Erratum: Self-Consistent Adiabatic Inspiral and Transition Motion [Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 241106 (2021)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.241106.

Self-Consistent Adiabatic Inspiral and Transition Motion.

The transition motion of a point particle around the last stable orbit of Kerr is described at leading order in the transition-timescale expansion. Taking systematically into account all self-force effects, we prove that the transition motion is still described by the Painlevé transcendent equation of the first kind. Using an asymptotically matched expansions scheme, we consistently match the quasicircular adiabatic inspiral with the transition motion. The matching requires us to take into account the secular change of angular velocity due to radiation reaction during the adiabatic inspiral, which consistently leads to a leading-order radial self-force in the slow timescale expansion.

Probing the nature of black holes: Deep in the mHz gravitational-wave sky.

Black holes are unique among astrophysical sources: they are the simplest macroscopic objects in the Universe, and they are extraordinary in terms of their ability to convert energy into electromagnetic and gravitational radiation. Our capacity to probe their nature is limited by the sensitivity of our detectors. The LIGO/Virgo interferometers are the gravitational-wave equivalent of Galileo's telescope. The first few detections represent the beginning of a long journey of exploration. At the current pace of technological progress, it is reasonable to expect that the gravitational-wave detectors available in the 2035-2050s will be formidable tools to explore these fascinating objects in the cosmos, and space-based detectors with peak sensitivities in the mHz band represent one class of such tools. These detectors have a staggering discovery potential, and they will address fundamental open questions in physics and astronomy. Are astrophysical black holes adequately described by general relativity? Do we have empirical evidence for event horizons? Can black holes provide a glimpse into quantum gravity, or reveal a classical breakdown of Einstein's gravity? How and when did black holes form, and how do they grow? Are there new long-range interactions or fields in our Universe, potentially related to dark matter and dark energy or a more fundamental description of gravitation? Precision tests of black hole spacetimes with mHz-band gravitational-wave detectors will probe general relativity and fundamental physics in previously inaccessible regimes, and allow us to address some of these fundamental issues in our current understanding of nature.

Infinite Towers of Supertranslation and Superrotation Memories.

A framework that structures the gravitational memory effects and which is consistent with gravitational electric-magnetic duality is presented. A correspondence is described between memory observables, particular subleading residual gauge transformations, associated overleading gauge transformations and their canonical surface charges. It is shown that matter-induced transitions can generate infinite towers of independent memory effects at null infinity. These memories are associated with an infinite number of conservation laws at spatial infinity which lead to degenerate towers of subleading soft graviton theorems. It is shown that the leading order mutually commuting supertranslations and (novel) superrotations are both associated with a leading displacement memory effect, which suggests the existence of new boundary conditions.

The Kerr/CFT correspondence and its extensions.

We present a first-principles derivation of the main results of the Kerr/CFT correspondence and its extensions using only tools from gravity and quantum field theory. Firstly, we review properties of extremal black holes with in particular the construction of an asymptotic Virasoro symmetry in the near-horizon limit. The entropy of extremal spinning or charged black holes is shown to match with a chiral half of Cardy's formula. Secondly, we show how a thermal 2-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) is relevant to reproduce the dynamics of near-superradiant probes around near-extremal black holes in the semi-classical limit. Thirdly, we review the hidden conformal symmetries of asymptotically-flat black holes away from extremality and present how the non-extremal entropy can be matched with Cardy's formula. We follow an effective field theory approach and consider the Kerr-Newman black hole and its generalizations in various supergravity theories. The interpretation of these results by deformed dual conformal field theories is discussed and contrasted with properties of standard 2-dimensional CFTs. We conclude with a list of open problems.

The Kerr/CFT Correspondence and its Extensions.

We present a first-principles derivation of the main results of the Kerr/CFT correspondence and its extensions using only tools from gravity and quantum field theory, filling a few gaps in the literature when necessary. Firstly, we review properties of extremal black holes that imply, according to semi-classical quantization rules, that their near-horizon quantum states form a centrally-extended representation of the one-dimensional conformal group. This motivates the conjecture that the extremal Kerr and Reissner-Nordström black holes are dual to the chiral limit of a two-dimensional CFT. We also motivate the existence of an SL(2, ℤ) family of two-dimensional CFTs, which describe in their chiral limit the extremal Kerr-Newman black hole. We present generalizations in anti-de Sitter spacetime and discuss other matter-coupling and higher-derivative corrections. Secondly, we show how a near-chiral limit of these CFTs reproduces the dynamics of near-superradiant probes around near-extremal black holes in the semi-classical limit. Thirdly, we review how the hidden conformal symmetries of asymptotically-flat black holes away from extremality, combined with their properties at extremality, allow for a microscopic accounting of the entropy of non-extremal asymptotically-flat rotating or charged black holes. We conclude with a list of open problems.

Conserved charges and thermodynamics of the spinning Gödel black hole.

We compute the mass, angular momenta, and charge of the Gödel-type rotating black hole solution to five-dimensional minimal supergravity. A generalized Smarr formula is derived, and the first law of thermodynamics is verified. The computation rests on a new approach to conserved charges in gauge theories that allows for their computation at finite radius.