Conformal Scalar Propagation and Hawking Radiation

TL;DR

This paper completes the construction of the conformal scalar propagator near a Schwarzschild black hole, demonstrating its connection to Hawking radiation and showing how energy conservation affects the thermal spectrum.

Contribution

It provides an analytic construction of the conformal scalar propagator with boundary conditions, linking quantum propagation to Hawking radiation spectrum modifications.

Findings

Particle production matches thermal Hawking radiation.

Energy conservation causes deviations from perfect thermality.

Supports Hawking's view on quantum propagation and particle observation.

Abstract

The construction of the conformal scalar propagator which has been obtained in the preceding two projects as an analytic function of the Schwarzschild black-hole space-time is completed with a boundary condition imposed by the physical context through contour integration in the exterior vicinity of the event horizon. It is shown that, as a consequence of the semi-classical character which the emitted quanta have in that exterior vicinity, the particle production by the Schwarzschild black hole which was formally established in the preceding project is identical to thermal Hawking radiation. By extension, it is established that such a particle production corresponds to a spectrum which detracts from thermality by the amount predicted by Parikh and Wilczek if energy conservation is properly imposed as a constraint on scalar propagation. The results obtained herein support the case made by S. Hawking on the relation between quantum propagation and observation of particles produced by a black hole.