Tidal Response and Thermodynamics of Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a gauge-invariant framework for black hole Love numbers and explores their influence on black hole thermodynamics, providing new insights into their physical significance.

Contribution

It develops a novel gauge-invariant method to compute Love numbers and links them to thermodynamic properties of black holes, advancing understanding of their physical role.

Findings

Developed a gauge-invariant approach to black hole Love numbers.

Showed Love numbers influence black hole polarization and thermodynamics.

Clarified the physical significance of Love numbers in black hole physics.

Abstract

In this work, we revisit black hole Love numbers from two complementary perspectives. First, we develop a manifestly gauge-invariant framework that directly integrates out the short-distance degrees of freedom of a static black hole in arbitrary spacetime dimensions. This approach yields the effective point-particle action and its associated Love numbers without relying on the standard matching procedure or on the Regge-Wheeler equation and its associated master field. Second, we investigate the role of Love numbers in black hole thermodynamics by analyzing a Schwarzschild black hole subjected to various types of external perturbations. We show that Love numbers govern the induced polarization of the black hole and control the leading corrections to its thermodynamic properties, thereby clarifying their physical significance in black hole thermodynamics.