This is the first paper in a series devoted to understanding the classical and quantum nature of edge modes and symmetries in gravitational systems. The goal of this analysis is to: i) achieve a clear understanding of how different formulations of gravity provide non-trivial representations of different sectors of the corner symmetry algebra, and ii) set the foundations of a new proposal for states of quantum geometry as representation states of this corner symmetry algebra. In this first paper we explain how different formulations of gravity, in both metric and tetrad variables, share the same bulk symplectic structure but differ at the corner, and in turn lead to inequivalent representations of the corner symmetry algebra. This provides an organizing criterion for formulations of gravity depending on how big the physical symmetry group that is non-trivially represented at the corner is. This principle can be used as a “treasure map” revealing new clues and routes in the quest for quantum gravity. Building up on these results, we perform a detailed analysis of the corner pre-symplectic potential and symmetries of Einstein-Cartan-Holst gravity in [1], use this to provide a new look at the simplicity constraints in [2], and tackle the quantization in [3].

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Edge modes of gravity. Part I. Corner potentials and charges

This is the first paper in a series devoted to understanding the classical and quantum nature of edge modes and symmetries in gravitational systems The goal of this analysis is to: i) achieve a clear understanding of how different formulations of gravity provide non-trivial representations of different sectors of the corner symmetry algebra, and ii) set the foundations of a new proposal for states of quantum geometry as representation states of this corner symmetry algebra In this first paper we explain how different formulations of gravity, in both metric and tetrad variables, share the same bulk symplectic structure but differ at the corner, and in turn lead to inequivalent representations of the corner symmetry algebra This provides an organizing criterion for formulations of gravity depending on how big the physical symmetry group that is non-trivially represented at the corner is This principle can be used as a "treasure map" revealing new clues and routes in the quest for quantum gravity Building up on these results, we perform a detailed analysis of the corner symplectic potential and symmetries of Einstein-Cartan-Holst gravity in [1], use this to provide a new look at the simplicity constraints in [2], and tackle the quantization in [3]

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Edge modes of gravity -- I: Corner potentials and charges

The advent of gravitational waves and black hole imaging has opened a new window into probing the horizon scale of black holes. An important question is whether string theory results for black holes can predict interesting and observable features that current and future experiments can probe. In this article I review the budding and exciting research being done on understanding the possibilities of observing signals from fuzzballs, where black holes are replaced by string-theoretic horizon-scale microstructure. In order to be accessible to both string theorists and black hole phenomenologists, I give a brief overview of the relevant observational experiments as well as the fuzzball paradigm in string theory and its explicitly constructable solutions called microstate geometries.

Fuzzballs and observations

We provide a Hamiltonian derivation of recently discovered dual BMS charges. In order to do so, we work in the first order formalism and add to the usual Palatini action, the Holst term, which does not contribute to the equations of motion. We give a method for finding the leading order integrable dual charges a la Wald-Zoupas and construct the corresponding charge algebra. We argue that in the presence of fermions, the relevant term that leads to dual charges is the topological Nieh-Yan term.

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Hamiltonian derivation of dual gravitational charges

Varying the gravitational Lagrangian produces a boundary contribution that has various physical applications. It determines the right boundary terms to be added to the action once boundary conditions are specified, and defines the symplectic structure of covariant phase space methods. We study general boundary variations using tetrads instead of the metric. This choice streamlines many calculations, especially in the case of null hypersurfaces with arbitrary coordinates, where we show that the spin-1 momentum coincides with the rotational 1-form of isolated horizons. The additional gauge symmetry of internal Lorentz transformations leaves however an imprint: the boundary variation differs from the metric one by an exact 3-form. On the one hand, this difference helps in the variational principle: gluing hypersurfaces to determine the action boundary terms for given boundary conditions is simpler, including the most general case of non-orthogonal corners. On the other hand, it affects the construction of Hamiltonian surface charges with covariant phase space methods, which end up being generically different from the metric ones, in both first and second-order formalisms. This situation is treated in the literature gauge-fixing the tetrad to be adapted to the hypersurface or introducing a fine-tuned internal Lorentz transformation depending non-linearly on the fields. We point out and explore the alternative approach of dressing the bare symplectic potential to recover the value of all metric charges, and not just for isometries. Surface charges can also be constructed using a cohomological prescription: in this case we find that the exact 3-form mismatch plays no role, and tetrad and metric charges are equal. This prescription leads however to different charges whether one uses a first-order or second-order Lagrangian, and only for isometries one recovers the same charges.

Boundary effects in General Relativity with tetrad variables

We revisit the study of the probe scalar quasinormal modes of a class of three- charge super- symmetric microstate geometries. We compute the real and imaginary parts of the quasinormal modes and show that in the parameter range when the geometries have large AdS region, the spectrum is precisely reproduced from a D1-D5 orbifold CFT analysis. The spectrum includes the slow decaying modes pointed out by Eperon, Reall, and Santos. We analyse in detail the nature of the quasinormal modes by studying the scalar wavefunction. We show that these modes correspond to slow leakage of excitation from AdS throat to infinity.

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Quasinormal modes of supersymmetric microstate geometries from the D1-D5 CFT

In the last few years, there has been significant interest in understanding the stationary comparison version of the first law of black hole mechanics in the vielbein formulation of gravity. Several authors have pointed out that to discuss the first law in the vielbein formulation one must extend the Iyer-Wald Noether charge formalism appropriately. Jacobson and Mohd [arXiv:1507.01054] and Prabhu [arXiv:1511.00388] formulated such a generalisation for symmetry under combined spacetime diffeomorphisms and local Lorentz transformations. In this paper, we apply and appropriately adapt their formalism to four-dimensional gravity coupled to a Majorana field and to a Rarita-Schwinger field. We explore the first law of black hole mechanics and the construction of the Lorentz-diffeomorphism Noether charges in the presence of fermionic fields, relevant for simple supergravity.

First law of black hole mechanics with fermions

We revisit the study of the probe scalar quasinormal modes of a class of three-charge supersymmetric microstate geometries. We compute the real and imaginary parts of the quasinormal modes and show that in the parameter range when the geometries have large AdS region, the spectrum is precisely reproduced from a D1-D5 orbifold CFT analysis. The spectrum includes the slow decaying modes pointed out by Eperon, Reall, and Santos. We analyse in detail the nature of the quasinormal modes by studying the scalar wavefunction. We show that these modes correspond to slow leakage of excitation from AdS throat to infinity.

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Although BMPV black holes in flat space and in Taub-NUT space have identical near-horizon geometries, they have different indices from the microscopic analysis. For K3 compactification of type IIB theory, Sen et al. in a series of papers identified that the key to resolving this puzzle is the black hole hair modes: smooth, normalisable, bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom living outside the horizon. In this paper, we extend their study to N = 4 CHL orbifold models. For these models, the puzzle is more challenging due to the presence of the twisted sectors. We identify hair modes in the untwisted as well as twisted sectors. We show that after removing the contributions of the hair modes from the microscopic partition functions, the 4d and 5d horizon partition functions agree. Special care is taken to present details on the smoothness analysis of hair modes for rotating black holes, thereby filling an essential gap in the literature.

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Amitabh Virmani

Papers

Quasinormal modes of supersymmetric microstate geometries from the D1-D5 CFT

First law of black hole mechanics with fermions

First law of black hole mechanics with fermions

Quasinormal modes of supersymmetric microstate geometries from the D1-D5 CFT

Black hole hair removal for N = 4 CHL models