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Some suggestions for research projects in Relativity

Vitor Cardoso
(Dated: September 30, 2009)
Any research topic is good, and we can discuss any other research interest the student might have.
I list some possible topics below.

I. THORNES LIMIT

Black holes in general relativity cannot spin faster than a certain limit, in particular the angular momentum J is
limited by

J M2 , (1.1)

with M the mass of the hole. For larger spins, no black holes exist and a naked singularity appears. Accretion of
matter onto a star or black hole can, in principle, spin-up the hole so much that a naked singularity forms. In a
groundbreaking work, Kip Thorne has shown that the spin of the hole is limited by J/M 2 . 0.998 [1]. The purpose
of this work is to understand Thornes work and how it generalizes to other spacetime geometries.

II. WALDS PROCESS

Another possible way to create a naked singularity is to take a black hole spining at close to the maximum possible
and throw a positive-angular momentum particle at it. Absorption of this particle should increase the holes angular
momentum and therefore create a naked singularity. A detailed analysis by Robert Wald has shown this is not possible
(see [2] and references therein), but recent results seem to contradict this [4].
The purpose of this work is to understand Walds work, and how it generalizes to other spacetime geometries, in
particular other dimensions or alternative theories of gravity.

III. TESTING ALTERNATIVE THEORIES OF GRAVITY WITH GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

Various gravitational wave detectors, such as the Laser Interferometric Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO)
are operating at or near design sensitivity. Gravitational waves are therefore expected to be detected soon, and with
them a new science will be born: gravitational wave astronomy. One of the most exciting topics in the area is to use
gravitational waves to deduce the correct theory of gravity. For instance, it has been shown recently [3] that many
different theories give rise to the same metric (the Kerr solution can be a solution of several different theories). Among
these many theories, we can include a dilaton coupling with a Gauss-Bonnet term [5, 6], Einstein-Aether theories [7],
Chern-Simons [8], etc.
This project intends to address these issues: study rotating black hole solutions in these theories and analyze their
stability against small perturbations. Is it possible to use Advanced LIGO or LISA to constraint the correct theory
of gravity? Is it possible to use other properties of these geometries to understand what kind of limits on alternative
theories one can impose?

IV. ACOUSTIC BLACK HOLES

The progress in understanding black holes has been immense, over these last forty years since their concept was
born, and they now play a central role in modern physics. An important step to make black holes more accessible
(from an experimental point of view) was given in 1981 by Unruh [9], who came up with the notion of analogue black
holes. While not carrying information about Einsteins equations, the analogue black holes devised by Unruh do have

Electronic address: vitor.cardoso@ist.utl.pt


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a very important feature that defines black holes: the existence of an event horizon. The basic idea behind these
analogue acoustic black holes is very simple: consider a fluid moving with a space-dependent velocity, for example
water flowing throw a variable-section tube. Suppose the water flows in the direction where the tube gets narrower.
Then the fluid velocity increases downstream, and there will be a point where the fluid velocity exceeds the local sound
velocity, in a certain frame. At this point, in that frame, we get the equivalent of an apparent horizon for sound waves.
In fact, no (sonic) information generated downstream of this point can ever reach upstream (for the velocity of any
perturbation is always directed downstream, as a simple velocity addition shows). This is the acoustic analogue of a
black hole, or a dumb hole. These objects are not true black holes, because the acoustic metric satisfies the equations
of fluid dynamics and not Einsteins equations. Following on Unruhs dumb hole proposal many different kinds of
analogue black holes have been devised, based on condensed matter physics, slow light etcetera. In this project, we
would like to model a simple spherically symmetric dumb hole by a collapsing bubble, and study its properties. For
references see [10].
The purpose of this project read Vissers review and discuss the assumptions in this proposal.

V. WAVES IN D-DIMENSIONAL SPACETIMES

It is an everyday life experience that light rays and waves in general travel along a null cone. For example, if one
lights a candle or a lighter for five seconds and then turns it off, any observer (at rest relative to the object) will see
the light for exactly five seconds and then suddenly fade out completely. Mathematically this is due to the well known
fact that the flat space 4-dimensional Greens function has a delta function character and therefore has support only
on the light cone. There are however situations where this only-on-the light cone propagation is lost. For instance,
in a curved spacetime a propagating wave leaves a tail behind, as shown by DeWitt and Brehmes seminal work.
This means that a pulse of gravitational waves (or any massless field for that matter) travels not only along the light
cone but also spreads out behind it, and slowly dies off in tails. Put it another way, even after the candle is turned
off in a curved spacetime, one will still see its shinning light, slowly fading away, but never completely. It is not
commonly appreciated that this also happens in a space with even number of spatial dimensions. For example, waves
propagating on the surface of a lake do not obey Huygens principle.
This project is intended as an overview of this fascinating topic, to study wave propagation in general D-dimensional
spacetimes and possible characteristic properties. The existence of extra dimensions is a commonly accepted possi-
bility, and so looking for ways to detect these through characteristics of wave propagation is a research of paramount
importance. The references for this project are [1115].

[1] K. S. Thorne, Astrophys. J. 191, 507 (1974).


[2] G. E. A. Matsas, M. Richartz, A. Saa, A. R. R. da Silva and D. A. T. Vanzella, Phys. Rev. D 79, 101502 (2009)
[arXiv:0905.1077 [gr-qc]].
[3] D. Psaltis, D. Perrodin, K. R. Dienes and I. Mocioiu, Kerr Black Holes are Not Unique to General Relativity,
arXiv:0710.4564v2 [astro-ph].
[4] T. Jacobson and T. P. Sotiriou, arXiv:0907.4146 [gr-qc].
[5] P. Kanti, N. E. Mavromatos, J. Rizos, K. Tamvakis and E. Winstanley, Phys. Rev. D 54, 5049 (1996) [arXiv:hep-
th/9511071].
[6] P. Kanti, N. E. Mavromatos, J. Rizos, K. Tamvakis and E. Winstanley, Phys. Rev. D 57, 6255 (1998) [arXiv:hep-
th/9703192].
[7] C. Eling and T. Jacobson, Class. Quant. Grav. 23, 5643 (2006) [arXiv:gr-qc/0604088].
[8] N. Yunes and C. F. Sopuerta, Phys. Rev. D 77, 064007 (2008) [arXiv:0712.1028 [gr-qc]].
[9] W. G. Unruh, Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 1351 (1981).
[10] M. Visser, Class. Quant. Grav. 15, 1767 (1998) [arXiv:gr-qc/9712010].
[11] P. M. Morse and H. Feshbach, Methods of Theoretical Physics, (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1953).
[12] A. O. Barvinsky and S. N. Solodukhin, Echoing the extra dimension, Nucl. Phys. B 675, 159 (2003); hep-th/0307011.
[13] V. Cardoso, S. Yoshida, O. J. C. Dias and J. P. S. Lemos, Late time tails of wave propagation in higher dimensional
space-times, Phys. Rev. D 68, 061503 (2003); hep-th/0307122.
[14] V. Cardoso, O. J. C. Dias, J. P. S. Lemos, Gravitational radiation in D-dimensional, Phys. Rev. D 67, 064026 (2003);
hep-th/0212168.
[15] H. Soodak and M. S. Tiersten, Wakes and waves in n dimensions, Am. J. Phys. 61, 395 (1993).

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