Gravitational anomalies: a recipe for Hawking radiation

TL;DR

This paper reviews and applies the Robinson-Wilczek method to derive Hawking radiation, demonstrating its effectiveness across various black hole types and dimensions by restoring general covariance through anomaly cancellation.

Contribution

It extends the Robinson-Wilczek method to a wide range of black holes, including charged, rotating, and higher-dimensional cases, confirming its broad applicability.

Findings

The method reproduces Hawking temperature for various black holes.

Super-radiant currents are correctly obtained for charged and rotating black holes.

The approach confirms the universality of Hawking radiation derivation via anomalies.

Abstract

We explore the method of Robinson and Wilczek for deriving the Hawking temperature of a black hole. In this method, the Hawking radiation restores general covariance in an effective theory of near-horizon physics which otherwise exhibits a gravitational anomaly at the quantum level. The method has been shown to work for broad classes of black holes in arbitrary spacetime dimensions. These include static black holes, accreting or evaporating black holes, charged black holes, rotating black holes, and even black rings. In the case of charged and rotating black holes, the expected super-radiant current is also reproduced.