General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)

Abstract: Emission of particles created in the background of a rotating black hole can be greatly amplified taking away rotational energy of a black hole. This amplification affects both particles created near the horizon (due to the Hawing effect), and particles created near the potential barrier far from the horizon. Only the latter effect is called the superradiance in the strict sense. We explicitly calculate the superradiant emission for scalar particles and compare it with the total scalar particle emission (Hawking radiation plus superradiance) to clarify some confusion in the literature. We clearly show that these two emissions are not the same. In particular, superradiance persists even for extremal black holes whose Hawking temperature is zero.

Abstract: The maximal values of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring (LT) orbital shifts $\Delta I^\mathrm{LT},\,\Delta\Omega^\mathrm{LT}$ and $\Delta\omega^\mathrm{LT}$ of the inclination $I$, the longitude of the ascending node $\Omega$ and the perinigricon $\omega$ of the recently discovered star S4716, which has the shortest orbital period $\left(P_\mathrm{b}=4.02\,\mathrm{yr}\right)$ of all the S-stars that orbit the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in Sgr A$^\ast$, are of the order of $\simeq 5-16$ arcseconds per revolution $\left(^{\prime\prime}\,\mathrm{rev}^{-1}\right)$. Given the current error $\sigma_\omega = 0.02^\circ$ in determining $\omega$, which is the most accurate orbital parameter of S4716 among all those affected by the SMBH's gravitomagnetic field through its angular momentum ${\boldsymbol{J}}_\bullet$, about 48 yr would be needed to reduce $\sigma_\omega$ to $\simeq 10\%$ of the cumulative LT perinigricon shift over the same time span. Measuring $\Delta I^\mathrm{LT}$ and $\Delta\Omega^\mathrm{LT}$ to the same level of accuracy would take even much longer. Instead, after just 16 yr, a per cent measurement of the larger gravitoelectric (GE) Schwarzschild-like perinigricon shift $\Delta\omega^\mathrm{GE}$, which depends only on the SMBH's mass $M_\bullet$, would be possible. On the other hand, the uncertainties in the physical and orbital parameters entering $\Delta\omega^\mathrm{GE}$ would cause a huge systematic bias of $\Delta\omega^\mathrm{LT}$ itself. The SMBH's quadrupole mass moment $Q_2^\bullet$ induces orbital shifts as little as $\simeq 0.01-0.05\,^{\prime\prime}\,\mathrm{rev}^{-1}$.

Abstract: In the last few decades, gravastars have been proposed as an alternative to black holes. The stability of the gravastar has been studied in many modified theories of gravity along with Einstein's GR. The $f(Q,T)$ gravity, a successfully modified theory of gravity for describing the current accelerated expansion of the Universe, has been used in this article to study gravastar in different aspects. According to Mazur and Mottola (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci 101, 9545 (2004)), it has three regions with three different equations of state. Here in this work, we have studied the interior of the gravastar by considering the $p=-\rho$ EoS to describe the dark sector for the interior region. The next region is a thin shell of ultrarelativistic stiff fluid, in which we have investigated several physical properties, viz., the proper length, energy, entropy, surface energy density, etc. In addition, we have studied the surface redshift and speed of sound to check the potential stability of our proposed thin-shell gravastar model. Apart from that, we have used the entropy maximization technique to verify the stability of the gravastar model. The gravastar's outer region is a complete vacuum described by exterior Schwarzschild geometry. Finally, we have presented a stable gravastar model which is singularity-free and devoid of any incompleteness in classical black hole theory.

Abstract: The tangent vector of the light trajectory at future infinity and the angle of total light deflection in the gravitational field of an isolated axisymmetric body at rest with full set of mass-multipoles and spin-multipoles is determined in harmonic coordinates in the 1PN and 1.5PN approximation of the post-Newtonian (PN) scheme. It is found that the evaluation of the tangent vector and of the angle of total light deflection caused by mass-multipoles and spin-multipoles leads directly and in a compelling way to Chebyshev polynomials of first and second kind, respectively. This fact allows to determine the upper limits of the total light deflection, which are strictly valid in the 1PN and 1.5PN approximation. They represent a criterion to identify those multipoles which contribute significantly to the total light deflection for a given astrometric accuracy. These upper limits are used to determine the total light deflection in the gravitational field of the Sun and giant planets of the solar system. It is found that the first few mass-multipoles with l \le 10 and the first few spin-multipoles with l \le 3 are sufficient for an accuracy on the nano-arcsecond level in astrometric angular measurements.

Abstract: It is common practice to take for granted the equality (up to the constant $\varepsilon_0$) of the electric displacement ($\bf{D}$) and electric ($\bf{E}$) field vectors in vacuum. The same happens with the magnetic field ($\bf{H}$) and the magnetic flux density ($\bf{B}$) vectors (up to the constant $\mu_0^{-1}$). The fact that gravity may change this by effectively inducing dielectric or magnetic responses to the primary fields is commonly overlooked. It is the purpose of this communication to call attention to classical polarization or magnetization of the vacuum due to the concomitant presence of gravitational and electromagnetic sources. The formalism of differential forms (exterior calculus) is used since it provides a clear-cut way to achieve this. This work offers new routes for possible detection of various spacetime geometries via their electromagnetic manifestations and the way they influence light propagation.

Abstract: A well-defined variational principle for gravitational actions typically requires to cancel boundary terms produced by the variation of the bulk action with a suitable set of boundary counterterms. This can be achieved by carefully balancing the coefficients multiplying the bulk operators with those multiplying the boundary ones. A typical example of this construction is the Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary action that needs to be added to the Einstein-Hilbert one in order to have a well-defined metric variation for General Relativity with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Quantum fluctuations of matter fields lead to the renormalization of said coefficients which may or may not preserve this balance. Indeed, already at the level of General Relativity, the resilience of the matching between bulk and boundary constants is far from obvious and it is anyway incomplete given that matter generically induces quadratic curvature operators. We investigate here the resilience of the matching of higher-order couplings upon renormalization by a non-minimally coupled scalar field and show that a problem is present. Even though we do not completely solve the latter, we show that it can be greatly ameliorated by a wise splitting between dynamical and topological contributions. Doing so, we find that the bulk-boundary matching is preserved up to a universal term whose nature and possible cancellation we shall discuss in the end.

Abstract: We prove that the intrinsic geometry of compact cross-sections of any vacuum extremal horizon must admit a Killing vector field. If the cross-sections are two-dimensional spheres, this implies that the most general solution is the extremal Kerr horizon and completes the classification of the associated near-horizon geometries. The same results hold with a cosmological constant. Furthermore, we also deduce that any non-trivial vacuum near-horizon geometry, with a non-positive cosmological constant, must have an SO(2,1) isometry in all dimensions under no symmetry assumptions. We also show that, if the cross-sections are two-dimensional, the horizon Einstein equation is equivalent to a single fourth order PDE for the K\"ahler potential, and that this equation is explicitly solvable on the sphere if the corresponding metric admits a Killing vector.

Abstract: This paper is devoted to investigating the nonlinear non-abelian Yang-Mills black holes. We consider three Born-Infeld, exponential, and logarithmic nonlinear Yang-Mills theories with $SO(n-1)$ and $SO(n-2,1)$ semi-simple groups, which n is the dimension of spacetime, and obtain a new class of nonlinear Yang-Mills (NYM) black hole solutions. Depending on the values of dimension $n$, Yang-Mills charge $e$ and the mass $m$ and nonlinear parameters $\beta$, our solutions can lead to a naked singularity, a black hole with two horizons, an extreme or a Schwarzschild-type black hole. We also investigate the thermodynamic behaviors of the NYM black holes. For small charge values, the NYM solutions may be thermally stable in the canonical ensemble, if we consider an AdS spacetime with spherical $k=+1$ and hyperbolic $k=-1$ coordinates or a flat one with $k=+1$. However, there are no stable regions in the grand canonical ensemble in higher dimensions. For the NYM black hole, we observe a reentrant phase transition between large and small black holes in the BI-branch with small $\beta$, which cannot be visible for the nonlinear Reissner-Nordstrom AdS black hole in the higher dimension. For the limit $\beta\rightarrow\infty$, the critical ratio $\frac{P_{c} v_{c}}{T_{c}}$ tends to the constant value $3/8$ for each dimension $n$, while it depends on the dimension for the case of nonlinear electrodynamics black holes.

Abstract: Recently, observational hints for supermassive black holes have been accumulating, which has inspired ones to wonder: Can primordial black holes (PBHs) be supermassive, in particular with the mass $M\gtrsim 10^{9}M_\odot$? A supercritical bubble (with an inflating baby universe inside it) that nucleated during inflation can develop into a PBH in our observable Universe. Here, we find that when the inflaton slowly passes by a neighboring vacuum, the nucleating rate of supercritical bubbles would inevitably attain a peak, so the mass distribution of multiverse PBHs, and the mass of peak can be up to $M\gtrsim 10^{11}M_\odot$. Thus our mechanism naturally provides a primordial origin of supermassive BHs.

Abstract: We present a formalism to discern the effects of fluctuations of the spacetime metric on electromagnetic radiation. The formalism works via the measurement of electromagnetic field correlations, while allowing a clear assessment of the assumptions involved. As an application of the formalism, we present a model of spacetime fluctuations that appear as random fluctuations of the refractive index of the vacuum in single, and two co-located Michelson interferometers. We compare an interferometric signal predicted using this model to experimental data from the Holometer and aLIGO. We show that if the signal manifests at a frequency at which the interferometers are sensitive, the strength and scale of possible spacetime fluctuations can be constrained. The formalism enables us to evaluate proposed experiments such as QUEST for constraining quantum spacetime fluctuations and to even potentially formulate new experiments.

Abstract: New physics beyond the Standard Model can give rise to stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds, for example through cosmic strings. In this way, gravitational-wave searches with pulsar-timing arrays as well as existing and future laser interferometers may provide information on particle physics beyond the Standard Model. Here, we take one additional step and link particle physics beyond the Standard Model to quantum gravity. We investigate whether particle physics models that may give rise to cosmic strings can be embedded into an asymptotically safe theory of quantum gravity and matter. We focus on models where cosmic strings arise from U(1)-symmetry-breaking in an extended Yukawa-Abelian-Higgs sector that may be part of a dark sector. We find a negative answer for the simplest model that can give rise to cosmic strings and also find constraints on an extended model. We tentatively conclude that cosmic strings are difficult to accommodate in asymptotically safe models. This fits well with the latest 15-year dataset and search for new physics from the NANOGrav collaboration, which disfavors a stable-cosmic-string interpretation. In that sense, the recent data provide an indirect, albeit at present rather tentative, hint about the quantum theory of gravity.

Abstract: It has been shown that both scalar and tensor modes with non-Bunch-Davies initial states can enhance the amplitudes of the primordial bispectra compared to those with the Bunch-Davies state, especially for wavenumber modes in a flattened triangle configuration. However, in the case of the non-Bunch-Davies scalar modes, it has also been found that those enhancements in Fourier space are somewhat reduced in bispectra of cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations. In this paper, we show that the enhancement resulting from the tensor modes is partially reduced to a degree differing from that of the scalar modes, which makes the non-Bunch-Davies effects unobservable in gravitational theories with the same quadratic and cubic operators of the tensor perturbations as general relativity. Furthermore, we present examples of gravitational theories yielding enhancements that would potentially be detected through CMB experiments.

Abstract: When an EMRI in a perturbed integrable gravitational field, such as a deformed Kerr black hole, undergoes a prolonged resonance, the frequencies that engage in resonance retain a fixed rational ratio, despite experiencing adiabatic changes due to radiation reaction. In the past this plateau effect in the evolution of the ratio of frequencies has been investigated by studying the orbital evolution through kludge models, which provide approximate average losses of energy and angular momentum experienced by a test particle in this field. By employing a Newtonian gravitational field that closely resembles a pure Kerr or a perturbed Kerr relativistic field, we demonstrate that the actual adiabatic evolution of an orbit driven by an artificial ``self-force'' results in more prolonged periods of resonance crossings compared to those obtained by imposing a predetermined rate of energy and angular momentum change throughout the orbital progression.

Abstract: Spatially homogeneous FLRW solutions constitute an infinite dimensional family of explicit solutions of the Einstein--massless Vlasov system with vanishing cosmological constant. Each member expands towards the future at a decelerated rate. These solutions are shown to be nonlinearly future stable to compactly supported spherically symmetric perturbations, in the case that the spatial topology is that of $\mathbb{R}^3$. The decay rates of the energy momentum tensor components, with respect to an appropriately normalised double null frame, are compared to those around Minkowski space. When measured with respect to their respective $t$ coordinates, certain components decay faster around Minkowski space, while others decay faster around FLRW.

Abstract: We define an \emph{entropy product function}~(EPF) for Taub-Newman-Unti-Tamburino~(TNUT) black hole~(BH) following the prescription suggested by Wu et al.~\cite{wu} ~[PRD 100, 101501(R) (2019)]. The prescription argues that a generic four-dimensional TNUT spacetime might be expressed in terms of three or four different types of thermodynamic hairs. They can be defined as the Komar mass~($M=m$), the angular momentum~($J_{n}=mn$), the gravitomagnetic charge ($N=n$), the dual~(magnetic) mass $(\tilde{M}=n)$. Taking this prescription and using the \emph{EPF}, we derive the \emph{central charges} of dual CFT~(conformal field theory) via Cardy's formula. Remarkably, we \emph{find} that for TNUT BH there exists a relation between the \emph{central charges and EPF} as $c=6\left(\frac{\partial {\cal F}}{\partial {\cal N}_{i}}\right)$, where ${\cal F}$ is EPF and ${\cal N}_{i}$ is one of the integer-valued charges i.e. the NUT charges~($N$) or any new conserved charges~($J_{N}$). We reverify these results by calculating the exact values of different thermodynamic parameters. We define the EPF~${\cal F}$ from the first law of thermodynamics of both horizons. Moreover, we write the first laws of both the horizons for left-moving and right-moving sectors. Introducing the B\'{e}zout's identity, we show that for TNUT BH one can generate more holographic descriptions described by a pair of integers $(a,b)$. More holographic pictures have a great significance in understanding the holographic nature of quantum gravity. Furthermore, using the \emph{EPF} we derive the central charges for Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m-NUT~(RNNUT) BH, Kerr-Taub-NUT~(KNUT) BH and Kerr-Newman-NUT~(KNNUT) BH. Finally, we prove that they are equal in both sectors provided that the EPF is mass-independent~(or universal).

Abstract: Recently, the NANOGrav, PPTA, EPTA and CPTA collaborations independently reported their evidence of the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB). While the inferred gravitational-wave background amplitude and spectrum are consistent with astrophysical expectations for a signal from the population of supermassive black-hole binaries (SMBHB), the search for new physics remains plausible in this observational window. In this work, we explore the possibility of explaining such a signal by the scalar-induced gravitational waves (IGWs) in the very early universe. We use a parameterized broken power-law function as a general description of the energy spectrum of the SGWB, and fit it to the newly released results of NANOGrav and PPTA. We find that this method can lead to tight limits on the parameter space of IGWs and further yield restrictions on various inflation models that may produce PBHs in the early universe, which is also expected to be examined by the forthcoming space-based GW experiments.

Abstract: In this work, we present novel analytical solutions for static and spherically symmetric wormhole geometries threaded by an anisotropic distribution of matter conformally coupled to a scalar ghost field. We explore the main features of the theory, such as the dynamics of the scalar field and matter throughout the wormhole, as well as the role played by the non-minimal coupling. Furthermore, coupled ghosts in the presence of a scalar potential are considered and traversability conditions are analysed within such geometrical scheme. More specifically, we find analytical solutions that although the energy density of the ghost is strictly negative, the energy density of matter may attain positive values.

Abstract: Recently, NANOGrav has reported the observation of a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) at nano-Hertz frequencies. String-wall networks and domain walls have been proposed as possible sources. To be cosmologically viable, these topological defect networks must annihilate before they dominate the energy budget of the universe, producing a SGWB. However, a part of the network can copiously produce primordial black holes that exceed current bounds. Performing a Bayesian analysis of pulsar timing residual datasets we find that the SGWB detected in PTA data is therefore hardly compatible with such an origin. This lends credibility to other interpretations, including supermassive black hole mergers, first order phase transitions, Nambu-Goto strings, and curvature-induced gravitational waves.

Abstract: High-accuracy gravitational-wave modeling demands going beyond linear, first-order perturbation theory. Particularly motivated by the need for second-order perturbative models of extreme-mass-ratio inspirals and black hole ringdowns, we present practical spherical-harmonic decompositions of the Einstein equation, Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli equations, and Teukolsky equation at second perturbative order in a Schwarzschild background. Our formulations are covariant on the $t$--$r$ plane and on the two-sphere, and we express the field equations in terms of gauge-invariant metric perturbations. In a companion \pkg{Mathematica} package, \pkg{PerturbationEquations}, we provide these invariant formulas as well as the analogous formulas in terms of raw, gauge-dependent metric perturbations. Our decomposition of the second-order Einstein equation, when specialized to the Lorenz gauge, was a key ingredient in recent second-order self-force calculations~[Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 021101 (2020); ibid. 127, 151102 (2021); ibid. 130, 241402 (2023)].

Abstract: We construct and dynamically evolve dipolar, self-interacting scalar boson stars in a model with sextic (+ quartic) self-interactions. The domain of existence of such dipolar $Q$-stars has a similar structure to that of the fundamental monopolar stars of the same model. For the latter it is structured in a Newtonian plus a relativistic branch, wherein perturbatively stable solutions exist, connected by a middle unstable branch. Our evolutions support similar dynamical properties of the dipolar $Q$-stars that: 1) in the Newtonian and relativistic branches are dynamically robust over time scales longer than those for which dipolar stars without self-interactions are seen to decay; 2) in the middle branch migrate to either the Newtonian or the relativistic branch; 3) beyond the relativistic branch decay to black holes. Overall, these results strengthen the observation, seen in other contexts, that self-interactions can mitigate dynamical instabilities of scalar boson star models.

Abstract: A quantum analysis of the vacuum Bianchi IX model is performed, focusing in particular on the chaotic nature of the system. The framework constructed here is general enough for the results to apply in the context of any theory of quantum gravity, since it includes only minimal approximations that make it possible to encode the information of all quantum degrees of freedom in the fluctuations of the usual anisotropy parameters. These fluctuations are described as canonical variables that extend the classical phase space. In this way, standard methods for dynamical systems can be applied to study the chaos of the model. Two specific methods are applied that are suitable for time-reparameterization invariant systems. First, a generalized version of the Misner-Chitre variables is constructed, which provides an isomorphism between the quantum Bianchi IX dynamics and the geodesic flow on a suitable Riemannian manifold, extending, in this way, the usual billiard picture. Secondly, the fractal dimension of the boundary between points with different outcomes in the space of initial data is numerically analyzed. While the quantum system remains chaotic, the main conclusion is that its strength is considerably diminished by quantum effects as compared to its classical counterpart.