New Infinities of Soft Charges

TL;DR

This paper explores the infinite variety of soft gauge charges in gravity and gauge theories, revealing new conservation laws and implications for black hole information and hair.

Contribution

It generalizes the concept of soft charges to nonabelian theories and demonstrates the existence of infinite soft magnetic charges without monopoles.

Findings

Infinite soft magnetic charges exist without monopoles

Nonabelian theories have two infinite sets of soft charges

Black holes can carry infinite soft hair, affecting information paradox

Abstract

Recent results on the infrared structure of gravity and electromagnetism have suggested that the deep infrared is much richer than previously appreciated. This article presents a generalisation of these findings within the context of abelian and nonabelian soft (i.e. zero-energy) gauge charges. As a warm up, we describe the emergence of an infinity of soft magnetic charges even in the absence of magnetic monopoles. We show that two infinite sets of soft charges arise in the nonabelian theory as well. In light of the concomitant conservation laws associated with the soft charges, we revisit the black hole information paradox and the no-hair theorems, and argue that a generic black hole carries an infinite amount of gravitational, electromagnetic and chromodynamic soft hair.