Contributor info: Prof. Tomás Ortín

Ulrich K. Beckering Vinckers, Tomás Ortín

SciPost Phys. Core 8, 044 (2025) · published 17 June 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We study the interactions and the conditions for the equilibrium of forces between generic non-rotating black holes of the Einstein–Maxwell–dilaton (EMD) theory. We study known (and some new) solutions of the time-symmetric initial-data problem describing an arbitrary number of those black holes, some of them with primary scalar hair. We show how one can distinguish between initial data corresponding to dynamical situations in which the black holes (one or many) are not in equilibrium and initial data which are just constant-time slices of a static solution of the full equations of motion describing static black holes using (self-)interaction energies. For a single black hole, non-vanishing self-interaction energy is always related to primary scalar hair and to a dynamical black hole. Removing the self-interaction energies in multi-center solutions we get interaction energies related to the attractive and repulsive forces acting on the black holes. As shown by Brill and Lindquist, for widely separated black holes, these take the standard Newtonian and Coulombian forms plus an additional interaction term associated with the scalar charges which is attractive for like charges.

Romina Ballesteros, Tomás Ortín

SciPost Phys. Core 8, 038 (2025) · published 24 April 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

The standard Komar charge is a $(d-2)$-form that can be defined in spacetimes admitting a Killing vector and which is closed when the vacuum Einstein equations are satisfied. Its integral at spatial infinity (the Komar integral) gives the conserved charge associated to the Killing vector, and, due to its on-shell closedness, the same value (expressed in terms of other physical variables) is obtained integrating over the event horizon (if any). This equality is the basis of the Smarr formula. This charge can be generalized so that it still is closed on-shell in presence of matter and its integrals give generalizations of the Smarr formula. We show how the Komar charge and other closed $(d-2)$-form charges can be used to prove non-existence theorems for gravitational solitons and boson stars. In particular, we show how one can deal with generalized symmetric fields (invariant under a combination of isometries and other global symmetries) and how the generalized symmetric Ansatz permits to evade the non-existence theorems.

Carmen Gómez-Fayrén, Tomás Ortín, Matteo Zatti

SciPost Phys. Core 8, 010 (2025) · published 29 January 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We show that, in presence of isometries and non-trivial topology, the Einstein–Hilbert action is invariant under certain transformations of the metric which are not diffeomorphisms. These transformations are similar to the higher-form symmetries of field theories with $p$-form fields. In the context of toroidal Kaluza–Klein compactifications, we show that these symmetries give rise to some of the "hidden symmetries" (dualities) of the dimensionally-reduced theories.

Jose Juan Fernandez-Melgarejo, Giacomo Giorgi, Carmen Gomez-Fayren, Tomas Ortin, Matteo Zatti

SciPost Phys. Core 7, 068 (2024) · published 17 October 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

The dualization of the scalar fields of a theory into $(d-2)$-form potentials preserving all the global symmetries is one of the main problems in the construction of democratic pseudoactions containing simultaneously all the original fields and their duals. We study this problem starting with the simplest cases and we show how it can be solved for scalars parametrizing Riemannian symmetric $\sigma$-models as in maximal and half-maximal supergravities. Then, we use this result to write democratic pseudoactions for theories in which the scalars are non-minimally coupled to $(p+1)$-form potentials in any dimension. These results include a proposal of democratic pseudoaction for the generic bosonic sector of 4-dimensional maximal and half-maximal ungauged supergravities. Furthermore, we propose a democratic pseudoaction for the bosonic sector of $\mathcal{N}=2B,d=10$ supergravity (the effective action of the type IIB superstring theory) containing two 0-, two 2-, one 4-, two 6- and three 8-forms which is manifestly invariant under global SL$(2,\mathbb{R})$ transformations.

Tomás Ortín, Alejandro Ruipérez, Matteo Zatti

SciPost Phys. Core 6, 072 (2023) · published 31 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We compute the first-order $\alpha'$ corrections to well-known families of heterotic multi-center black-hole solutions in five and four dimensions. The solutions can be either supersymmetric or non-supersymmetric, depending on the relative sign between two of the black-hole charges. For both cases, we find that the equilibrium of forces persists after including the $\alpha'$ corrections, as the existence of multi-center solutions free of unphysical singularities shows. We analyze the possibility of black-hole fragmentation.