arXiv · 0809.5062
Black Hole Berry Phase
Abstract
Supersymmetric black holes are characterized by a large number of degenerate ground states. We argue that these black holes, like other quantum mechanical systems with such a degeneracy, are subject to a phenomenon which is called the geometric or Berry's phase: under adiabatic variations of the background values of the supergravity moduli, the quantum microstates of the black hole mix among themselves. We present a simple example where this mixing is exactly computable, that of small supersymmetric black holes in 5 dimensions. While in practice it would be extremely difficult to measure Berry's phase for black holes, it may be interesting to explore it further from a theoretical point of view, as it provides us with a way to probe, and to some degree manipulate, the quantum microstate of the black hole.
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Jan de Boer, Kyriakos Papadodimas, Erik Verlinde. 2008-09-30. Black Hole Berry Phase. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.103.131301
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