arXiv subjects

Francesco Del Porro

Publications and source records attributed to Francesco Del Porro.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Gravitational quantum friction and the information-loss problem

We study the gravitational collapse of a shell, modeled as a coherent state of quantum matter. Without adding any physics beyond semiclassical gravity, we show that the universal gravitational coupling between matter and geometry induces an interaction between the shell and the negative-frequency modes present in the $|in \rangle$ vacuum state. We find that this interaction occurs unavoidably immediately after a trapping horizon forms, making it a universal feature of semiclassical gravitational collapse. The resulting transfer of energy from the collapsing matter to outgoing Hawking radiation acts as a \textit{gravitational quantum friction}, opposing the formation of trapped regions while simultaneously imprinting the information carried by the collapsing matter onto the emitted quanta. We discuss the implications of this mechanism for the black hole information-loss problem and speculate about the possible endpoints of collapse, potentially preventing horizon and singularity formation.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Impact of quantum gravity on the UV sensitivity of extremal black holes

Recent work has revealed that extremal Kerr black holes may exhibit a sensitivity to higher-derivative corrections to Einstein's equations, displaying singularities in the tidal forces at the horizon. However, in a purely gravitational context, this "ultraviolet sensitivity" translates into a strong dependence on the Wilson coefficients in the low-energy effective field theory. These, in turn, are fixed by the underlying theory of quantum gravity in the ultraviolet. We find a prediction for these coefficients within the framework of asymptotically safe quantum gravity, and show that, if the quantum gravity scale is trans-Planckian, this horizon-scale ultraviolet sensitivity is avoided.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

Hawking radiation with dispersion: reconciling the Bogoliubov and tunneling approaches

We investigate Hawking-like particle production in analogue gravity systems with superluminal modified dispersion relations. For a broad class of even, convex, and polynomially bounded dispersion relations, we show that the relevant outgoing modes are governed by an effective horizon induced by dispersive propagation. Extending the near-horizon S-matrix method beyond the purely sonic regime, we compute the Bogoliubov coefficients and demonstrate that, in the low-energy and adiabatic limits, they agree with the tunneling result obtained from the approximant ray. In both cases, the emission spectrum is controlled by an effective surface gravity associated to the effective horizon, leading to controlled deviations from exact thermality. Our results establish an analytical connection between the Bogoliubov and tunneling descriptions in dispersive settings and clarify the conditions under which Hawking radiation remains robust against ultraviolet modifications, with implications extending beyond analogue gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Mechanics of non-Killing horizons

We investigate the mechanics of stationary axisymmetric non-Killing horizons, which emerge in spacetimes that do not enjoy the symmetry known as circularity -- as is commonly the case for rotating black holes beyond general relativity. Specifically, we define and compute three notions of surface gravity: inaffinity, normal, and peeling; and find that the inaffinity and normal definitions generically differ, while the normal and peeling definitions always agree, although none of them is constant over the horizon. We then derive a version of Smarr's formula, which appears to involve an average over the horizon of the normal surface gravity. We also compute, via the tunnelling method, the spectrum of Hawking's radiation, verifying that its temperature is controlled by the (non-constant) peeling surface gravity. Finally, we recapitulate the status of the four laws of black hole mechanics in situations in which the event horizon fails to be Killing. Our results thus pave the way to a deeper understanding of black hole thermodynamics beyond general relativity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Universal Horizons without Hypersurface Orthogonality

A key consequence of Lorentz-violating gravity is the emergence of modified dispersion relations implying the absence of a universal maximum propagation speed. This challenges the conventional notion of the event horizon as a causal boundary common to all degrees of freedom. However, certain solutions in these theories exhibit \emph{universal horizons} -- surfaces capable of trapping signals of arbitrarily high speed, thereby restoring the notion of black hole. Previous studies have extensively characterised universal horizons in settings where Lorentz violation is encoded via a hypersurface-orthogonal æther. In this work, we explore the possibility of extending this concept to more general cases where hypersurface orthogonality is relaxed. To do so, we construct a candidate trapping surface and analyse its causal properties using a general model for Lorentz-violating matter. We find that, in addition to the standard conditions associated to universal horizons, a local vanishing of the æther's twist is also necessary. We then provide an explicit example of such a universal horizon by suitably deforming the æther flow in a stealth Kerr solution recently found in Einstein--æther theory. Moreover, we analyse the behaviour of trajectories which are not analytical at the universal horizon and discuss the implications of our findings for Hawking radiation. While our analysis is motivated by Einstein-æ{t}her gravity, our results apply to broader classes of Lorentz-violating theories, further supporting the relevance of black hole phenomenology in these frameworks.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Charting GLOBs in Asymptotically Safe Gravity

Computing the gravitational effective action provides a direct route to charting the landscape of admissible black hole spacetimes and their alternatives, which we will collectively call "gravitationally localized objects" (GLOBs). In this work, we provide a proof of principle of this idea within the framework of asymptotically safe gravity. Focusing on the Einstein-Weyl truncation, we identify the unique ultraviolet-complete trajectory emanating from the asymptotically safe fixed point and use it to extract the Wilson coefficient of the Weyl-squared term. This allows us to chart the corresponding GLOBs in a "phase diagram", showing that wormholes dominate a large portion of it, whereas the classical Bachian naked singularities become disfavored. Our results illustrate how quantum gravity can constrain effective field theory and the associated set of allowed spacetimes, yielding a rich landscape of beyond-general-relativity solutions rather than a single alternative to classical black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Towards a Non-singular Paradigm of Black Hole Physics

The study of regular black holes and black hole mimickers as alternatives to standard black holes has recently gained significant attention, driven both by the need to extend general relativity to describe black hole interiors, and by recent advances in observational technologies. Despite considerable progress in this field, significant challenges remain in identifying and characterizing physically well-motivated classes of regular black holes and black hole mimickers. This report provides an overview of these challenges, and outlines some of the promising research directions -- as discussed during a week-long focus programme held at the Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IFPU) in Trieste from November 11th to 15th, 2024.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Tunneling method for Hawking quanta in analogue gravity

Analogue Hawking radiation from acoustic horizons is now a well-established phenomenon, both theoretically and experimentally. Its persistence, despite the modified dispersion relations characterising analogue models, has been crucial in advancing our understanding of the robustness of this phenomenon against ultraviolet modifications of our spacetime description. However, previous theoretical approaches, such as the Bogoliubov transformation relating asymptotic states, have somewhat lacked a straightforward physical intuition regarding the origin of this robustness and its limits of applicability. To address this, we revisit analogue Hawking radiation using the tunneling method. We present a unified treatment that allows us to consider flows with and without acoustic horizons and with superluminal or subluminal dispersion relations. This approach clarifies the fundamental mechanism behind the resilience of Hawking radiation in these settings and explains the puzzling occurrence of excitations even in subcritical (supercritical) flows with subluminal (superluminal) dispersion relations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Time Orientability and Particle Production from Universal Horizons

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 stationary and spherically symmetric spacetimes. We particularize our result to known analytic solutions, including those compatible with observational constraints.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Gravity in $d=2+ε$ dimensions and realizations of the diffeomorphisms group

We discuss two distinct realizations of the diffeomorphism group for metric gravity, which give rise to theories that are classically equivalent, but quantum mechanically distinct. We renormalize them in $d=2+ε$ dimensions, developing a new procedure for dimensional continuation of metric theories and highlighting connections with the constructions that previously appeared in the literature. Our hope is to frame candidates ultraviolet completions of quantum gravity in $d>2$ and give some perturbative mean to assess its existence in $d=4$, but also to speculate on some potential obstructions in the continuation of such candidates to finite values of $ε$. Our results suggest the presence of a conformal window in $d$ which seems to extend to values higher than four.

hep-th↗