arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to David A. Lowe.
It has been argued that the consistency of quantum theory with black hole physics requires nonlocality not present in ordinary effective field theory. We examine the extent to which such nonlocal effects show up in the perturbative S-matrix of string theory.
Orbifold techniques are used to study bosonic, type II and heterotic strings in Rindler space at integer multiples N of the Rindler temperature, and near a black hole horizon at integer multiples of the Hawking temperature, extending earlier results of Dabholkar. It is argued that a Hagedorn transition occurs nears the horizon for all N>1.
Conformal field theories corresponding to two-dimensional electrically charged black holes and to two-dimensional anti-de Sitter space with a covariantly constant electric field are simply constructed as $SL(2,R)/Z$ WZW coset models. The two-dimensional electrically charged black holes are related by Kaluza-Klein reduction to the 2+1-dimensional rotating black hole of Banados, Teitelboim and Zanelli, and our construction is correspondingly related to its realization as a WZW model. Four-dimensional spacetime solutions are obtained by tensoring these two-dimensional theories with $SU(2)/Z(m)$ coset models. These describe a family of dyonic black holes and the Bertotti--Robinson universe.
Withdrawn due to error. See D. Lowe, L. Susskind and J. Uglum, hep-th/9402136, for correct treatment. Apologies to all recipients.
Polyakov recently showed how to use conformal field theory to describe two-dimensional turbulence. Here we construct an infinite hierarchy of solutions, both for the constant enstrophy flux cascade, and the constant energy flux cascade. We conclude with some speculations concerning the stability and physical meaning of these solutions.
Black hole evaporation may lead to massive or massless remnants, or naked singularities. This paper investigates this process in the context of two quite different two dimensional black hole models. The first is the original CGHS model, the second is another two dimensional dilaton-gravity model, but with properties much closer to physics in the real, four dimensional, world. Numerical simulations are performed of the formation and subsequent evaporation of black holes and the results are found to agree qualitatively with the exactly solved modified CGHS models, namely that the semiclassical approximation breaks down just before a naked singularity appears.
We consider the S-matrix of c=1 Liouville theory with vanishing cosmological constant. We examine some of the constraints imposed by unitarity. These completely determine (N,2) amplitudes at tree level in terms of the (N,1) amplitudes when the plus tachyon momenta take generic values. A surprising feature of the matrix model results is the lack of particle creation branch cuts in the higher genus amplitudes. In fact, we show the naive field theory limit of Liouville theory would predict such branch cuts. However, unitarity in the full string theory ensures that such cuts do not appear in genus one (N,1) amplitudes. We conclude with some comments about the genus one (N,2) amplitudes.