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Title: Growing hair on black holes

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters; (United States)
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA)
  2. Lauritsen Laboratory of High Energy Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California (USA)
  3. School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Olden Lane, Princeton, New Jersey (USA)

A black hole can carry quantum numbers that are {ital 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 {h bar} 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 {ital 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.

DOE Contract Number:
AC03-81ER40050; FG02-90ER40542
OSTI ID:
5178925
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters; (United States), Vol. 67:15; ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English