I revisit the calculation of infinite-dimensional symmetries that emerge in the vicinity of isolated horizons. I focus the attention on extremal black holes, for which the isometry algebra that preserves a sensible set of asymptotic boundary conditions at the horizon strictly includes the BMS algebra. The conserved charges that correspond to this BMS sector, however, reduce to those of superrotation, generating only two copies of Witt algebra. For more general horizon isometries, in contrast, the charge algebra does include both Witt and supertranslations, being similar to BMS but s.str. differing from it.
This work has been prepared for the proceedings of the XXII Simposio Sofichi 2020, held in Chile in November 2020. The material herein is based on my work in collaboration with Laura Donnay, Hernan Gonzalez and Miguel Pino, and it is included in arXiv:1511.08687 and arXiv:1607.05703.
Near the horizon, the obvious symmetries of a black hole spacetime---the horizon-preserving diffeomorphisms---are enhanced to a larger symmetry group with a BMS${}_3$ algebra. Using dimensional reduction and covariant phase space techniques, I investigate this augmented symmetry, and show that it is strong enough to determine the black hole entropy.
In this paper we consider a generally covariant theory of gravity, and extend the generalized off-shell ADT current such that it becomes conserved for field dependent (asymptotically) Killing vector field. Then we define the extended off-shell ADT current and the extended off-shell ADT charge. Consequently, we define the conserved charge perturbation by integrating from the extended off-shell ADT charge over a spacelike codimension two surface. Eventually, we use the presented formalism to find the conserved charge perturbation of an asymptotically flat spacetime. The conserved charge perturba…
We consider a BMS-type symmetry action on isolated horizons in asymptotically flat spacetimes. From the viewpoint of the non-relativistic field theory on a horizon membrane, supertranslations shift the field theory spatial momentum. The latter is related by a Ward identity to the particle number symmetry current and is spontaneously broken. The corresponding Goldstone boson shifts the horizon angular momentum and can be detected quantum mechanically. Similarly, area preserving superrotations are spontaneously broken on the horizon membrane and we identify the corresponding gapless modes. In as…
In an earlier short paper [Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.\ 120 (2018) 101301, arXiv:1702.04439], I argued that the horizon-preserving diffeomorphisms of a generic black hole are enhanced to a larger BMS${}_3$ symmetry, which is powerful enough to determine the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Here I provide details and extensions of that argument, including a loosening of horizon boundary conditions and a more thorough treatment of dimensional reduction and meaning of a "near-horizon symmetry."
The Bondi-van der Burg-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) group is the asymptotic symmetry group of asymptotically flat gravity. Recently, Donnay et al. have derived an analogous symmetry group acting on black hole event horizons. For a certain choice of boundary conditions, it is a semidirect product of ${\rm Diff}(S^2)$, the smooth diffeomorphisms of the two-sphere, acting on $C^\infty(S^2)$, the smooth functions on the two-sphere. We observe that the same group appears in fluid dynamics as symmetries of the compressible Euler equations. We relate these two realizations of ${\rm Diff}(S^2)\ltimes C^\infty(…
We revisit the theory of null shells in general relativity, with a particular emphasis on null shells placed at horizons of black holes. We study in detail the considerable freedom that is available in the case that one solders two metrics together across null hypersurfaces (such as Killing horizons) for which the induced metric is invariant under translations along the null generators. In this case the group of soldering transformations turns out to be infinite dimensional, and these solderings create non-trivial horizon shells containing both massless matter and impulsive gravitational wave …
When two spacetimes are stitched across a null-shell placed at the horizon of a black hole BMS-supertranslation like soldering freedom arises if one demands the induced metric on the horizon shell should remain invariant under the translations generated by the null generators of the shell. We revisit this phenomenon at the horizon of rotating shells and obtain BMS like symmetries. We further show that superrotation like soldering symmetries in the form of conformal isometries can emerge whenever the degenerate metric of any null hypersurface admits a dependency on null (degenerate direction) c…
We study horizon shells and soldering freedom for extreme black holes and how supertranslation-like Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) symmetries appear as soldering transformations. Further, for a null shell placed infinitesimally close to the horizon of an extreme Reissner-Nordstr$\ddot{o}$m (RN) black hole, we show superrotation-like symmetries also arise as soldering freedom. Next, considering the interaction of impulsive gravitational waves supported at the horizon shell with test particles, we study how the "memory" (or the imprints) of BMS-like symmetries gets encoded in the geodesics (test part…
Near horizon Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) like symmetry is spontaneously broken by the black hole background itself and hence gives rise to Goldstone mode. The associated Goldstone mode for the near horizon BMS like symmetry of a Schwarzschild black hole was found to behave like inverted harmonic oscillators, which has been further shown to lead to thermodynamic temperature in the semi-classical regime. Here we investigate the generalization of this previous findings for the Kerr black hole. The analysis is being performed for two different situations. Firstly, we analyze Goldstone mode dynamics …
This article reviews one of the most intriguing properties of black hole spacetimes known in the literature -- gravitational memory effect, and its connection with asymptotic symmetries, also termed as Bondi-van der Burg-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) symmetries, emerging near the horizon of black holes. Gravitational memory is a non-oscillatory part of the gravitational wave amplitude which generates a permanent displacement for freely falling test particles or test detectors. We highlight a model scenario where asymptotic symmetries appear as a soldering freedom in the context of stitching of two black…
We investigate the standard and dual Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) supertranslation generators on a black hole horizon and draw some conclusions about black hole physics. Recently, it has been shown that in addition to conventional BMS supertranslation symmetries, there exists an additional infinite set of magnetic asymptotic symmetries, dual BMS supertranslations, again parametrized by a function on the two-sphere. We show that the Dirac bracket between these generators exhibits an anomalous central term when one parameter function exhibits a singularity in the complex stereographical coordinates…
We provide a first derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of 3d flat cosmological horizons in terms of the counting of states in a dual field theory. These horizons appear in the shifted-boost orbifold of R^{1,2}, the flat limit of non-extremal rotating BTZ black holes. These 3d geometries carry non-zero charges under the asymptotic symmetry algebra of R^{1,2}, the 3d Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS3) algebra. The dual theory has the symmetries of the 2d Galilean Conformal Algebra, a contraction of two copies of the Virasoro algebra, which is isomorphic to BMS3. We study flat holography as a li…
We define and study asymptotic Killing and conformal Killing vectors in $d$-dimensional Minkowski, (A)dS, $\mathbb{R}\times S^{d-1}$ and ${\rm AdS}_2\times S^{d-2}$. We construct the associated quantum charges for an arbitrary CFT and show they satisfy a closed algebra that includes the BMS as a sub-algebra (i.e. supertranslations and superrotations) plus a novel transformation we call `superdilations'. We study representations of this algebra in the Hilbert space of the CFT, as well as the action of the finite transformations obtained by exponentiating the charges. In the context of the AdS/C…
We show that the entropy of extremal $D=4$ Reissner--Nordstrom black holes can be computed from horizon CFTs with central charges and conformal weights fixed by the dimensionless Rindler energy. This is possible in the simultaneous extremal and near horizon limit of the black hole which takes the geometry to an $AdS_2$ Rindler space with finite temperature. The CFT description of dilatonic $AdS_2$ black holes, obtained from extremal ones by dimensional reduction, lead to exactly the same CFT states.
We consider the near-horizon geometry of supersymmetric extremal black holes in un-gauaged and gauged 5-dimensional supergravity, coupled to abelian vector multiplets. By analyzing the global properties of the Killing spinors, we prove that the near-horizon geometries undergo a supersymmetry enhancement. This follows from a set of generalized Lichnerowicz-type theorems we establish, together with an index theory argument. As a consequence, these solutions always admit a $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb{R})$ symmetry group.
A new holographic duality named Kerr/CFT correspondence was recently proposed to derive the statistical entropy of four-dimensional extremal Kerr black holes via identifying the quantum states in the near-horizon region with those of two-dimensional conformal field theory living on the boundary. In this paper, we apply this method to investigate five-dimensional extremal Kerr and Cvetič-Youm black holes with squashed horizons in different coordinates and find that the near-horizon geometries are not affected by the squashing transformation. Our investigation shows that the microscopic entropie…
We study the near horizon geometry of extremal black holes in five dimensional gauged supergravity using Sen's entropy function formalism. Special attention is paid to the large black hole limit where the near horizon solution exhibits a universal dependence on the rotation. The physical properties of the large black hole solution are shown to agree with predictions from fluid mechanical description of the dual conformal field theory.
We study the displacement memory effect and its connection with the extended-BMS symmetries near the horizon of black holes. We show there is a permanent shift in the geodesic deviation vector relating two nearby timelike geodesics placed close to the horizon of black holes, upon the passage of gravitational waves. We also relate this memory effect with the asymptotic symmetries near the horizon of asymptotic black hole spacetimes. The shift of the relative position of the detectors is shown to be induced by a combination of BMS generators near the horizon. The displacement memory effect near …
Rotating maximal black holes in four-dimensional de Sitter space, for which the outer event horizon coincides with the cosmological horizon, have an infinite near-horizon region described by the rotating Nariai metric. We show that the asymptotic symmetry group at the spacelike future boundary of the near-horizon region contains a Virasoro algebra with a real, positive central charge. This is evidence that quantum gravity in a rotating Nariai background is dual to a two-dimensional Euclidean conformal field theory. These results are related to the Kerr/CFT correspondence for extremal black hol…
We compute the physical charges and discuss the properties of a large class of five-dimensional extremal AdS black holes by using the near horizon data. Our examples include baryonic and electromagnetic black branes, as well as supersymmetric spinning black holes. In the presence of the gauge Chern-Simons term, the five-dimensional physical charges are the Page charges. We carry out the near horizon analysis and compute the four-dimensional charges of the corresponding black holes by using the entropy function formalism and show that they match the Page charges.
EVH black holes are Extremal black holes with Vanishing Horizon area, where vanishing of horizon area is a result of having a vanishing one-cycle on the horizon. We prove three theorems regarding near horizon geometry of EVH black hole solutions to generic Einstein gravity theories in diverse dimensions. These generic gravity theories are Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton-Lambda theories, and gauged or ungauged supergravity theories with U(1) Maxwell fields. Our three theorems are: (1) The near horizon geometry of any EVH black hole has a three dimensional maximally symmetric subspace. (2) If the energ…
It is demonstrated that the near-horizon geometry of general non-extremal black holes can be described by a portion of AdS space. We show that the reason why hidden conformal symmetries near horizons of general non-extremal black holes are achieved in previous works is that the near-horizon geometries have been equivalently taken as these AdS segments rather than simply the Rindler space.
We consider families of charged rotating asymptotically AdS5 Extremal black holes with Vanishing Horizon (EVH black holes) whose near horizon geometries develop locally AdS3 throats. Using the AdS3/CFT2 duality, we propose an EVH/CFT2 correspondence to describe the near-horizon low energy IR dynamics of near-EVH black holes involving a specific large N limit of the 4d N = 4 SYM. We give a map between the UV and IR near-EVH excitations, showing that the UV first law of thermodynamics reduces to the IR first law satisfied by the near horizon BTZ black holes in this near-EVH limit. We also discus…
We report on recent advances in the study of critical points of the ``black hole effective potential'' V_{BH} (usually named \textit{attractors}) of N=2, d=4 supergravity coupled to n_{V} Abelian vector multiplets, in an asymptotically flat extremal black hole background described by 2n_{V}+2 dyonic charges and (complex) scalar fields which are coordinates of an n_{V}-dimensional Special Kahler manifold.
We discuss the two-dimensional (2D), $ε<2$ extremal ground states of charged black hole. Here $ε$ is the dilaton coupling parameter for the Maxwell term. The complete analysis of stability is carried out for all these extremal black holes. It is found that they are all unstable. To understand this instability, we study the non-extremal charged black hole with two (inner and outer) horizons. The extremal black holes appear when two horizons coalesce. It conjectures that the instability originates from the inner horizon.
In this paper, we examine the emergence of conserved charges on the horizon of a particular class of extremal non-dilatonic black $p$-branes (which reduce to extremal dilatonic black holes in $D=4$ dimensions upon toroidal compactification) in the presence of a probe massless scalar field in the bulk. This result is achieved by writing the black $p$-brane geometry in a Gaussian null coordinate system which allows us to get a non-singular near-horizon geometry description. We find that the near-horizon geometry is $AdS_{p+2}\times S^2$ and that the $AdS_{p+2}$ section has an internal structure …
We discuss how long strings can arise at the stretched horizon and how they can account for the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. We use the thermal scalar field theory to derive the asymptotic density of states and corresponding stress tensor of a microcanonical long string gas in Rindler space. We show that the equality of the Hagedorn and Hawking temperatures gives rise to the tree-level entropy of large black holes in accordance with the Bekenstein-Hawking-Wald formula.
Toward the Kerr/CFT correspondence for generic non-extremal Kerr black hole, the analysis of scattering amplitudes by near extremal Kerr provides a clue. This pursuit reveals a hidden conformal symmetry in the law frequency wave equation for a scalar field in a certain spacetime region referred to as the near region. For extremal case, the near region is expected to be the near horizon region in which the correspondence via the asymptotic symmetry is studied. We investigate the hidden conformal symmetry in the near horizon limit and consider the relation between the hidden conformal symmetry a…
We compute holographic complexity of charged black brane solutions in arbitrary dimensions for the near horizon limit of near extremal case using two different methods. The corresponding complexity may be obtained either by taking the limit from the complexity of the charged black brane, or by computing the complexity for near horizon limit of near extremal solution. One observes that these results coincide if one assumes to have a cutoff behind horizon whose value is fixed by UV cutoff and also taking into account a proper counterterm evaluated on this cutoff. We also consider the situation f…
The interior near the horizon of an extremal Reissner-Nordström black hole is taken as an initial state for quantum mechanical tunneling. An instanton is presented that connects this state with a final state describing the presence of several horizons. This is interpreted as a WKB description of fluctuations due to the throat splitting into several components.
Two derivative Jackiw Teitelboim gravity theory captures the near horizon dynamics of higher dimensional near extremal black holes, which is governed by a Schwarzian action at the boundary in the near horizon region. The partition function corresponding to this boundary action correctly gives the statistical entropy of the near extremal black hole. In this paper, we study the thermodynamics of spherically symmetric four dimensional near extremal black holes in presence of arbitrary perturbative four derivative corrections. We find that the near horizon dynamics is again captured by a JT like a…
We study the thermodynamics of near horizon near extremal Kerr (NHNEK) geometry within the framework of $AdS_2/CFT_1$ correspondence. We start by shifting the horizon of near horizon extremal Kerr (NHEK) geometry by a general finite mass. While this shift does not alter the geometry in that the resulting classical solution is still diffeomorphic to the NHEK solution, it does lead to a quantum theory different from that of NHEK. We obtain this quantum theory by means of a Robinson-Wilczek two-dimensional Kaluza-Klein reduction which enables us to introduce a finite regulator on the $AdS_2$ boun…
We classify all pseudo-supersymmetric extremal near-horizon geometries in minimal five-dimensional de-Sitter supergravity. It is shown that the only such near-horizon geometry is the near-horizon geometry of the de-Sitter BMPV solution, and hence there are no regular extremal pseudo-supersymmetric asymptotically de-Sitter black rings.
The near-horizon limit of the extremal (weakly) isolated horizon is obtained under the Bondi-like coordinates. For the vacuum case, explicit coordinate transformation relating the near-horizon metric under the Bondi-like coordinates and the standard Poincaré-type or global near-horizon metric of the extremal Kerr black hole is found, which shows that the two geometries are the same. Combined with the known thermodynamics of the (weakly) isolated horizon, it is argued that the Kerr/CFT correspondence can be generalized to the case of a large class of non-stationary extremal black holes.
Well-known results demonstrate the uniqueness of extremal isolated horizons (equivalently near-horizon spacetimes) in (3+1)-dimensions. This paper briefly reviews some of these results and then explicitly constructs families of non-asymptotically flat, non-spherically symmetric spacetimes that nevertheless contain spherically symmetric extremal horizons that are isomorphic to those found in Reissner-Nordstrom spacetimes.
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…
Using the blackfold effective theory applied to extremal Kerr branes we provide evidence for the existence of new stationary extremal black hole solutions in asymptotically flat spacetime with both single and multiple disconnected horizons. These include extremal doubly-spinning black rings, black saturns, di-rings and bi-rings in five spacetime dimensions as well as extremal Myers-Perry black holes and black saturns in dimensions greater than five. Some of these constructions constitute the first examples of black hole solutions with extremal disconnected horizons in vacuum Einstein gravity.
We discuss BMS supertranslations both at null-infinity and on the horizon for the case of the Schwarzschild black hole. We show that both kinds of supertranslations lead to infinetly many gapless physical excitations. On this basis we construct a quotient algebra using suited superpositions of both kinds of transformations which cannot be compensated by an ordinary BMS-supertranslation and therefore are intrinsically due to the presence of an event horizon. We show that these quotient transformations are physical and generate gapless excitations on the horizon that can account for the gravitat…
We consider the near-horizon geometries of extremal, rotating black hole solutions of the vacuum Einstein equations, including a negative cosmological constant, in four and five dimensions. We assume the existence of one rotational symmetry in 4d, two commuting rotational symmetries in 5d and in both cases non-toroidal horizon topology. In 4d we determine the most general near-horizon geometry of such a black hole, and prove it is the same as the near-horizon limit of the extremal Kerr-AdS(4) black hole. In 5d, without a cosmological constant, we determine all possible near-horizon geometries …
We consider stationary extremal black hole solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell equations with a negative cosmological constant in four dimensions. We determine all non-static axisymmetric near-horizon geometries (with non-toroidal horizon topology) and all static near-horizon geometries for black holes of this kind. This allows us to deduce that the most general near-horizon geometry of an asymptotically globally AdS(4) rotating extremal black hole, is the near-horizon limit of extremal Kerr-Newman-AdS(4). We also identify the subset of near-horizon geometries which are supersymmetric. Finally, …
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 show that the horizon instability of the extremal Kerr black hole is associated with a singular branch point in the Green function at the superradiant bound frequency. We study generic initial data supported away from the horizon and find an enhanced growth rate due to nonaxisymmetric modes. The growth is controlled by the conformal weight of each mode. We speculate on connections to near-extremal black holes and holographic duality.
We examine the evolution of extremal spherically symmetric black holes, developing both general theory as well as the specific cases of (charged) null dust and massless scalar field spacetimes. As matter accretes onto extremal marginally trapped tubes, they generically evolve to become non-extremal with the initial extremal horizon bifurcating into inner and outer non-extremal horizons. At the start of this process arbitrarily slow matter accretion can cause a geometrically invariant measure of horizon growth to jump from zero to infinity. We also consider dynamical horizons that are extremal …
It has been shown that extremal Kerr black holes can be used as particle accelerators and arbitrarily high energy may be obtained near the event horizon. We study particle collisions near the event horizon (outer horizon) and Cauchy horizon (inner horizon) of a non-extremal Kerr black hole. Firstly, we provide a general proof showing that particles cannot collide with arbitrarily high energies at the outter horizon. Secondly, we show that ultraenergetic collisions can occur near the inner horizon of a Kerr black hole with any spin parameter $a$.
Any spacetime containing a degenerate Killing horizon, such as an extremal black hole, possesses a well-defined notion of a near-horizon geometry. We review such near-horizon geometry solutions in a variety of dimensions and theories in a unified manner. We discuss various general results including horizon topology and near-horizon symmetry enhancement. We also discuss the status of the classification of near-horizon geometries in theories ranging from vacuum gravity to Einstein-Maxwell theory and supergravity theories. Finally, we discuss applications to the classification of extremal black h…
We investigate the separability of Klein-Gordon equation on near horizon of d-dimensional rotating Myers-Perry black hole in two limits : 1) generic extremal case and 2) extremal vanishing horizon case. In the first case , there is a relation between the mass and rotation parameters so that black hole temperature vanishes. In the latter case, one of the rotation parameters is restricted to zero on top of the extremality condition. We show that the Klein-Gordon equation is separable in both cases. Also, we solved the radial part of that equation and discuss its behaviour in small and large r re…
It has been shown in the literature that the event horizon of an extremal asymptotically flat Reissner-Nordstrom black hole is also a stable photon sphere. We further clarify this statement and give a general proof that this holds for a large class of static spherically symmetric black hole spacetimes with an extremal horizon. In contrast, in the Doran frame, an extremal asymptotically flat Kerr black hole has an unstable photon orbit on the equatorial plane of its horizon. In addition, we show that an extremal asymptotically flat Kerr-Newman black hole exhibits two equatorial photon orbits if…
We study all transverse deformations of the extremal Reissner-Nordström-(A)dS horizon in the Einstein-Maxwell theory. No symmetry assumptions are needed. It is shown that for the generic values of the charge, the only allowed deformation is spherically symmetric. However, it is shown that for fine-tuned values of a charge, the space of deformations is larger, yet still finite-dimensional.
We consider AdS gravity duals to CFT on background spacetimes with a null infinity. Null infinity on the conformal boundary may extend to an extremal horizon in the bulk. For example it does so for Poincare-AdS, although does not for planar Schwarzschild-AdS. If null infinity does extend into an extremal horizon in the bulk, we show that the bulk near-horizon geometry is determined by the geometry of the boundary null infinity. Hence the `infra-red' geometry of the bulk is fixed by the large scale behaviour of the CFT spacetime. In addition the boundary stress tensor must have a particular dec…
Using a unified approach we study the entropy of extremal black holes through the entropy of an electrically charged thin shell. We encounter three cases in which a shell can be taken to its own gravitational or horizon radius and become an extremal spacetime. In case 1, we use a non extremal shell, calculate all the thermodynamics quantities including the entropy, take it to the horizon radius, and then take the extremal limit. In case 2, we take the extremal limit and the horizon radius limit simultaneously, i.e., as the shell approaches its horizon radius it also approaches extremality. In …
