EFT Approach to Black Hole Scalarization and its Compatibility with Cosmic Evolution

TL;DR

This paper investigates black hole scalarization within an effective field theory framework, demonstrating its compatibility with cosmic inflation and the big bang, while highlighting the interplay of higher-order curvature operators.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal EFT model including cubic curvature operators showing how scalarization can occur without conflicting with cosmological evolution.

Findings

Black hole scalarization is possible within the EFT framework.

Higher-order curvature terms constrain scalarization parameter space.

EFT model remains compatible with inflation and GR as an attractor.

Abstract

We address the issue of black hole scalarization and its compatibility with cosmic inflation and big bang cosmology from an effective field theory (EFT) point of view. In practice, using a well-defined and healthy toy model which (in part) has been broadly considered in the literature, we consider how higher-order theories of gravity, up to cubic operators in Riemann curvature, fit within this context. Interestingly enough, we find that already at this minimal level, there is a non-trivial interplay between the Wilson coefficients which are otherwise completely independent, constraining the parameter space where scalarization may actually occur. Conclusively, we claim that the EFT does exhibit black hole scalarization, remaining compatible with the inflationary paradigm, and admitting General Relativity as a cosmological attractor.