Growing hair on black holes

May, 1991
14 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.Lett. 67 (1991) 1975-1978
Report number:
  • IASSNS-HEP-91-32,
  • CALT-68-1731,
  • HUTP-91-A-030

Citations per year

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Abstract: (APS)
A black hole can carry quantum numbers that are not associated with massless gauge fields, contrary to the spirit of the ‘‘no-hair’’ theorems. In the Higgs phase of a gauge theory, electric charge on a black hole generates a nonzero electric field outside the event horizon. This field is nonperturbative in ħ and is exponentially screened far from the hole. It arises from the cloud of virtual cosmic strings that surround the black hole. In the confinement phase, a magnetic charge on a black hole generates a classical field that is screened at long range by nonperturbative effects. Despite the sharp difference in their formal descriptions, the electric and magnetic cases are closely similar physically.
  • astrophysics
  • black hole: hair
  • gauge field theory: Z(N)
  • spontaneous symmetry breaking
  • charge
  • partition function
  • effect: screening
  • gauge field theory: SU(N)
  • Higgs model