IAS Quantum Aspects of Black Holes Group Meeting

Abstract: One-loop studies of de Sitter thermodynamics revealed universal codimension-2 “edge” degrees of freedom on the horizon of a static patch. I will show how to determine their spectra for fields of arbitrary mass and spin. For the graviton, these modes can be identified as geometric fluctuations associated with the cosmic horizon, an interpretation that also persists in the static Nariai black hole. For higher-spin gauge fields, the edge spectra display patterns of shift symmetries, pointing to a symmetry-breaking phenomenon.