Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2012 / iii / Paper 58 / Section II

A Killing horizon is a null hypersurface with a Killing vector field $\xi$ as its normal and generator. Write $\xi =d/d\alpha$ along its orbits. These are null geodesics, but their Killing parameter need not be affine:The coefficient is the surface gravity for the chosen normalization; nondegeneracy means $\kappa \ne 0$. If $\lambda$ is affine and $q=d\lambda /d\alpha$, then $\xi =qd/d\lambda$ and $d(\log q)/d\alpha =\kappa$. For constant $\kappa$, $\lambda ={\lambda }_0+C{e}^{\kappa \alpha }$.

The Killing equation yields ${\partial }_{\mu }({\xi }^2)=2{\xi }^{\nu }{\nabla }_{\mu }{\xi }_{\nu }=-2{\xi }^{\nu }{\nabla }_{\nu }{\xi }_{\mu }$. On the horizon, $\boxed{{\partial }_{\mu }{\xi }^2=-2\kappa {\xi }_{\mu }}$. Multiplying $\xi$ by a positive constant multiplies $\kappa$ by that constant; physical temperature therefore needs a stated time normalization.

A static observer has four-velocity $u=F^{-1/2}{\partial }_t$. Its only nonzero acceleration component is $a^r={\Gamma }^r{}_{tt}/F=F^{\prime }/2=-r/R^2$. Using $g_{rr}=F^{-1}$, the magnitude isIt vanishes only at $r=0$, where $F=1$ and $d\tau =\sqrt{F}dt=dt$. Thus $t$ is proper time for the central inertial static observer. Other static observers need inward acceleration to resist de Sitter separation and have a redshifted proper time.

For the static patch of de Sitter spacetime, $r_{\ast }=\int dr/F=(R/2)\log |(R+r)/(R-r)|$. With $v=t+r_{\ast }$ or $u=t-r_{\ast }$, respectively,Both radial blocks have determinant $-1$ and smooth coefficients at $r=R$. The normal has norm $g^{rr}=F$, so that surface is null. There $k={\partial }_v$ has covector $dr$, or $k={\partial }_u$ has covector $-dr$, making it normal as well as tangent: it is a Killing horizon.

For the signed surface gravity of a de Sitter horizon, since ${\partial }_r{k}^2=-F^{\prime }(R)=2/R$, part a gives $\kappa =-1/R$ in the ingoing chart on the past branch, and $\kappa =+1/R$ in the outgoing chart on the future branch, with $k$ future-directed in the static patch. The physical magnitude is $\boxed{|\kappa |=1/R}$, normalized by central proper time. A negative signed $F^{\prime }(R)/2$ must not become a negative temperature.

In $c=k_B=\hslash =1$ units, the Hawking temperature is $T_H=|\kappa |/(2\pi )$ for the stated time normalization. The inertial central observer sees the de Sitter horizon temperature $T_0=1/(2\pi R)$. The Tolman temperature law states $T\sqrt{-k^2}=\text{constant}$ in static thermal equilibrium. HenceWith part b, $T^2=(a^2+R^{-2})/(4{\pi }^2)$ and $T/(a/(2\pi ))=R/r\to 1$ at the horizon. This tends to the Unruh effect temperature for the increasingly accelerated observer.

Let $s$ be proper distance inward from the horizon. Then $R-r\simeq s^2/(2R)$, $F\simeq s^2/R^2$, givingThe radial factor has Rindler coordinates: $T_{\mathrm{M}}=s\sinh (t/R)$ and $X_{\mathrm{M}}=s\cosh (t/R)$ make it Minkowskian. Fixed $s$ has acceleration $1/s$ and temperature $1/(2\pi s)$, agreeing with the leading behavior. At the center $a=0$ but the finite de Sitter temperature remains; $T=a/(2\pi )$ is only the near-horizon limit here.

With $r=R\sin \chi$, the static metric isThe radial coefficient is regular at $\chi =\pi /2$, but the time coefficient vanishes and these coordinates cease to be a chart. Part c supplies smooth horizon-crossing coordinates; the local Rindler coordinates also prove the degeneracy is a coordinate one. Extending $\chi$ while keeping the same static $t$ alone is not a regular coordinate extension.

The complete analytic extension is the hyperboloid $-Y_0^2+{\sum }_{i=1}^4{Y}_i^2=R^2$. Static coordinates are $Y_0=\sqrt{R^2-r^2}\sinh (t/R)$, $Y_4=\sqrt{R^2-r^2}\cosh (t/R)$, and $(Y_1,Y_2,Y_3)=r\mathbf{n}$. Global coordinates giveWith $\tan \eta =\sinh (T/R)$ this isThe Penrose diagram is a rectangle, with spacelike past/future infinity, regular pole lines $\psi =0,\pi$, and radial null rays at $45$ degrees. Observer horizons divide static patches from inaccessible regions; they are not curvature boundaries.

Axisymmetry preserves the horizon, so the axial Killing vector field $m$ is tangent to it, so its null normal $\xi =k+\Omega m$ obeys $\xi \cdot m=0$ and ${\xi }^2=0$. Therefore $k\cdot m=-\Omega m^2$ andThus $\boxed{k^2={\Omega }^2{m}^2}$ there. A generator has $dt/d\alpha =1$, $d\phi /d\alpha =\Omega$, making $\Omega =d\phi /dt$ its angular velocity relative to the nonrotating stationary frame at infinity. For Kerr it is the Kerr horizon angular velocity $a/(r_{+}^2+a^2)$; the argument itself is not Kerr-specific.

For nonzero $a$, $\Sigma =0$ requires $r=0$, $\theta =\pi /2$. Oblate Cartesian coordinates satisfy $x^2+y^2=(r^2+a^2){\sin }^2\theta$, $z=r\cos \theta$, so this is the Kerr ring singularity of radius $|a|$. Curvature components and generic invariants diverge there. The whole $r=0$ surface is not singular: away from the ring it is a disk through which the extension continues to a sheet with $r<0$. This oblate radial parameter is not a nonnegative Euclidean distance.

In $G=c=1$ units, $\boxed{J=Ma}$. Horizon candidates solve $\Delta =0$, giving $r_{\pm }=M\pm \sqrt{M^2-a^2}$. For $J^2>M^4$, equivalently $|a|>M$, there are no real roots. The over-rotating Kerr solution has no event horizon hiding its naked ring singularity. The term black hole in this regime names the Kerr family, not a hidden-singularity black hole.

The periodic axial orbits have norm $m^2=g_{\phi \phi }$. On the equator,Thus a neighborhood on the negative sheet has $m^2<0$. A fixed-$(t,r,\theta )$ curve running once around periodic $\phi$ is a closed timelike curve: its timelike tangent returns to the same event.

No horizon in the over-rotating solution prevents passage from positive-$r$ infinity through the nonsingular disk to this region. Timelike periodic axial orbits provide the time-machine mechanism. This property of the analytic solution does not establish that such a naked geometry can be manufactured stably from generic regular collapse, as envisaged by the weak cosmic censorship conjecture.

An ergoregion of a stationary spacetime is where the stationary Killing vector field, normalized as time translation at infinity, is spacelike; a fixed-coordinate stationary observer cannot remain timelike there. For the Kerr metric, $k^2=-(1-2Mr/\Sigma )$, so the outer stationary-limit surface isFor a subextremal rotating hole $r_{\mathrm{E}}\ge r_{+}=M+\sqrt{M^2-a^2}$, with equality only at the poles. At the equator $r_{\mathrm{E}}=2M>r_{+}$. The ergosphere touches the horizon on the rotation axis and is outside it elsewhere. Its boundary is not the horizon, whose generator is $k+{\Omega }_{H}m$.

The drawing uses oblate Cartesian coordinates to display the intersection and is not an isometric embedding of the spatial geometry.

Choose spin orientation so that $0<a<M$; the printed $M/a$ threshold assumes nonzero positive $a$. Put $H=2Mr/(r^2+a^2)$ and $F=1-H$. The axial metric has components $(-F,H,1+H)$ and determinant $-1$. Conserved energy and timelike normalization giveEliminating $\dot{\tilde{t}}$ gives the Kerr axial timelike effective potentialIt extends through the zeros of $F$ in the regular original coordinates. Since $V_{\mathrm{eff}}(0)=1$, reaching zero requires ${\epsilon }^2\ge 1$. At equality the infalling orbit reaches zero with zero radial velocity and turns back, because the nearby negative sheet is forbidden. Along the axis zero is regular, unlike the off-axis ring.

For $r<0$, $V_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\prime }=2M(r^2-a^2)/(r^2+a^2{)}^2$ and the global maximum is $V_{\mathrm{eff}}(-a)=1+M/a$. If ${\epsilon }^2>1+M/a$, an inward particle has no negative-sheet turning point. It passes through zero and continues toward $\boxed{r\to -\infty }$, another asymptotically flat end, with $\dot{r}\to -\sqrt{{\epsilon }^2-1}$ and infinite proper time to infinity. It first crosses the outer and inner horizons. Perturbative Cauchy-horizon instability can invalidate this ideal Kerr axial analytic extension physically.

This is the two-dimensional axis restriction. The dashed $r=0$ curve is regular; the four-dimensional ring lies off-axis and is not an axial singular boundary.

The laws of black-hole mechanics establish the classical analogy with thermodynamics. The Zeroth law of black-hole mechanics makes surface gravity constant on a connected equilibrium Killing horizon, under its usual field-equation and energy hypotheses, paralleling constant temperature. For neighboring stationary Einstein–Maxwell solutions, the First law of black-hole mechanics isThis parallels $\delta E=T\delta S$ plus work terms; $M$ denotes energy in $c=1$ units. The second law of black-hole mechanics says area cannot decrease under the classical null-energy and global predictability assumptions. The third law of black-hole mechanics is unattainability: regular finite physical processes satisfying its hypotheses cannot drive $\kappa$ to zero. It parallels unattainability of absolute zero, not a universal assertion of zero extremal entropy.

Classically a hole absorbs without emitting, so the analogy alone does not identify a measured temperature. Quantum Hawking radiation supplies $T_H=\hslash \kappa /(2\pi )$, with $c=k_B=1$ and future-horizon normalization at infinity. Comparing the area terms in the first laws gives the Bekenstein-Hawking entropyup to a conventionally fixed additive constant. In ordinary units it is $k_B{c}^{3}A/(4G\hslash )$. Entropy scales with area, not interior volume.

For the massless scalar in quantum field theory in curved spacetime, global hyperbolicity ensures well-posed Cauchy evolution. The conserved Klein-Gordon inner product isIts current has zero divergence by the wave equation, making it slice-independent with appropriate boundary behavior. Positive frequency relative to the asymptotic past and future Minkowski times defines complete bases $u_j,v_i$, with $(u_i,u_j)={\delta }_{ij}$, $(u_i^{\ast },u_j^{\ast })=-{\delta }_{ij}$ and vanishing mixed products. Expand the field asContinuous labels replace sums by integrals; wave packets avoid artificial normalization infinities. Particle creation by a nonstationary spacetime occurs when evolution mixes frequency signs through a Bogoliubov transformation:The inner product gives $\alpha {\alpha }^{†}-\beta {\beta }^{†}=I$ and $\alpha {\beta }^{\mathsf{T}}=\beta {\alpha }^{\mathsf{T}}$. For the initial vacuum annihilated by all $a_j^{\mathrm{in}}$, $\boxed{⟨N_i^{\mathrm{out}}{⟩}_{\mathrm{in}}=\sum _j|{\beta }_{ij}{|}^2}$. Thus nonzero negative-frequency mixing makes the in-vacuum non-vacuum for final observers. The vacuum state in a stationary spacetime depends on its positive-frequency splitting; this is not inconsistent with deterministic mode evolution. A unitary implementation on one fixed infinite-mode Fock space further needs the Hilbert–Schmidt condition on $\beta$.

For collapse forming a Schwarzschild black hole, a late outgoing ray traced back to past null infinity obeys the Hawking exponential ray mapPulling $e^{-i\omega u}$ back gives $(U_H-U{)}^{i\omega /\kappa }$ for $U<U_H$. Its past Fourier transform has both frequency signs. For $y=\omega /\kappa$ and damping $ϵ>0$, the Gamma function evaluates the Fourier integrals asAs $ϵ\downarrow 0$, the two denominator arguments approach $\mp \pi /2$, so $|I_{+}|/|I_{-}|=e^{-\pi y}$. Thus the thermal ratio of Hawking Bogoliubov coefficients is $|\beta {|}^2/|\alpha {|}^2=e^{-2\pi \omega /\kappa }$. Together with the bosonic normalization difference, this yields $1/(e^{2\pi \omega /\kappa }-1)$. Potential scattering adds a greybody factor:The collapse state has outgoing flux at future infinity without an incoming thermal bath and is regular for infall. It is not the eternal-hole equilibrium state. Horizon-entering modes complete the future basis; tracing over their correlated partners gives the approximately thermal exterior state. The collapsing geometry is not literally Minkowskian everywhere in the far future: asymptotically flat null-infinity modes are the relevant application of the earlier in/out construction.

Emission reduces the isolated hole's mass. Schwarzschild temperature is proportional to $M^{-1}$, giving the negative heat capacity of a Schwarzschild black hole: losing energy makes it hotter. Dimensional estimates give luminosity proportional to $M^{-2}$ and evaporation time proportional to $M^3$, with species and greybody factors determining coefficients. Area may shrink because quantum stress violates the energy assumptions of Hawking's area theorem. The generalized second law instead concerns $S_{\mathrm{gen}}=A/(4G\hslash )+S_{\mathrm{outside}}$, incorporating radiation entropy and preventing ordinary thermodynamic violations by disposal of entropy into a hole.

Pair correlations also distinguish thermal reduced states from the complete pure state. The black hole information paradox asks whether complete evaporation preserves quantum information: an exactly thermal final exterior with no remaining partners would appear inconsistent with unitary pure-state evolution. The semiclassical calculation controls late-time flux, not the Planck-scale endpoint, and does not itself settle this question. Quantum emission gives the temperature–entropy identification physical meaning; generalized entropy replaces the classical area alone when radiation back-reacts.