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Alex Giacomini

Publications and source records attributed to Alex Giacomini.

53 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2012

Black Holes with Primary Hair in gauged N=8 Supergravity

In this paper, we analyze the static solutions for the $U(1)^{4}$ consistent truncation of the maximally supersymmetric gauged supergravity in four dimensions. Using a new parametrization of the known solutions it is shown that for fixed charges there exist three possible black hole configurations according to the pattern of symmetry breaking of the (scalars sector of the) Lagrangian. Namely a black hole without scalar fields, a black hole with a primary hair and a black hole with a secondary hair respectively. This is the first, exact, example of a black hole with a primary scalar hair, where both the black hole and the scalar fields are regular on and outside the horizon. The configurations with secondary and primary hair can be interpreted as a spontaneous symmetry breaking of discrete permutation and reflection symmetries of the action. It is shown that there exist a triple point in the thermodynamic phase space where the three solution coexist. The corresponding phase transitions are discussed and the free energies are written explicitly as function of the thermodynamic coordinates in the uncharged case. In the charged case the free energies of the primary hair and the hairless black hole are also given as functions of the thermodynamic coordinates.

hep-th↗
arXiv2011

Gribov pendulum in the Coulomb gauge on curved spaces

In this paper the generalization of the Gribov pendulum equation in the Coulomb gauge for curved spacetimes is analyzed on static spherically symmetric backgrounds. A rigorous argument for the existence and uniqueness of solution is provided in the asymptotically AdS case. The analysis of the strong and weak boundary conditions is equivalent to analyzing an effective one-dimensional Schrodinger equation. Necessary conditions in order for spherically symmetric backgrounds to admit solutions of the Gribov pendulum equation representing copies of the vacuum satisfying the strong boundary conditions are given. It is shown that asymptotically flat backgrounds do not support solutions of the Gribov pendulum equation of this type, while on asymptotically AdS backgrounds such ambiguities can appear. Some physical consequences are discussed.

hep-th↗
arXiv2011

Black holes with gravitational hair in higher dimensions

A new class of vacuum black holes for the most general gravity theory leading to second order field equations in the metric in even dimensions is presented. These space-times are locally AdS in the asymptotic region, and are characterized by a continuous parameter that does not enter in the conserve charges, nor it can be reabsorbed by a coordinate transformation: it is therefore a purely gravitational hair. The black holes are constructed as a warped product of a two-dimensional space-time, which resembles the r-t plane of the BTZ black hole, times a warp factor multiplying the metric of a D-2-dimensional Euclidean base manifold, which is restricted by a scalar equation. It is shown that all the Noether charges vanish. Furthermore, this is consistent with the Euclidean action approach: even though the black hole has a finite temperature, both the entropy and the mass vanish. Interesting examples of base manifolds are given in eight dimensions which are products of Thurston geometries, giving then a nontrivial topology to the black hole horizon. The possibility of introducing a torsional hair for these solutions is also discussed.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

Gribov ambiguity in asymptotically AdS three-dimensional gravity

In this paper the zero modes of the de Donder gauge Faddeev-Popov operator for three dimensional gravity with negative cosmological constant are analyzed. It is found that the three dimensional AdS vacuum produces (infinitely many) normalizable, smooth zero modes of the Faddeev-Popov operator. On the other hand, it is found that the BTZ black hole (including the zero mass black hole) does not generate zero modes. This differs from the usual Gribov problem in QCD where close to the maximally symmetric vacuum, the Faddeev-Popov determinant is positive definite while "far enough" from the vacuum it can vanish. This suggests that the zero mass BTZ black hole could be a suitable ground state of three dimensional gravity with negative cosmological constant. Due to the kinematic origin of this result, it also applies for other covariant gravity theories in three dimensions with AdS_3 as maximally symmetric solution, such as new massive gravity and topologically massive gravity. The relevance of these results for SUSY breaking is pointed out.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

Gravitationally induced zero modes of the Faddeev-Popov operator in the Coulomb gauge for Abelian gauge theories

It is shown that on curved backgrounds, the Coulomb gauge Faddeev-Popov operator can have zero modes even in the abelian case. These zero modes cannot be eliminated by restricting the path integral over a certain region in the space of gauge potentials. The conditions for the existence of these zero modes are studied for static spherically symmetric spacetimes in arbitrary dimensions. For this class of metrics, the general analytic expression of the metric components in terms of the zero modes is constructed. Such expression allows to find the asymptotic behavior of background metrics, which induce zero modes in the Coulomb gauge, an interesting example being the three dimensional Anti de-Sitter spacetime. Some of the implications for quantum field theory on curved spacetimes are discussed.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

BTZ-like black holes in even dimensional Lovelock theories

In the present paper, a new class of black hole solutions is constructed in even dimensional Lovelock Born-Infeld theory. These solutions are interesting since, in some respects, they are closer to black hole solutions of an odd dimensional Lovelock Chern-Simons theory than to the more usual black hole solutions in even dimensions. This hybrid behavior arises when non-Einstein base manifolds are considered. The entropies of these solutions have been analyzed using Wald formalism. These metrics exhibit a quite non-trivial behavior. Their entropies can change sign and can even be identically zero depending on the geometry of the corresponding base manifolds. Therefore, the request of thermodynamical stability constrains the geometry of the non-Einstein base manifolds. It will be shown that some of these solutions can support non-vanishing torsion. Eventually, the possibility to define a sort of topological charge associated with torsion will be discussed.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2009

Kaluza-Klein theory in the limit of large number of extra dimensions

The Kaluza-Klein compactification in the limit of large number of extra dimensions is studied. Starting point is the Einstein-Hilbert action plus cosmological constant in 4+D dimensions. It is shown that in the large D limit the effective four dimensional cosmological constant is of order 1/D whereas the size of the extra dimensions remains finite. A 't Hooft like large D expansion of the effective Lagrangian for the Kaluza-Klein scalar and gauge fields arising from the dimensional reduction is considered. It is shown that the propagator of the scalar field associated to the determinant of the metric of the extra dimensions is strongly suppressed. This is an interesting result as in standard Kaluza-Klein theory this scalar degree of freedom is responsible for the constraint on the gauge fields which makes it impossible to recover the usual Yang-Mills equations. Moreover in the large D limit it turns out that the ultraviolet divergences due to the interactions between gauge and scalar fields are softened.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2009

General Relativity with small cosmological constant from spontaneous compactification of Lovelock theory in vacuum

It is shown that Einstein gravity in four dimensions with small cosmological constant and small extra dimensions can be obtained by spontaneous compactification of Lovelock gravity in vacuum. Assuming that the extra dimensions are compact spaces of constant curvature, General Relativity is recovered within certain class of Lovelock theories possessing necessarily cubic or higher order terms in curvature. This bounds the higher dimension to be at least seven. Remarkably, the effective gauge coupling and Newton constant in four dimensions are not proportional to the gravitational constant in higher dimensions, but shifted with respect to their standard values. This effect opens up new scenarios where a maximally symmetric solution in higher dimensions could decay into the compactified spacetime either by tunneling or through a gravitational analogue of ghost condensation. Indeed, this is what occurs requiring both the extra dimensions and the four-dimensional cosmological constant to be small.

hep-th↗
arXiv2008

Vacuum static compactified wormholes in eight-dimensional Lovelock theory

In this paper new exact solutions in eight dimensional Lovelock theory will be presented. These solutions are vacuum static wormhole, black hole and generalized Bertotti-Robinson space-times with nontrivial torsion. All the solutions have a cross product structure of the type $M_{5}\times Σ_{3} $ where $M_{5}$ is a five dimensional manifold and $Σ_{3}$ a compact constant curvature manifold. The wormhole is the first example of a smooth vacuum static Lovelock wormhole which is neither Chern-Simons nor Born-Infeld. It will be also discussed how the presence of torsion affects the "navigableness" of the wormhole for scalar and spinning particles. It will be shown that the wormhole with torsion may act as "geometrical filter": a very large torsion may "increase the traversability" for scalars while acting as a "polarizator" on spinning particles. This may have interesting phenomenological consequences.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Black holes, parallelizable horizons and half-BPS states for the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in five dimensions

Exact vacuum solutions with a nontrivial torsion for the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in five dimensions are constructed. We consider a class of static metrics whose spacelike section is a warped product of the real line with a nontrivial base manifold endowed with a fully antisymmetric torsion. It is shown requiring solutions of this sort to exist, fixes the Gauss-Bonnet coupling such that the Lagrangian can be written as a Chern-Simons form. The metric describes black holes with an arbitrary, but fixed, base manifold. It is shown that requiring its ground state to possess unbroken supersymmetries, fixes the base manifold to be locally a parallelized three-sphere. The ground state turns out to be half-BPS, which could not be achieved in the absence of torsion in vacuum. The Killing spinors are explicitly found.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Three-dimensional supergravity reloaded

The locally supersymmetric extension of the most general gravity theory in three dimensions leading to first order field equations for the vielbein and the spin connection is constructed. Apart from the Einstein-Hilbert term with cosmological constant, the gravitational sector contains the Lorentz-Chern-Simons form and a term involving the torsion each with arbitrary couplings. The supersymmetric extension is carried out for vanishing and negative effective cosmological constant, and it is shown that the action can be written as a Chern-Simons theory for the supersymmetric extension of the Poincare and AdS groups, respectively. The construction can be simply carried out by making use of a duality map between different gravity theories discussed here, which relies on the different ways to make geometry emerge from a single gauge potential. The extension for N =p+q gravitini is also performed.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Chern-Simons formulation of three-dimensional gravity with torsion and nonmetricity

We consider various models of three-dimensional gravity with torsion or nonmetricity (metric affine gravity), and show that they can be written as Chern-Simons theories with suitable gauge groups. Using the groups ISO(2,1), SL(2,C) or SL(2,R) x SL(2,R), and the fact that they admit two independent coupling constants, we obtain the Mielke-Baekler model for zero, positive or negative effective cosmological constant respectively. Choosing SO(3,2) as gauge group, one gets a generalization of conformal gravity that has zero torsion and only the trace part of the nonmetricity. This characterizes a Weyl structure. Finally, we present a new topological model of metric affine gravity in three dimensions arising from an SL(4,R) Chern-Simons theory.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

Junction conditions in General Relativity with spin sources

The junction conditions for General Relativity in the presence of domain walls with intrinsic spin are derived in three and higher dimensions. A stress tensor and a spin current can be defined just by requiring the existence of a well defined volume element instead of an induced metric, so as to allow for generic torsion sources. In general, when the torsion is localized on the domain wall, it is necessary to relax the continuity of the tangential components of the vielbein. In fact it is found that the spin current is proportional to the jump in the vielbein and the stress-energy tensor is proportional to the jump in the spin connection. The consistency of the junction conditions implies a constraint between the direction of flow of energy and the orientation of the spin. As an application, we derive the circularly symmetric solutions for both the rotating string with tension and the spinning dust string in three dimensions. The rotating string with tension generates a rotating truncated cone outside and a flat space-time with inevitable frame dragging inside. In the case of a string made of spinning dust, in opposition to the previous case no frame dragging is present inside, so that in this sense, the dragging effect can be "shielded" by considering spinning instead of rotating sources. Both solutions are consistently lifted as cylinders in the four-dimensional case.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2004

Poisson Algebra of Diffeomorphism Generators in a Spacetime Containing a Bifurcation

In this article we will analyze the possibility of a nontrivial central extension of the Poisson algebra of the diffeomorphism generators, which respect certain boundary conditions on the black hole bifurcation. The origin of a possible central extension in the algebra is due to the existence of boundary terms in the in the canonical generators. The existence of such boundary terms depend on the exact boundary conditions one takes. We will check two possible boundary conditions i.e. fixed bolt metric and fixed surface gravity. In the case of fixed metric the the action acquires a boundary term associated to the bifurcation but this is canceled in the Legendre transformation and so absent in the canonical generator and so in this case the possibility of a nontrivial central extension is ruled out. In the case of fixed surface gravity the boundary term in the action is absent but present in the Hamiltonian. Also in this case we will see that there is no nontrivial central extension, also if there exist a boundary term in the generator.

hep-th↗
arXiv2004

Description of Black Hole Microstates by Means of a Free Affine-Scalar Field

In this article we will investigate the origin of central extensions in the Poisson algebra of charges, which arise in the dimensionally reduced theories describing black holes. We will see that the equations of motion and constraints arising from the dimensionally reduced action involve two fields i.e. the dilaton and the conformal factor. This fields can be integrated by means of a free field. The transformation properties of this field are studied. It will be shown that in the near horizon approximation this field must transform like an affine scalar. The stress tensor that generates such affine transformations is the improved stress tensor. The second derivative term in the tensor is responsible for the central extension in the Poisson algebra. It is therefore the affine transformation property that is responsible for the arising of central charges The central charge can be used to compute the black hole entropy by means of the Cardy formula.

hep-th↗
arXiv2004

Two Dimensional Conformal Symmetry and the Microscopic Interpretation of Black Hole Entropy

In this thesis the research work, done by the author in the three years of his Ph.D. study, will be exposed. The role of two dimensional conformal field theories will be discussed. Different approaches will be studied in order to find a classical central charge in the Poisson algebra of the symmetry generators. In this way one can compute the black hole entropy using the Cardy formula. Being the central charge classical the computation is independent from a specific model of quantum theory of gravity. It will be shown eventually that the microscopic degrees of freedom of the black hole can be described by a free field and some considerations on a possible quantization of the theory will be made.

hep-th↗