International Journal of Modern Physics D

While the event horizon of a black hole could cast a shadow that was observed recently, a central singularity without horizon could also give rise to such a feature. This leaves us with a question on the nature of the supermassive black holes at the galactic centers, and if they admit an event horizon necessarily. We point out that observations of motion of stars around the galactic center should give a clear idea of the nature of this central supermassive object. We examine and discuss here recent developments that indicate intriguing behavior of the star motions that could possibly distinguish the existence or otherwise of an event horizon at the galactic center. We compare the motion of the S2 star with these theoretical results, fitting the observational data with theory, and it is seen that the star motions and precession of their orbits around the galactic center provide important clues on the nature of this central compact object.

The number of classical paths of a given length, connecting any two events in a (pseudo) Riemannian spacetime is, of course, infinite. It is, however, possible to define a useful, finite, measure $N(x_2,x_1;\sigma )$ for the effective number of quantum paths [of length $\sigma$ connecting two events $(x_1,x_2)$] in an arbitrary spacetime. When $x_2=x_1$, this reduces to $C(x,\sigma )$ giving the measure for closed quantum loops of length $\sigma$ containing an event $x$. Both $N(x_2,x_1;\sigma )$ and $C(x,\sigma )$ are well-defined and depend only on the geometry of the spacetime. Various other physical quantities like, for e.g. the effective Lagrangian, can be expressed in terms of $N(x_2,x_1;\sigma )$. The corresponding measure for the total path length contributed by the closed loops, in a spacetime region ${𝒱}$, is given by the integral of $L(\sigma ;x)\equiv \sigma C(\sigma ;x)$ over ${𝒱}$. Remarkably enough $L(0;x)\propto R(x)$, the Ricci scalar; i.e. the measure for the total length contributed by infinitesimal closed loops in a region of spacetime gives us the Einstein–Hilbert action. Its variation, when we vary the metric, can provide a new route towards induced/emergent gravity descriptions. In the presence of a background electromagnetic field, the corresponding expressions for $N(x_2,x_1;\sigma )$ and $C(x,\sigma )$ can be related to the holonomies of the field. The measure $N(x_2,x_1;\sigma )$ can also be used to evaluate a wide class of path integrals for which the action and the measure are arbitrary functions of the path length. As an example, I compute a modified path integral which incorporates the zero-point-length in the spacetime. I also describe several other properties of $N(x_2,x_1;\sigma )$ and outline a few simple applications.

The aim of this paper is to give an overview to nonspecialists of recent arguments from fundamental physics in favor and disfavor of quantum corrections to black hole horizons. I will mainly discuss the black hole information paradox, its possible resolutions and shortly address its relevance or irrelevance to astronomy.

When a massive quantum body is put into a spatial superposition, it is of interest to consider the quantum aspects of the gravitational field sourced by the body. We argue that in order to understand how the body may become entangled with other massive bodies via gravitational interactions, it must be thought of as being entangled with its own Newtonian-like gravitational field. Thus, a Newtonian-like gravitational field must be capable of carrying quantum information. Our analysis supports the view that table-top experiments testing entanglement of systems interacting via gravity do probe the quantum nature of gravity, even if no “gravitons” are emitted during the experiment.

The higher-derivative ${\alpha }^{\prime }$ corrections consistent with $O(d,d)$ duality invariance can be completely classified for cosmological, purely time-dependent backgrounds. This result is used to show that there are duality invariant theories featuring string-frame de Sitter vacua as solutions that are nonperturbative in ${\alpha }^{\prime }$, thus suggesting that classical string theory may realize de Sitter solutions in an unexpected fashion.

We analyze the intriguing possibility of explaining both dark mass components in a galaxy: the dark matter (DM) halo and the supermassive dark compact object lying at the center, by a unified approach in terms of a quasi-relaxed system of massive, neutral fermions in general relativity. The solutions to the mass distribution of such a model that fulfill realistic halo boundary conditions inferred from observations, develop a high-density core supported by the fermion degeneracy pressure able to mimic massive black holes at the center of galaxies. Remarkably, these dense core-diluted halo configurations can explain the dynamics of the closest stars around Milky Way’s center (SgrA*) all the way to the halo rotation curve, without spoiling the baryonic bulge-disk components, for a narrow particle mass range $m{c}^2\sim 10$–$10^2$keV.

Naive calculations in quantum field theory suggest that vacuum fluctuations should induce an enormous cosmological constant. What if these estimates are right? I argue that even a huge cosmological constant might be hidden in Planck-scale fluctuations of geometry and topology — what Wheeler called “spacetime foam” — while remaining virtually invisible macroscopically.

It is shown the antisymmetric part of the metric tensor is the potential for the torsion field, which arises from intrinsic spin. To maintain gauge invariance, the nonsymmetric part of the metric tensor must be generalized to include the electromagnetic field. This result leads to a link between the cosmological constant and the electromagnetic field.

The tidal deformability of a self-gravitating object leaves an imprint on the gravitational-wave signal of an inspiral which is paramount to measure the internal structure of the binary components. We unveil here a surprisingly unnoticed effect: in the extreme mass-ratio limit the tidal Love number of the central object (i.e. the quadrupole moment induced by the tidal field of its companion) affects the gravitational waveform at the leading order in the mass ratio. This effect acts as a magnifying glass for the tidal deformability of supermassive objects but was so far neglected, probably because the tidal Love numbers of a black hole (the most natural candidate for a compact supermassive object) are identically zero. We argue that extreme mass-ratio inspirals detectable by the future laser interferometric space antenna (LISA) mission might place constraints on the tidal Love numbers of the central object which are roughly eight orders of magnitude more stringent than current ones on neutron stars, potentially probing all models of black hole mimickers proposed so far.

We present a string-based picture of the cosmological evolution in which (CP-violating) gravitational anomalies acting during the inflationary phase of the universe cause the vacuum energy density to “run” with the effective Hubble parameter squared, $H^2$, thanks to the axion field of the bosonic string multiplet. This leads to baryogenesis through leptogenesis with massive right-handed neutrinos. The generation of chiral matter after inflation helps in cancelling the anomalies in the observable radiation- and matter-dominated eras. The present era inherits the same “running vacuum” structure triggered during the inflationary time by the axion field. The current dark energy is thus predicted to be mildly dynamical, and dark matter should be made of axions. Paraphrasing Carl Sagan [https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10538.Carl_Sagan.]: we are all anomalously made from starstuff.

There ought to exist a reformulation of quantum theory which does not depend on classical time. To achieve such a reformulation, we introduce the concept of an atom of space-time-matter (STM). An STM atom is a classical noncommutative geometry (NCG), based on an asymmetric metric, and sourced by a closed string. Different such atoms interact via entanglement. The statistical thermodynamics of a large number of such atoms gives rise, at equilibrium, to a theory of quantum gravity. Far from equilibrium, where statistical fluctuations are large, the emergent theory reduces to classical general relativity. In this theory, classical black holes are far from equilibrium low entropy states, and their Hawking evaporation represents an attempt to return to the [maximum entropy] equilibrium quantum gravitational state.

Inside a black hole, there is no local way to say which side of a sphere is the inside, and which is the outside. One can easily be gulled by this fact into mixing up the sign of the energy. We lead the reader astray with a naïve treatment of the energy of a null shell in black hole spacetimes. We then resolve the confusion, showing that global, rather than local, considerations offer good guidance.

The vacuum must contain virtual fluctuations of black hole microstates for each mass $M$. We observe that the expected suppression for $M\gg m_p$ is counteracted by the large number $\mathrm{\text{Exp}}[S_{\mathrm{\text{bek}}}]$ of such states. From string theory, we learn that these microstates are extended objects that are resistant to compression. We argue that recognizing this ‘virtual extended compression-resistant’ component of the gravitational vacuum is crucial for understanding gravitational physics. Remarkably, such virtual excitations have no significant effect for observable systems like stars, but they resolve two important problems: (a) gravitational collapse is halted outside the horizon radius, removing the information paradox, (b) spacetime acquires a ‘stiffness’ against the curving effects of vacuum energy; this ameliorates the cosmological constant problem posed by the existence of a planck scale $\mathrm{\Lambda }$.

According to the holographic bound, there is only a finite density of degrees of freedom in space when gravity is taken into account. Conventional quantum field theory does not conform to this bound, since in this framework, infinitely many degrees of freedom may be localized to any given region of space. In this paper, we explore the viewpoint that quantum field theory may emerge from an underlying theory that is locally finite-dimensional, and we construct a locally finite-dimensional version of a Klein–Gordon scalar field using generalized Clifford algebras. Demanding that the finite-dimensional field operators obey a suitable version of the canonical commutation relations makes this construction essentially unique. We then find that enforcing local finite dimensionality in a holographically consistent way leads to a huge suppression of the quantum contribution to vacuum energy, to the point that the theoretical prediction becomes plausibly consistent with observations.

We point out the idea that, at small scales, gravity can be described by the standard degrees of freedom of general relativity, plus a scalar particle and a degree of freedom of a new type: the fakeon. This possibility leads to fundamental implications in understanding gravitational force at quantum level as well as phenomenological consequences in the corresponding classical theory.

We propose a novel explanation for universe’s inflationary period. We argue that when the Einstein–Hilbert action is supplemented by an infinite tower of higher-curvature terms — selected order by order by the criterium that they give rise to a well-posed cosmological evolution — the usual Big Bang characteristic of Einstein gravity is replaced by a singularity-free period of exponential growth of the scale factor, which is gracefully connected with standard late-time $\mathrm{\Lambda }$CDM cosmology. No inflaton or any additional fields besides the metric are required.

Statements about relativistic effects are often subtle. In this essay we will demonstrate that the three classical tests of general relativity, namely perihelion precession, deflection of light and gravitational redshift, are passed perfectly by an extension of Newtonian gravity that includes gravitational time dilation effects while retaining a non-relativistic causal structure. This non-relativistic gravity theory arises from a covariant large speed of light expansion of Einstein’s theory of gravity that does not assume weak fields and which admits an action principle.

We conjecture that in asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) space, two solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt (WdW) equation that coincide asymptotically must also coincide in the bulk. This suggests that the essential elements of holography are already present in canonical gravity. Our argument sheds light on why holography works only in gravitational theories, and also on the significance of AdS boundary conditions.

In the recently introduced gauge theory of translations, dubbed Coincident General Relativity (CGR), gravity is described with neither torsion nor curvature in the spacetime affine geometry. The action of the theory enjoys an enhanced symmetry and avoids the second derivatives that appear in the conventional Einstein–Hilbert action. While it implies the equivalent classical dynamics, the improved action principle can make a difference in considerations of energetics, thermodynamics and quantum theory. This paper reports on possible progress in those three aspects of gravity theory. In the so-called purified gravity, (1) energy–momentum is described locally by a conserved, symmetric tensor, (2) the Euclidean path integral is convergent without the addition of boundary or regulating terms and (3) it is possible to identify a canonical frame for quantization.

The novel idea is that the undergoing accelerated expansion of the universe happens due to infrared quantum gravity modifications at intermediate astrophysical scales of galaxies or galaxy clusters, within the framework of Asymptotically Safe gravity. The reason is that structures of matter are associated with a scale-dependent positive cosmological constant of quantum origin. In this context, no extra unproven energy scales or fine-tuning are used. Furthermore, this model was confronted with the most recent observational data from a variety of probes, and with the aid of Bayesian analysis, the most probable values of the free parameters were extracted. Finally, the model proved to be statistically equivalent with $\mathrm{\Lambda }$CDM, and thus being able to resolve naturally the concept of dark energy and its associated cosmic coincidence problem.

We discuss a novel description of the dynamics of black holes in terms of the dynamics of “Membranes”. The membrane description emerges naturally if we consider black holes in the limit of a large number of spacetime dimensions $D$. This “Large $D$ membrane paradigm” can be systematically constructed in a perturbation theory in $1/D$. A similar membrane description can be constructed for the case of finite-dimensional black holes — and it reproduces black hole dynamics correctly in some nontrivial cases — which is quite striking.

Stars are spheres of gas held together by self-gravity. When flying by a black hole, however, the star self-binding force can be overwhelmed by the black hole tides and the star can be torn apart. This is a physically rich and fascinating event which will be described by first introducing the concept of black hole from a mathematical point of view. We will then dive into the physics of the tidal disruption and proceed describing the accompanying electromagnetic flare and gravitational wave burst in the frequency range of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. This empowers such events to discover the elusive black holes with mass intermediate between the solar and the million/billion solar masses.

We derive the Einstein equation from the condition that every small causal diamond is a variation of a flat empty diamond with the same free conformal energy, as would be expected for a near-equilibrium state. The attractiveness of gravity hinges on the negativity of the absolute temperature of these diamonds, a property we infer from the generalized entropy.

We point out that the physics at the extreme IR — cosmology — might provide tests of the physics of the extreme UV — the Weak Gravity Conjecture. The current discrepancies in the determination of $H_0$ may hint at a modification of $\mathrm{\Lambda }$CDM. An extension which may fit better comprises an early contribution to dark energy which “decays” into relativistic matter. On the other hand, the discourse on WGC to date suggests that fields which support cosmic acceleration may produce relativistic matter after they traverse a $\sim$ Planckian distance in field space. We explain how this offers a simple realization of the requisite cosmic phenomenology. Thus, if the resolution of $H_0$ discrepancies is really early dark energy that ends with a shower of relativistic matter and the current ideas on WGC are indicative, this may be a rare opportunity to link the two extreme limits of quantum field theory.

Realizing dark energy and the observed de Sitter spacetime in quantum gravity has proven to be obstructed in almost every usual approach. We argue that additional degrees of freedom of the left- and right-movers in string theory and a resulting doubled, noncommutatively generalized geometric formulation thereof can lead to an effective model of dark energy consistent with de Sitter spacetime. In this approach, the curvature of the canonically conjugate dual space provides for the dark energy inducing a positive cosmological constant in the observed spacetime, whereas the size of the above dual space is the gravitational constant in the same observed de Sitter spacetime. As a hallmark relation owing to a unique feature of string theory which relates short distances to long distances, the cosmological constant scale, the Planck scale and the effective TeV-sized particle physics scale must satisfy a see-saw-like formula — precisely the generic prediction of certain stringy cosmic brane type models.

We describe connected timelike codim-2 extremal surfaces stretching between the future and the past boundaries in the static patch coordinatization of de Sitter space. These are analogous to rotated versions of certain surfaces in the AdS black hole. The existence of these surfaces via the $dS/\mathrm{\text{CFT}}$ framework suggests the speculation that $d{S}_4$ is dual to two copies of ghost-like CFTs in a thermofield-double-type entangled state. In studies of entanglement in ghost systems and “ghost-spin” chains, we show that similar entangled states in two copies of ghost-spin ensembles always have positive norm and positive entanglement.

General Relativity is a hugely successful description of gravitation. However, both theory and observations suggest that General Relativity might have significant classical and quantum corrections in the Strong Gravity regime. Testing the strong field limit of gravity is one of the main objectives of the future gravitational wave detectors. One way to detect strong gravity is through the polarization of gravitational waves. For quasi-normal modes of black-holes in General Relativity, the two polarization states of gravitational waves have the same amplitude and frequency spectrum. Using the principle of energy conservation, we show that the polarizations differ for modified gravity theories. We obtain a diagnostic parameter for polarization mismatch that provides a unique way to distinguish General Relativity and modified gravity theories in gravitational wave detectors.

The Einstein equations, apart from being the classical field equations of General Relativity, are also the classical field equations of two other theories of gravity. As the experimental tests of General Relativity are done using the Einstein equations, we do not really know if gravity is the curvature of a torsionless spacetime or torsion of a curvatureless spacetime or if it occurs due to the nonmetricity of a curvatureless and torsionless spacetime. However, as the classical actions of all these theories differ from each other by the boundary terms, and the Casimir effect is a boundary effect, we propose that a novel gravitational Casimir effect between superconductors can be used to test which of these theories actually describe gravity.

We discuss arguments both in favor of and against dark matter. With the repeated failure of experiment to date to detect dark matter we discuss what could be done instead, and to this end look for clues in the data themselves. We identify various regularities in galactic rotation curve data that correlate the total gravitational potential with luminous matter rather than dark matter. We identify a contribution to galactic rotation curves coming from the rest of the visible universe, and suggest that dark matter is just an attempt to describe this global effect in terms of standard local Newtonian gravity within galaxies. Thus the missing mass is not missing at all — it has been hiding in plain sight all along as the rest of the visible mass in the universe.

We analyze the Hawking evaporation process of Reissner–Nordström black holes. It is shown that the characteristic radiation quanta emitted by the charged black holes may turn near-extremal black-hole spacetimes into horizonless naked singularities. This analysis therefore reveals the intriguing possibility that the semi-classical Hawking evaporation process of black holes may violate the fundamental Penrose cosmic censorship conjecture.

In this paper, we show how the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$CDM (Lambda Cold Dark Matter) Standard Model for cosmology can be extrapolated backwards through the big bang into the infinite past to yield an all-time model of the universe with scale factor given by