Number Of Spacetime Dimensions Research Articles

Black hole evaporation process and Tangherlini–Reissner–Nordström black holes shadow

In this article, we study the black hole evaporation process and shadow property of the Tangherlini-Reissner-Nordström (TRN) black holes. The TRN black holes are the higher-dimensional extension of the Reissner-Nordström (RN) black holes and are characterized by their mass M, charge q, and spacetime dimensions D. In higher-dimensional spacetime, the black hole evaporation occurs rapidly, causing the black hole’s horizon to shrink. We derive the rate of mass loss for the higher-dimensional charged black hole and investigate the effect of higher-dimensional spacetime on charged black hole shadow. We derive the complete geodesic equations of motion with the effect of spacetime dimensions D. We determine impact parameters by maximizing the black hole’s effective potential and estimate the critical radius of photon orbits. The photon orbits around the black hole shrink with the effect of the increasing number of spacetime dimensions. To visualize the shadows of the black hole, we derive the celestial coordinates in terms of the black hole parameters. We use the observed results of M87 and Sgr A∗ black hole from the Event Horizon Telescope and estimate the angular diameter of the charge black hole shadow in the higher-dimensional spacetime. We also estimate the energy emission rate of the black hole. Our finding shows that the angular diameter of the black hole shadow decreases with the increasing number of spacetime dimensions D.

Resummed heat kernel and effective action for Yukawa and QED

In this letter, we prove the existence of resummed expressions for the diagonal of the heat kernel and the effective action of a quantum field which interacts with a scalar or an electromagnetic background. Working in an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions, we propose an Ansatz beyond the Schwinger–DeWitt proposal, effectively resumming an infinite number of invariants which can be constructed from powers of the background, as well as its first and second derivatives in the Yukawa case. This provides a proof of the recent conjecture that all terms containing the invariants FμνFμν and F˜μνFμν in the proper-time series expansion of the SQED effective action can be resummed. Possible generalizations and several applications are also discussed—in particular, the existence of an analogue of the Schwinger effect for Yukawa couplings.

Positivity of the hypergeometric Veneziano amplitude

Recently, an infinite family of one-parameter generalizations of the Veneziano amplitude were bootstrapped using as input assumptions an integer mass spectrum, crossing symmetry, high-energy boundedness, and exchange of finite spins. This new result was dubbed the hypergeometric Veneziano amplitude, with a real-valued deformation parameter r. For concreteness we work in a setup where the lowest-mass state is a tachyon of mass m02=−1 and using the partial-wave decomposition and the positivity of said decomposition’s coefficients we are able to bound the deformation parameter to r≥0 and, also, to obtain an upper bound on the number of spacetime dimensions D≤26, which is the critical dimension of bosonic string theory. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Metric fluctuations in higher-dimensional black holes

We investigated the impact of metric fluctuations on the higher-dimensional black hole geometry. We generalized the four-dimensional model to higher dimensions to treat quantum vacuum fluctuations by the classical approach. A fluctuating black hole is portrayed by a higher-dimensional Vaidya metric with a spherically oscillating mass. Assuming a small fluctuation amplitude, we employed a perturbation method to obtain a radially outgoing null geodesic equation up to the second order in the fluctuation. Furthermore, the fluctuation of the event horizon up to the second order depends on the number of spacetime dimensions. Therefore, the time-averaged values of the thermodynamic variables defined at the horizon also feature dimension-dependent correction terms. A general solution was obtained for rays propagating near the horizon within a fluctuating geometry. Upon examining this in a large D limit, we found that a complete solution can be obtained in a compact form.

Generalizations and challenges for the spacetime block-diagonalization

Discovery that gravitational field equations may coerce the spacetime metric with isometries to attain a block-diagonal form compatible with these isometries, was one of the gems built into the corpus of black hole uniqueness theorems. We revisit the geometric background of a block-diagonal metric with isometries, foliation defined by Killing vector fields and the corresponding Godbillon–Vey characteristic class. Furthermore, we analyse sufficient conditions for various matter sources, including scalar, nonlinear electromagnetic and Proca fields, that imply the isometry-compatible block-diagonal form of the metric. Finally, we generalize the theorem on the absence of null electromagnetic fields in static spacetimes to an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions, wide class of gravitational field equations and nonlinear electromagnetic fields.

Constraining the number of spacetime dimensions from GWTC-3 binary black hole mergers

In modified gravity models that allow for additional noncompact spacetime dimensions, energy from gravitational waves can leak into these extra spacetime dimensions, leading to a reduction in the amplitude of the observed gravitational waves, and thus are a source of potential systematics in the inferred luminosity distances to gravitational wave sources. Since binary black hole (BBH) mergers are standard sirens, we use the pair-instability supernova mass gap and its predicted features to determine a mass scale in order to break the mass-redshift degeneracy and thus infer the redshift of the source. We simultaneously fit the BBH population and the extra spacetime dimensions parameters from gravitational leakage models using BBH observations from the recently released GWTC-3 catalog. We set constraints on the number of spacetime dimensions and find that $D=3.9{3}_{\ensuremath{-}0.05}^{+0.08}$ at 68% C.L. for models that are independent of a screening scale, finding that the GWTC-3 constraint is as competitive as that set from GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterpart. For models where gravity leaks below a certain screening scale ${R}_{c}$, we find $D=4.4{9}_{\ensuremath{-}0.87}^{+1.63}$ and ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}\text{ }{R}_{c}/\mathrm{Mpc}=4.7{5}_{\ensuremath{-}0.99}^{+0.86}$ with a transition steepness ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}\text{ }n=0.8{5}_{\ensuremath{-}0.86}^{+0.76}$ for the leakage, which for the first time are constrained jointly with the BBH population at cosmological distances. These constraints are consistent with General Relativity (GR), where gravitational waves propagate in $D=3+1$ spacetime dimensions. Using the BBH population to probe modifications to standard cosmological models provides an independent test of GR that does not rely on any electromagnetic information but purely on gravitational wave observations.

Color-kinematics relation from the Feynman diagram perspective

Feynman diagrams for gluon tree amplitudes are studied in the Feynman gauge and in any number of spacetime dimensions. The color-kinematics combinations $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}={n}_{s}\ensuremath{-}{n}_{t}\ensuremath{-}{n}_{u}$ of numerators are explicitly calculated for $N=4$, 5, 6 gluons to see whether the color-kinematics relation $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=0$ is satisfied. This is a tedious task because of the presence of four-gluon vertices, and the large number of Feynman diagrams, numerators, and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ combinations involved, especially when $N=6$. For on-shell amplitudes, it is found that $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=0$ for $N=4$, but $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ for $N=5$ and $N=6$ owing to the presence of the four-gluon vertex. However, a local generalized gauge transformation can bring about $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=0$ for $N=5$, but not for $N=6$. This raises the question whether gluon amplitudes satisfying the color-kinematics relation contain nonlocal interactions.

Love numbers and magnetic susceptibility of charged black holes

The response of black holes to companions is of fundamental importance in the context of their dynamics and of gravitational-wave emission. Here, we explore the effect of charge on the static response of black holes. With a view to constraining broader setups, we consider charged geometries in an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions $D\geq4$. Tensor tidal Love numbers are shown to follow a power law in the black hole temperature $\sim T_{H}^{2l+1}$, and thus vanish at extremality. In contrast, the black hole charge $Q$ excites new modes of polarisation in the vector sector that are otherwise not responsive in the neutral limit. In four dimensions, Love numbers and magnetic susceptibilities vanish for all values of the charge that respect the extremality bound. Using the theory of Fuchsian equations we are able to obtain analytical results in most cases, even beyond the hypergeometric instances.

Vacuum decay and quadratic gravity: the massive case

False vacuum decay in field theory may be formulated as a boundary value problem in Euclidean space. In a previous work, we studied its solution in single scalar field theories with quadratic gravity and used it to find obstructions to vacuum decay. For simplicity, we focused on massless scalar fields and false vacua with a flat geometry. In this paper, we generalize those findings to massive scalar fields with the same gravitational interactions, namely an Einstein-Hilbert term, a quadratic Ricci scalar, and a non-minimal coupling. We find that the scalar field reaches its asymptotic value faster than in the massless case, in principle allowing for a wider range of theories that may accommodate vacuum decay. Nonetheless, this hardly affects the viability of the bounce in the scenarios here considered. We also briefly consider other physically interesting theories by including higher-order kinetic terms and changing the number of spacetime dimensions.

Carrollian and Galilean conformal higher-spin algebras in any dimensions

We present higher-spin algebras containing a Poincaré subalgebra and with the same set of generators as the Lie algebras that are relevant to Vasiliev’s equations in any space-time dimension D ≥ 3. Given these properties, they can be considered either as candidate rigid symmetries for higher-spin gauge theories in Minkowski space or as Carrollian conformal higher-spin symmetries in one less dimension. We build these Lie algebras as quotients of the universal enveloping algebra of mathfrak{iso}left(1,D-1right) and we show how to recover them as Inönü-Wigner contractions of the rigid symmetries of higher-spin gauge theories in Anti de Sitter space or, equivalently, of relativistic conformal higher-spin symmetries. We use the same techniques to also define higher-spin algebras with the same set of generators and containing a Galilean conformal subalgebra, to be interpreted as non-relativistic limits of the conformal symmetries of a free scalar field. We begin by showing that the known flat-space higher-spin algebras in three dimensions can be obtained as quotients of the universal enveloping algebra of mathfrak{iso}left(1,2right) and then we extend the analysis along the same lines to a generic number of space-time dimensions. We also discuss the peculiarities that emerge for D = 5.

Thermodynamics curvature in phase transitions for AdS black hole

We investigate the thermodynamic curvature in the Hawking-Page phase transition and the second-order phase transition of the AdS black hole. It is shown that the thermodynamic curvature has the same behavior in these two different phase transitions. Specifically, the thermodynamic curvature in the Hawking-Page phase transition is the power function of the Hawking-Page phase transition temperature with exponent related to the spacetime dimension, or is invariably proportional to the reciprocal of the Hawking-Page phase transition entropy. For the thermodynamic curvature in the second-order phase transition, the conclusion is similar. The more enlightening result is that the ratio of thermodynamic curvatures along the two different phase transitions tends to the natural constant in the limit that the number of spacetime dimensions is infinite. The universal and novel result provides an essential difference between the Hawking-Page phase transition and the second-order phase transition of the AdS black hole in the large dimension paradigm.

The singularity structure of quantum-mechanical potentials

We investigate non-relativistic quantum mechanical potentials between fermions generated by various classes of QFT operators and evaluate their singularity structure. These potentials can be generated either by four-fermion operators or by the exchange of a scalar or vector mediator coupled via renormalizable or non-renormalizable operators. In the non-relativistic regime, solving the Schr\"odinger equation with these potentials provides an accurate description of the scattering process. This procedure requires providing a set of boundary conditions. We first recapitulate the procedure for setting the boundary conditions by matching the first Born approximation in quantum mechanics to the tree-level QFT approximation. Using this procedure, we show that the potentials are nonsingular, despite the presence of terms proportional to $r^{-3}$ and $\nabla_{i}\nabla_{j}\delta^{3}(\vec{r})$. This surprising feature leads us to propose the \emph{Quantum Mechanics Swampland}, in which the Landscape consists of non-relativistic quantum mechanical potentials that can be UV completed to a QFT, and the Swampland consists of pathological potentials which cannot. We identify preliminary criteria for distinguishing potentials which reside in the Landscape from those that reside in the Swampland. We also consider extensions to potentials in higher dimensions and find that Coulomb potentials are nonsingular in an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions.

The swampland at large number of space-time dimensions

We discuss some aspects of swampland constraints — especially the swamp-land distance conjecture — in a large number of space-time dimensions D. We analyze Kaluza-Klein (KK) states at large D and find that some KK spectra possess an interesting dependence on D. On the basis of these observations we propose a new large dimension conjecture. We apply it to KK states of compactifications to anti-de Sitter backgrounds where it predicts an upper bound on the dimension of space-time as a function of its characteristic radius. We also apply our conjecture to black hole spacetimes, whose entropies have a D-dependence very similar to that of the KK spectrum.

Holographic correlators at finite temperature

We consider weakly-coupled QFT in AdS at finite temperature. We compute the holographic thermal two-point function of scalar operators in the boundary theory. We present analytic expressions for leading corrections due to local quartic interactions in the bulk, with an arbitrary number of derivatives and for any number of spacetime dimensions. The solutions are fixed by judiciously picking an ansatz and imposing consistency conditions. The conditions include analyticity properties, consistency with the operator product expansion, and the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger condition. For the case without any derivatives we show agreement with an explicit diagrammatic computation. The structure of the answer is suggestive of a thermal Mellin amplitude. Additionally, we derive a simple dispersion relation for thermal two-point functions which reconstructs the function from its discontinuity.

Static response and Love numbers of Schwarzschild black holes

We derive the quadratic action for the physical degrees of freedom of massless spin-0, spin-1, and spin-2 perturbations on a Schwarzschild-(A)dS background in arbitrary dimensions. We then use these results to compute the static response of asymptotically flat Schwarzschild black holes to external fields. Our analysis reproduces known facts about black hole Love numbers — in particular that they vanish for all types of perturbation in four spacetime dimensions — but also leads to new results. For instance, we find that neutral Schwarzschild black holes polarize in the presence of an electromagnetic background in any number of spacetime dimensions except four. Moreover, we calculate for the first time black hole Love numbers for vector-type gravitational perturbations in higher dimensions and find that they generically do not vanish. Along the way, we shed some light on an apparent discrepancy between previous results in the literature, and clarify some aspects of the matching between perturbative calculations of static response on a Schwarzschild background and the point-particle effective theory.

Constraining extra dimensions on cosmological scales with LISA future gravitational wave siren data

The Universe is undergoing a late time acceleration. We investigate the idea that this acceleration could be the consequence of gravitational leakage into extra dimensions on cosmological scales rather than the result of a non-zero cosmological constant, and consider the ability of future gravitational-wave (GW) siren observations to probe this phenomenon and constrain the parameters of phenomenological models of this gravitational leakage. A gravitational space interferometer such as LISA will observe massive black hole binary (MBHB) merger events at cosmological distances, and will also provide sky localization information that may permit optical and other electromagnetic (EM) surveys to identify an EM counterpart of these events. In theories that include additional non-compact spacetime dimensions, the gravitational leakage intro extra dimensions leads to a reduction in the amplitude of observed gravitational waves and thereby a systematic discrepancy between the distance inferred to such sources from GW and EM observations. We investigate the capability of LISA to probe this modified gravity on large scales, specifically in the Dvali, Gabadadze and Porrati (DGP) model. Additionally, we include a Supernova Ia sample at lower redshift in order to explore the efficacy of this cosmological probe across a range of redshifts. We then use previously published simulated catalogues of cosmologically distant MBHB merger events detectable by LISA, and which are likely to produce an observable EM counterpart. We find that the extent to which LISA will be able to place limits on the number of spacetime dimensions and other cosmological parameters characterising modified gravity will strongly depend on the actual number and redshift distribution of sources, together with the uncertainty on the GW distance measurements. A relatively small number of sources (∼ 1) and high measurement uncertainties would strongly restrict the ability of LISA to place meaningful constraints on the parameters in cosmological scenarios where gravity is only five-dimensional and modified at scales larger than about ∼ 4 times the Hubble radius. Conversely, if the number of sources observed amounts to a four-year average of ∼ 27, then in the most favourable cosmological scenarios LISA has the potential to place meaningful constraints on the cosmological parameters—with a precision of ∼ 1% on the number of dimensions and ∼ 7.5% on the scale beyond which gravity is modified, thereby probing the late expansion of the universe up to a redshift of ∼ 8, i.e. on scales not yet tested by present EM observations.

Black hole evaporation and semiclassicality at large D

Black holes of sufficiently large initial radius are expected to be well described by a semiclassical analysis at least until half of their initial mass has evaporated away. For a small number of spacetime dimensions, this holds as long as the black hole is parametrically larger than the Planck length. In that case, curvatures are small and backreaction onto geometry is expected to be well described by a time-dependent classical metric. We point out that at large $D$, small curvature is insufficient to guarantee a valid semiclassical description of black holes. Instead, the strongest bounds come from demanding that the rate of change of the geometry is small and that black holes scramble information faster than they evaporate. This is a consequence of the enormous power of Hawking radiation in $D$-dimensions due to the large available phase space and the resulting minuscule evaporation times. Asymptotically, only black holes with entropies $S \geq D^{D+3} \log D$ are semiclassical. We comment on implications for realistic quantum gravity models in $D \leq 26$ as well as relations to bounds on theories with a large number of gravitationally interacting light species.

Bootstrapping massive quantum field theories

We propose a new non-perturbative method for studying UV complete unitary quantum field theories (QFTs) with a mass gap in general number of spacetime dimensions. The method relies on unitarity formulated as positive semi-definiteness of the matrix of inner products between asymptotic states (in and out) and states created by the action of local operators on the vacuum. The corresponding matrix elements involve scattering amplitudes, form factors and spectral densities of local operators. We test this method in two-dimensional QFTs by setting up a linear optimization problem that gives a lower bound on the central charge of the UV CFT associated to a QFT with a given mass spectrum of stable particles (and couplings between them). Some of our numerical bounds are saturated by known form factors in integrable theories like the sine-Gordon, E8 and O(N) models.

Ultrarelativistic spinning objects in nonlocal ghost-free gravity

We study the gravitational field of ultrarelativistic spinning objects (gyratons) in a modified gravity theory with higher derivatives. In particular, we focus on a special class of such theories with an infinite number of derivatives known as "ghost-free gravity" that include a non-local form factor such as $\exp(-\Box\ell^2)$, where $\ell$ is the scale of non-locality. First, we obtain solutions of the linearized ghost-free equations for stationary spinning objects. To obtain gyraton solutions we boost these metrics and take their Penrose limit. This approach allows us to perform calculations for any number of spacetime dimensions. All solutions are regular at the gyraton axis. In four dimensions, when the scale non-locality $\ell$ tends to zero, the obtained gyraton solutions correctly reproduce the Aichelburg--Sexl metric and its generalization to spinning sources found earlier by Bonnor. We also study the properties of the obtained four-dimensional and higher-dimensional ghost-free gyraton metrics and briefly discuss their possible applications.

A C*-algebraic Approach to Interacting Quantum Field Theories

A novel C*-algebraic framework is presented for relativistic quantum field theories, fixed by a Lagrangean. It combines the postulates of local quantum physics, encoded in the Haag–Kastler axioms, with insights gained in the perturbative approach to quantum field theory. Key ingredients are an appropriate version of Bogolubov’s relative S-operators and a reformulation of the Schwinger–Dyson equations. These are used to define for any classical relativistic Lagrangean of a scalar field a non-trivial local net of C*-algebras, encoding the resulting interactions at the quantum level. The construction works in any number of space-time dimensions. It reduces the longstanding existence problem of interacting quantum field theories in physical spacetime to the question of whether the C*-algebras so constructed admit suitable states, such as stable ground and equilibrium states. The method is illustrated on the example of a non-interacting field and it is shown how to pass from it within the algebra to interacting theories by relying on a rigorous local version of the interaction picture.