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Do semiclassical zero temperature black holes exist?
P R Anderson1, W A Hiscock, B E Taylor
1Department of Physics, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109, USA. anderson@wfu.edu
Physical Review Letters
|September 8, 2000
Summary
Macroscopic, zero-temperature black hole solutions do not exist under quantum field perturbations. Any static solutions must be microscopic and isolated, not smoothly connecting to classical black holes.
Area of Science:
- Theoretical physics
- Quantum field theory
- General relativity
Background:
- Reissner-Nordström black holes are solutions to Einstein's equations that include electric charge.
- Quantum field theory describes fundamental particles and forces.
- Semiclassical gravity combines general relativity with quantum field theory.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the existence of static, zero-temperature black hole solutions in a semiclassical gravity framework.
- To analyze the impact of quantum vacuum energy on black hole solutions.
- To determine if macroscopic black hole solutions persist under quantum effects.
Main Methods:
- Solving the semiclassical Einstein equations to first order in epsilon (Planck's constant over M-squared).
- Considering perturbations from vacuum stress energy of quantized free fields.
- Analyzing massless and massive fields with spins 0, 1/2, and 1.
Main Results:
- Macroscopic, zero-temperature black hole solutions are shown not to exist in physically realistic scenarios.
- Any static, zero-temperature semiclassical black hole solutions are necessarily microscopic.
- These microscopic solutions are isolated and do not smoothly connect to classical solutions as epsilon approaches zero.
Conclusions:
- Quantum vacuum energy fundamentally alters black hole solutions.
- The classical picture of a smooth transition to extreme Reissner-Nordström solutions breaks down at the quantum level.
- Zero-temperature black holes, if they exist semiclassically, must be fundamentally different from their classical counterparts.
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