arXiv subjects

M. Cvetic

Publications and source records attributed to M. Cvetic.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Higher Spin Mode Stability for STU Black Hole Backgrounds

This work studies mode stability of an STU black hole with four pairwise equal $\rm{U(1)}$ charges in four spacetime dimensions. We investigate bosonic perturbations for probe fields of different spins through the transformation technique devised by Whiting in 1989. Finally, we introduce connection relations inspired by the work of ~Duzta\c{s} (2016) to prove the absence of unstable modes that solve the torsion-modified Dirac equation appropriate for this black hole background.

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arXiv2023

Separability of Dirac equation in the STU black hole space-time: pairwise-equal charge case study

We study the separability of the Dirac equation for the four-dimensional STU black hole space-time. In particular, we analyze in detail the separability conditions in the pair-wise equal charge STU black hole space-time \cite{Cvetic_PRD96}. While in the latter case the minimally coupled Dirac equation is not separable the introduction of a specific torsion term ensures the separability. The source of the torsion is the Kalb-Ramond field, which is an integral part of String Theory, but further aspects of its properties and coupling to fermionic fields remain to be studied. To derive the torsion two different approaches are used in conformally related frames, showing that the torsion is not unique. The correspondingly modified Dirac equations in the Einstein and String frames are shown to be separable. Furthermore, the massless radial and angular wave-equations are examined, they show close similarity with corresponding equations for the standard Kerr background. A generalization of the Teukolsky equation for the pair-wise equal case is conjectured. We also briefly analyze a technically sophisticated radial equation in the massive case.

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arXiv2022

Mode Stability For Massless Scalars In Five-Dimensional Black Hole Backgrounds

The mode stability of the Kerr black hole in four dimensions was demonstrated by Whiting in 1989, by separating the Teukolsky equation that describes gravitational perturbations and then transforming the radial and angular equations in such a way that the problem can be reformulated as a wave equation in an auxiliary spacetime in which the proof of stability is greatly simplified, owing to the absence of an ergoregion. As a preliminary step towards extending these ideas to higher-dimensional black holes, we study the mode stability of the massless scalar wave equation in the five-dimensional black hole solutions of Einstein gravity and supergravity. We show how the wave equation can again be mapped into one in an auxiliary spacetime in which there is no ergoregion, allowing us to give a proof of the mode stability of the solutions of the scalar wave equation.

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arXiv2022

Long-Range Forces Between Non-Identical Black Holes With Non-BPS Extremal Limits

Motivated by recent studies of long-range forces beween identical black holes, we extend these considerations by investigating the forces between two non-identical black holes. We focus on classes of theories where charged black holes can have extremal limits that are not BPS. These theories, which live in arbitrary spacetime dimension, comprise gravity coupled to $N$ 2-form field strengths and $(N-1)$ scalar fields. In the solutions we consider, each field strength carries an electric charge. The black hole solutions are governed by the $SL(N+1,R)$ Toda equations. In four dimensions the black-hole solutions in the $SL(3,R)$ example are equivalent to the "Kaluza-Klein dyons." We find that any pair of such extremal black holes that are not identical (up to overall scaling) repel one another. We also show that there can exist pairs of non-extremal, non-identical black holes which obey a zero-force condition. Finally, we find indications of similar results in the higher examples, such as $SL(4,R)$.

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arXiv2021

Supergravity Black Holes, Love Numbers and Harmonic Coordinates

To perform realistic tests of theories of gravity, we need to be able to look beyond general relativity and evaluate the consistency of alternative theories with observational data from, especially, gravitational wave detections using, for example, an agnostic Bayesian approach. In this paper we further examine properties of one class of such viable, alternative theories, based on metrics arising from ungauged supergravity. In particular, we examine the massless, neutral, minimally coupled scalar wave equation in a general stationary, axisymmetric background metric such as that of a charged rotating black hole, when the scalar field is either time independent or in the low-frequency, near-zone limit, with a view to calculating the Love numbers of tidal perturbations, and of obtaining harmonic coordinates for the background metric. For a four-parameter family of charged asymptotically flat rotating black hole solutions of ungauged supergravity theory known as STU black holes, which includes Kaluza-Klein black holes and the Kerr-Sen black hole as special cases, we find that all time-independent solutions, and hence the harmonic coordinates of the metrics, are identical to those of the Kerr solution. In the low-frequency limit we find the scalar fields exhibit the same $SL(2,R)$ symmetry as holds in the case of the Kerr solution. We point out extensions of our results to a wider class of metrics, which includes solutions of Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory.

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arXiv2021

Conformal Symmetries for Extremal Black Holes with General Asymptotic Scalars in STU Supergravity

We present a construction of the most general BPS black holes of STU supergravity (${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric $D=4$ supergravity coupled to three vector super-multiplets) with arbitrary asymptotic values of the scalar fields. These solutions are obtained by acting with a subset of of the global symmetry generators on STU BPS black holes with zero values of the asymptotic scalars, both in the U-duality and the heterotic frame. The solutions are parameterized by fourteen parameters: four electric and four magnetic charges, and the asymptotic values of the six scalar fields. We also present BPS black hole solutions of a consistently truncated STU supergravity, which are parameterized by two electric and two magnetic charges and two scalar fields. These latter solutions are significantly simplified, and are very suitable for further explicit studies. We also explore a conformal inversion symmetry of the Couch-Torrence type, which maps any member of the fourteen-parameter family of BPS black holes to another member of the family. Furthermore, these solutions are expected to be valuable in the studies of various swampland conjectures in the moduli space of string compactifications.

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arXiv2020

Generalised Couch-Torrence Symmetry for Rotating Extremal Black Holes in Maximal Supergravity

The extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole admits a conformal inversion symmetry, in which the metric is mapped into itself under an inversion of the radial coordinate combined with a conformal rescaling. In the rotating generalisation, Couch and Torrence showed that the Kerr-Newman metric no longer exhibits a conformal inversion symmetry, but the radial equation arising in the separation of the massless Klein-Gordon equation admits a mode-dependent inversion symmetry, where the radius of inversion depends upon the energy and azimuthal angular momentum of the mode. It was more recently shown that the static 4-charge extremal black holes of STU supergravity admit a generalisation of the conformal inversion symmetry, in which the conformally-inverted metric is a member of the same 4-charge black hole family but with transformed charges. In this paper we study further generalisations of these inversion symmetries, within the general class of extremal STU supergravity black holes. For the rotating black holes, where again the massless Klein-Gordon equation is separable, we show that examples with four electric charges exhibit a generalisation of the Couch-Torrence symmetry of the radial equation. Now, as in the conformal inversion of the static specialisations, the inversion of the radial equation maps it to the radial equation for a rotating black hole with transformed electric charges. We also study the inversion transformations for the general case of extremal BPS STU black holes carrying eight charges (4 electric plus 4 magnetic), and argue that analogous generalisations of the inversion symmetries exist both for the static and the rotating cases.

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arXiv2020

Gaussian Null Coordinates for Rotating Charged Black Holes and Conserved Charges

Motivated by the study of conserved Aretakis charges for a scalar field on the horizon of an extremal black hole, we construct the metrics for certain classes of four-dimensional and five-dimensional extremal rotating black holes in Gaussian null coordinates. We obtain these as expansions in powers of the radial coordinate, up to sufficient order to be able to compute the Aretakis charges. The metrics we consider are for 4-charge black holes in four-dimensional STU supergravity (including the Kerr-Newman black hole in the equal-charge case) and the general 3-charge black holes in five-dimensional STU supergravity. We also investigate the circumstances under which the Aretakis charges of an extremal black hole can be mapped by conformal inversion of the metric into Newman-Penrose charges at null infinity. We show that while this works for four-dimensional static black holes, a simple radial inversion fails in rotating cases because a necessary conformal symmetry of the massless scalar equation breaks down. We also discuss that a massless scalar field in dimensions higher than four does not have any conserved Newman-Penrose charge, even in a static asymptotically flat spacetime.

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arXiv2019

Positive Energy Functional for Massless Scalars in Rotating Black Hole Backgrounds of Maximal Ungauged Supergravity

We outline a proof of the stability of a massless neutral scalar field $\psi$ in the background of a wide class of four dimensional asymptotically flat rotating and ``electrically charged'' solutions of supergravity, and the low energy limit of string theory, known as STU metrics. Despite their complexity, we find it possible to circumvent the difficulties presented by the existence of ergo-regions and the related phenomenon of super-radiance in the original metrics by following a strategy due to Whiting, and passing to an auxiliary metric admitting an everywhere lightlike Killing field and constructing a scalar field $\Psi$ (related to a possible unstable mode $\psi$ by a non-local transformation) which satisfies the massless wave equation with respect to the auxiliary metric. By contrast with the case for $\psi$, the associated energy density of $\Psi$ is not only conserved but is also non-negative.

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arXiv2018

Killing Horizons: Negative Temperatures and Entropy Super-Additivity

Many discussions in the literature of spacetimes with more than one Killing horizon note that some horizons have positive and some have negative surface gravities, but assign to all a positive temperature. However, the first law of thermodynamics then takes a non-standard form. We show that if one regards the Christodoulou and Ruffini formula for the total energy or enthalpy as defining the Gibbs surface, then the rules of Gibbsian thermodynamics imply that negative temperatures arise inevitably on inner horizons, as does the conventional form of the first law. We provide many new examples of this phenomenon, including black holes in STU supergravity. We also give a discussion of left and right temperatures and entropies, and show that both the left and right temperatures are non-negative. The left-hand sector contributes exactly half the total energy of the system, and the right-hand sector contributes the other half. Both the sectors satisfy conventional first laws and Smarr formulae. For spacetimes with a positive cosmological constant, the cosmological horizon is naturally assigned a negative Gibbsian temperature. We also explore entropy-product formulae and a novel entropy-inversion formula, and we use them to test whether the entropy is a super-additive function of the extensive variables. We find that super-additivity is typically satisfied, but we find a counterexample for dyonic Kaluza-Klein black holes.

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arXiv2018

BPS Kerr-AdS Time Machines

It was recently observed that Kerr-AdS metrics with negative mass describe smooth spacetimes that have a region with naked closed time-like curves, bounded by a velocity of light surface. Such spacetimes are sometimes known as time machines. In this paper we study the BPS limit of these metrics, and find that the mass and angular momenta become discretised. The completeness of the spacetime also requires that the time coordinate be periodic, with precisely the same period as that which arises for the global AdS in which the time machine spacetime is immersed. For the case of equal angular momenta in odd dimensions, we construct the Killing spinors explicitly, and show they are consistent with the global structure. Thus in examples where the solution can be embedded in a gauged supergravity theory, they will be supersymmetric. We also compare the global structure of the BPS AdS$_3$ time machine with the BTZ black hole, and show that the global structure allows to have two different supersymmetric limits.

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arXiv2017

STU Black Holes and SgrA*

The equations of null geodesics in the STU family of rotating black hole solutions of supergravity theory, which may be considered as deformations of the vacuum Kerr metric, are completely integrable. We propose that they be used as a foil to test, for example, with what precision the gravitational field external to the black hole at the centre of our galaxy is given by the Kerr metric. By contrast with some metrics proposed in the literature, the STU metrics satisfy by construction the dominant and strong energy conditions. Our considerations may be extended to include the effects of a cosmological term. We show that these metrics permit a straightforward calculation of the properties of black hole shadows.

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arXiv2016

Rotating Solutions in Critical Lovelock Gravities

For appropriate choices of the coupling constants, the equations of motion of Lovelock gravities up to order n in the Riemann tensor can be factorized such that the theories admits a single (A)dS vacuum. In this paper we construct two classes of exact rotating metrics in such critical Lovelock gravities of order n in d=2n+1 dimensions. In one class, the n angular momenta in the n orthogonal spatial 2-planes are equal, and hence the metric is of cohomogeneity one. We construct these metrics in a Kerr-Schild form, but they can then be recast in terms of Boyer-Lindquist coordinates. The other class involves metrics with only a single non-vanishing angular momentum. Again we construct them in a Kerr-Schild form, but in this case it does not seem to be possible to recast them in Boyer-Lindquist form. Both classes of solutions have naked curvature singularities, arising because of the over rotation of the configurations.

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arXiv2016

Photon Spheres and Sonic Horizons in Black Holes from Supergravity and Other Theories

We study closed photon orbits in spherically-symmetric static solutions of supergravity theories, a Horndeski theory, and a theory of quintessence. These orbits lie in what we shall call a photon sphere (anti-photon sphere) if the orbit is unstable (stable). We show that in all the asymptotically flat solutions we examine that admit a regular event horizon, and whose energy-momentum tensor satisfies the strong energy condition, there is one and only one photon sphere outside the event horizon. We give an example of a Horndeski theory black hole (whose energy-momentum tensor violates the strong energy condition) whose metric admits both a photon sphere and an anti-photon sphere. The uniqueness and non-existence also holds for asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions in gauged supergravity. The latter also exhibit the projective symmetry that was first discovered for the Schwarzschild-de Sitter metrics: the unparameterised null geodesics are the same as when the cosmological or gauge coupling constant vanishes. We also study the closely related problem of accretion flows by perfect fluids in these metrics. For a radiation fluid, Bondi's sonic horizon coincides with the photon sphere. For a general polytropic equation of state this is not the case. Finally we exhibit counterexamples to a conjecture of Hod's.

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arXiv2015

On the decoupling of heavy states in higher-derivative supersymmetric field theories

We study the problem of decoupling of heavy chiral superfields in four-dimensional $N=1$ supersymmetric field theories with Lorentz-invariant and Lorentz-violating higher-derivative terms. We demonstrate that the earlier found effect of large logarithmic quantum corrections, due to heavy chiral superfields, takes place not only if the theory possesses quantum divergences, but also for essentially finite theories involving higher derivative terms, both Lorentz-invariant and Lorentz-breaking ones.

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arXiv2015

Compactifications of Deformed Conifolds, Branes and the Geometry of Qubits

We present three families of exact, cohomogeneity-one Einstein metrics in $(2n+2)$ dimensions, which are generalizations of the Stenzel construction of Ricci-flat metrics to those with a positive cosmological constant. The first family of solutions are Fubini-Study metrics on the complex projective spaces $CP^{n+1}$, written in a Stenzel form, whose principal orbits are the Stiefel manifolds $V_2(R ^{n+2})=SO(n+2)/SO(n)$ divided by $Z_2$. The second family are also Einstein-Kähler metrics, now on the Grassmannian manifolds $G_2(R^{n+3})=SO(n+3)/((SO(n+1)\times SO(2))$, whose principal orbits are the Stiefel manifolds $V_2(R^{n+2})$ (with no $Z_2$ factoring in this case). The third family are Einstein metrics on the product manifolds $S^{n+1}\times S^{n+1}$, and are Kähler only for $n=1$. Some of these metrics are believed to play a role in studies of consistent string theory compactifications and in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We also elaborate on the geometric approach to quantum mechanics based on the Kähler geometry of Fubini-Study metrics on $CP^{n+1}$, and we apply the formalism to study the quantum entanglement of qubits.

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arXiv2014

Quasi-Normal Modes for Subtracted Rotating and Magnetised Geometries

We obtain explicit separable solutions of the wave equation of massless minimally coupled scalar fields in the subtracted geometry of four-dimensional rotating and Melvin (magnetised) four-charge black holes of the STU model, a consistent truncation of maximally supersymmetric supergravity with four types of electromagnetic fields. These backgrounds possess a hidden SL(2,R) x SL(2,R) x SO(3) symmetry and faithfully model the near horizon geometry of these black holes, but locate them in a confining asymptotically conical box. For each subtracted geometry we obtain two branches of quasi-normal modes, given in terms of hypergeometric functions and spherical harmonics. One branch is over-damped and the other under-damped and they exhibit rotational splitting. No black hole bomb is possible because the Killing field which co-rotates with the horizon is everywhere timelike outside the black hole. A five-dimensional lift of these geometries is given locally by the product of a BTZ black hole with a two-sphere. This allows an explicit analysis of the minimally coupled massive five-dimensional scalar field. Again, there are two branches, both damped, however now their oscillatory parts are shifted by the quantised wave number $k$ along the fifth circle direction.

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arXiv2014

Super-Geometrodynamics

We present explicit solutions of the time-symmetric initial value constraints, expressed in terms of freely specfiable harmonic functions for examples of supergravity theories, which emerge as effective theories of compactified string theory. These results are a prequisite for the study of the time-evolution of topologically non-trivial initial data for supergravity theories, thus generalising the "Geometrodynamics" program of Einstein-Maxwell theory to that of supergravity theories. Specifically, we focus on examples of multiple electric Maxwell and scalar fields, and analyse the initial data problem for the general Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory both with one and two Maxwell fields, and the STU model. The solutions are given in terms of up to eight arbitrary harmonic functions in the STU model. As a by-product, in order compare our results with known static solutions, the metric in isotropic coordinates and all the sources of the non-extremal black holes are expressed entirely in terms of harmonic functions. We also comment on generalizations to time-nonsymmetric initial data and their relation to cosmological solutions of gauged so-called fake supergravities with positive cosmological constant.

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