exist $D$-dimensional Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordström and charged Schwarzschild black holes but now with an universal horizon inside. We find that in the uncharged case for both kinds, or charged case but the charge $\bar Q\ll \bar r_0/2$ for the first kin…
Based on the Beltrami-de Sitter spacetime, we present the Newton-Hooke model under the Newton-Hooke contraction of the $BdS$ spacetime with respect to the transformation group, algebra and geometry. It is shown that in Newton-Hooke space-time, there are inertial-type coordinate systems and inertial-type observers, which move along straight lines with uniform velocity. And they are invariant under the Newton-Hooke group. In order to determine uniquely the Newton-Hooke limit, we propose the Galilei-Hooke's relativity principle as well as the postulate on Newton-Hooke universal time. All results …
In this paper, we have studied the thermodynamics of Gauss-Bonnet black holes in D-dimensional $AdS$ spacetime. Here, the cosmological constant ($Λ$), Newton's gravitational constant ($G$) and the Gauss-Bonnet parameter ($α$) are varied in the bulk, and a mixed first law is rewritten considering central charge ($C$) (of dual boundary conformal theory) and its conjugate variable utilising the gauge-gravity duality. A novel universal nature of central charge near the critical point of black hole phase transition in Einstein's gravity has been observed in \cite{mann1}. We observe that this univer…
It is well known that 4-dimensional Kerr-NUT-AdS spacetime possesses the hidden symmetry associated with the Killing-Yano tensor. This tensor is "universal" in the sense that there exist coordinates where it does not depend on any of the free parameters of the metric. Recently the general higher dimensional Kerr-NUT-AdS solutions of the Einstein equations were obtained. We demonstrate that all these metrics with arbitrary rotation and NUT parameters admit a universal Killing-Yano tensor. We give an explicit presentation of the Killing-Yano and Killing tensors and briefly discuss their properti…
A classical solution is called universal if the quantum correction is a multiple of the metric. Universal solutions consequently play an important role in the quantum theory. We show that in a spacetime which is universal all of the scalar curvature invariants are constant (i.e., the spacetime is CSI).
We discuss particle production in spacetimes endowed with a universal horizon in Einstein--Aether and Horava gravity. We argue that continuity and differentiability of the lapse function require the orientation of the foliation in the interior of the horizon to be reversed with respect to the exterior one. Unless this is allowed, interaction of gravitating scalar fields with the universal horizon leads to unitarity violations in the quantum theory. This property is responsible for particle production by the universal horizon, as we show by computing explicitly its Hawking temperature for all s…
We study exact solutions of the infinite derivative gravity with null radiation which belong to the class of almost universal Weyl type III/N Kundt spacetimes. This class is defined by the property that all rank-2 tensors ${B_{ab}}$ constructed from the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives have traceless part of type N of the form $\mathcal{B}(\square)S_{ab}$ and the trace part constantly proportional to the metric. Here, $\mathcal{B}(\square)$ is an analytic operator and $S_{ab}$ is the traceless Ricci tensor. We show that the convoluted field equations reduce to a single non-local bu…
A special class of metrics, called universal metrics, solve all gravity theories defined by covariant field equations purely based on the metric tensor. Since we currently lack the knowledge of what the full of quantum-corrected field equations of gravity are at a given microscopic length scale, these metrics are particularly important in understanding quantum fields in curved backgrounds in a consistent way. But, finding explicit universal metrics has been a hard problem as there does not seem to be a procedure for it. In this work, we overcome this difficulty and give a construction of unive…
We describe what can be called the "universal" phase space of AdS3 gravity, in which the moduli spaces of globally hyperbolic AdS spacetimes with compact spatial sections, as well as the moduli spaces of multi-black-hole spacetimes are realized as submanifolds. The universal phase space is parametrized by two copies of the Universal Teichmüller space T(1) and is obtained from the correspondence between maximal surfaces in AdS3 and quasisymmetric homeomorphisms of the unit circle. We also relate our parametrization to the Chern-Simons formulation of 2+1 gravity and, infinitesimally, to the holo…
It seems to be a common understanding at present that, once event horizons are in thermal equilibrium, the entropy-area law holds inevitably. However no rigorous verification is given to such a very strong universality of the law in multi-horizon spacetimes. Then, based on thermodynamically consistent and rigorous discussion, this paper suggests an evidence of breakdown of entropy-area law for horizons in Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime, in which the temperatures of the horizons are different. The outline is as follows: We construct carefully "two thermal equilibrium systems" individually fo…
Motivated by black hole experiments as a consequence of the TeV-scale gravity arising from modern brane-world scenarios, we study the absorption problem for the massive scalars when the spacetime background is a $(4+n)$-dimensional Reissner-Nordström black hole. For analytic computation we adopt the near-extreme condition in the spacetime background. It is shown that the low-energy absorption cross section for the s-wave case holds an universality, {\it i.e.} the absorption cross section equals to the area of the black hole horizon divided by a velocity parameter.
Large gauge transformations (LGT) in asymptotically flat space are generated by charges defined at asymptotic infinity. No method for unambiguously localising these charges into the interior of spacetime has previously been established. We determine what this method must be, and use it to find localised expressions for the LGT charges. Applying the same principle to the case of a charged black hole spacetime leads to angle-dependent generalisations of the Smarr formula and the first law of black hole mechanics, both of which have important thermodynamical implications. In particular, the prese…
We develop a framework that facilitates the study of the causal structure of spacetimes with a causally preferred foliation. Such spacetimes may arise as solutions of Lorentz-violating theories, e.g. Horava gravity. Our framework allows us to rigorously define concepts such as black/white holes and to formalize the notion of a `universal horizon', that has been previously introduced in the simpler setting of static and spherically symmetric geometries. We also touch upon the issue of development and prove that universal horizons are Cauchy horizons when evolution depends on boundary data or as…
A set of simple rules for constructing the maximal (e.g. analytic) extensions for any metric with a Killing field in an (effectively) two-dimensional spacetime is formulated. The application of these rules is extremely straightforward, as is demonstrated at various examples and illustrated with numerous figures. Despite the resulting simplicity we also comment on some subtleties concerning the concept of Penrose diagrams. Most noteworthy among these, maybe, is that (smooth) spacetimes which have both degenerate and non-degenerate (Killing) horizons do not allow for globally smooth Penrose diag…
It has been long known that in spacetimes with a positive cosmological constant $Λ>0$ the area of spatially stable marginally trapped surfaces (MTSs) has a finite upper bound given by $4π/Λ$. In this paper I show that any such spacetime containing spatially stable MTSs with area approaching indefinitely that bound acquire universal properties generically. Specifically, they all possess {\em generalized} `holographic screens' (i.e. marginally trapped tubes) foliated by MTSs of spherical topology, composed of a dynamical horizon portion and a timelike membrane portion that meet at a distinguishe…
We study the action of the BMS group in critical, bosonic string theory living on a target space of the form $\mathbb{M}^{d}\times C$. Here $M^{d}$ is $d$-dimensional (asymptotically) flat spacetime and $C$ is an arbitrary compactification. We provide a treatment of generalized Ward--Takahashi identities and derive consistent boundary conditions for any $d$ from string theory considerations. Finally, we derive BMS transformations in higher dimensional spacetimes and show that the generalized Ward--Takahashi identity of BMS produces Weinberg's soft theorem in string theory.
We present evidence that the universal Kovtun-Son-Starinets shear viscosity to entropy density ratio of 1/4πcan be associated with a Rindler causal horizon in flat spacetime. Since there is no known holographic (gauge/gravity) duality for this spacetime, a natural microscopic explanation for this viscosity is in the peculiar properties of quantum entanglement. In particular, it is well-known that the Minkowski vacuum state is a thermal state and carries an area entanglement entropy density in the Rindler spacetime. Based on the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we expect a similar notion of vis…
It is widely known that the primordial curvature perturbation $ζ$ has several universal properties in the infrared (IR) such as the soft theorem, which is also known as the consistency relation, and the conservation in time. They are valid in rather general single clock models of inflation. It has been argued that these universal properties are deeply related to the large gauge transformations in inflationary spacetime. However, the invariance under the large gauge transformations is not sufficient to show these IR properties. In this paper, we show that the locality condition is crucial to sh…
We develop a unified framework for the construction of soft dressings at boundaries of spacetime, such as the null infinity of Minkowski spacetime and the horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole. The construction is based on an old proposal of Mandelstam for quantizing QED and considers matter fields dressed by Wilson lines. Along time-like paths, the Wilson lines puncturing the boundary are the analogs of flat space Faddeev-Kulish dressings. We focus on the Schwarzschild black hole where our framework provides a quantum-field-theoretical perspective of the Hawking-Perry-Strominger viewpoint tha…
The gap between a microscopic theory for quantum spacetime and the semiclassical physics of blackholes is bridged by treating the blackhole spacetimes as highly excited states of a class of nonlocal field theories. All the blackhole thermodynamics is shown to arise from asymptotic form of the dispersion relation satisfied by the elementary excitations of these field theories. These models involve, quite generically, fields which are: (i) smeared over regions of the order of Planck length and (ii) possess correlation functions which have universal short distance behaviour.
For static black holes in Einstein gravity, if matter fields satisfy a few general conditions, we conjecture that three characteristic parameters about the spatial size of black holes, namely the outermost photon sphere area $A_{\mathrm{ph,out}}$, the corresponding shadow area $A_{\mathrm{sh,out}}$ and the horizon area $A_{\mathcal{H}}$ satisfy a series of universal inequalities $9A_{\mathcal{H}}/4\leq A_{\mathrm{ph,out}}\leq A_{\mathrm{sh,out}}/3\leq 36πM^2$, where $M$ is the ADM mass. We present a complete proof in the spherically symmetric case and some pieces of evidence to support it in g…
In this paper, we present all $[(d+1)+1]$-dimensional static diagonal vacuum solutions of the non-projectable Hořava-Lifshitz gravity in the IR limit, and show that they give rise to very rich Lifshitz-type structures, depending on the choice of the free parameters of the solutions. These include the Lifshitz spacetimes with or without hyperscaling violation, Lifshitz solitons, and black holes. Remarkably, even the theory breaks explicitly the Lorentz symmetry and allows generically instantaneous propagations, universal horizons still exist, which serve as one-way membranes for signals with an…
In this work, we investigate the $n$-dimensional charged static black hole solutions in the Einstein-æther theory. By taking the metric parameter $k$ to be $1,0$, and $-1$, we obtain the spherical, planar, and hyperbolic spacetimes respectively. Three choices of the cosmological constant, $Λ>0$, $Λ=0$ and $Λ<0$, are investigated, which correspond to asymptotically de Sitter, flat and anti-de Sitter spacetimes. The obtained results show the existence of the universal horizon in higher dimensional cases which may trap any particle with arbitrarily large velocity. We analyze the horizon and the s…
Lorentz-violating gravity theories with a preferred foliation can have instantaneous propagation. Nonetheless, it has been shown that black holes can still exist in such theories and the relevant notion of an event horizon has been dubbed `universal horizon'. In stationary spacetimes the universal horizon has to reside in a region of spacetime where the Killing vector associated with stationarity is spacelike. This raises the question of what happens to the universal horizon in the extremal limit, where no such region exists anymore. We use a decoupling limit approximation to study this proble…
We study the effect of electromagnetic interactions on the classical soft theorems on an asymptotically AdS background in 4 spacetime dimensions, in the limit of a small cosmological constant or equivalently a large AdS radius $l$. This identifies $1/l^2$ perturbative corrections to the known asymptotically flat spacetime leading and subleading soft factors. Our analysis is only valid to leading order in $1/l^2$. The leading soft factor can be expected to be universal and holds beyond tree level. This allows us to derive a $1/l^2$ corrected Ward identity, following the known equivalence betwee…
We obtain the subleading soft theorem for a generic theory of quantum gravity, for arbitrary number of soft photons and gravitons and for arbitrary number of finite energy particles with arbitrary mass and spin when all the soft particles are soft in the same rate. This result is valid at tree level for spacetime dimensions equal to four and five and to all loops in spacetime dimensions greater than five. We verify that in classical limit low energy photon and graviton radiation decouple from each other.
