Theory HEP Seminar

Conformal Structure of Black Holes

Alejandra Castro

McGill

Extreme and very-near-extreme black holes have been conjectured to be holographically dual to 2D CFTs with left and right central charges. In this talk we will argue that the 2D conformal symmetry of the scalar wave equation at low frequencies persists for generic non-extreme values of the mass. This conformal symmetry is not derived from a conformal symmetry of the spacetime geometry except in the extreme limit. The periodic identification of the azimuthal angle corresponds to a spontaneous breaking of the conformal symmetry by left and right temperatures. The well-known low-frequency scalar-Kerr scattering amplitudes coincide with correlators of a 2D CFT at these temperatures. Moreover the CFT microstate degeneracy inferred from the Cardy formula agrees exactly with the Bekenstein-Hawking area law for all M and J. These observations provide evidence for the conjecture that the Kerr black hole is dual to a c_L=c_R=12J 2D CFT at temperatures (T_L,T_R) for every value of M and J.