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Graviton time delay and a speed limit for small black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Reall, HS 

Abstract

Camanho, Edelstein, Maldacena and Zhiboedov have shown that gravitons can experience a negative Shapiro time delay, i.e. a time advance, in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory. They studied gravitons propagating in singular "shock-wave" geometries. We study this effect for gravitons propagating in smooth black hole spacetimes. For a small enough black hole, we find that gravitons of appropriate polarisation, and small impact parameter, can experience time advance. Such gravitons can also exhibit a deflection angle less than π, characteristic of a repulsive short-distance gravitational interaction. We discuss problems with the suggestion that the time advance can be used to build a "time machine". In particular, we argue that a small black hole cannot be boosted to a speed arbitrarily close to the speed of light, as would be required in such a construction.

Description

Keywords

Classical Theories of Gravity, Black Holes

Journal Title

Journal of High Energy Physics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1126-6708
1029-8479

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/L000385/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/L000636/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/J005673/1)
This work was supported by ERC grant No. ERC-2011-StG 279363-HiDGR and by an STFC studentship