Related papers: Gravitational effects in ultrahigh-energy string s…
We argue that the light particles in string theory obey an effective quantum mechanics modified by the inclusion of a quantum-gravitational friction term, induced by unavoidable couplings to unobserved massive string states in the…
In the context of the black hole/string transition, it is useful to produce Euclidean string backgrounds representing hot and self-gravitating strings. We utilise analytical and numerical methods to find a smooth, stationary rotating…
In 4D general relativity, the angular momentum of a black hole is limited by the Kerr bound. We suggest that in string theory, this bound can be breached and compact black-hole-like objects can spin faster. Near such "superspinars," the…
We investigate features of perturbative gravity and supergravity by studying scattering in the ultraplanckian limit, and sharpen arguments that the dynamics is governed by long-distance physics. A simple example capturing aspects of the…
We study the dynamics of Green-Schwarz superstring on the gravitational wave background corresponding to the Matrix string theory and the supersymmetry transformation rules of the superstring. The dynamics is obtained in the light-cone…
Global topological defects produce nonzero stress-energy throughout spacetime, and as a result can have observable gravitational influence on surrounding matter. Gravitational effects of global strings are used to place bounds on their…
The black hole superradiance phenomena state that when a scalar wave perturbation is properly scattering off a charged or rotating black hole, the energy of the reflected scalar wave may be amplified. If this amplification process can occur…
A gravitational scenario is proposed where the euclidean action is invariant under the isotropic and homogeneous version of the euclidean {\it U(1)} group of local transformations of the scale factor and scalar matter field, interpreting…
In general quantum systems there are two kinds of spacetime modes, those that fluctuate and those that do not. Fluctuating modes have normalizable wavefunctions. In the context of 2D gravity and ``non-critical'' string theory these are…
Axions predicted in string theory may have a scalar potential which has a much shallower potential region than the conventional cosine potential. We first show that axions which were located at such shallow potential regions generically…
The leading classical low-energy effective actions for two-dimensional string theories have solutions describing the gravitational collapse of shells of matter into a black hole. It is shown that string loop corrections can be made…
Scattering of fundamental states of type IIB supergravity and superstring theory is discussed at low orders in perturbation theory in the background of a D-instanton. The integration over fermionic zero modes in both the low energy…
Numerical relativists can now produce gravitational waveforms with memory effects routinely and accurately. The gravitational-wave memory effect contains very low-frequency components, including a persistent offset. The presence of these…
Supermassive black hole binary mergers generate a stochastic gravitational wave background detectable by pulsar timing arrays. While the amplitude of this background is subject to significant uncertainties, the frequency dependence is a…
It has been argued that the consistency of quantum theory with black hole physics requires nonlocality not present in ordinary effective field theory. We examine the extent to which such nonlocal effects show up in the perturbative S-matrix…
An effective energy tensor for gravitational radiation is identified for uniformly expanding flows of the Hawking mass-energy. It appears in an energy conservation law expressing the change in mass due to the energy densities of matter and…
We analyze string production in the background of a Schwarzschild black hole, after developing first quantized methods which capture string-theoretic nonadiabatic effects which can exceed naive extrapolations of effective field theory.…
The spectra of gravitational waves from black hole evaporation generically peak at frequencies of order the Hawking temperature, making this signal ultra-high frequency for primordial black holes evaporating in the early universe. This…
In this thesis we study several dynamical processes involving black holes in four and higher dimensions. First, using perturbative techniques, we compare the massless and massive scalar radiation emitted by a particle radially infalling…
The observable parameters of the electron indicate unambiguously that its gravitational background should be the Kerr-Newman solution without horizons. This background is not flat and has a non-trivial topology created by the Kerr singular…