Relationship between Hawking Radiation and Gravitational Anomalies

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that maintaining general covariance at the quantum level in black hole backgrounds requires the flux of Hawking radiation to match that of a (1+1)-dimensional blackbody at the Hawking temperature.

Contribution

It establishes a direct link between gravitational anomalies and Hawking radiation flux, highlighting the necessity of blackbody radiation in preserving covariance.

Findings

Hawking flux matches (1+1)-dimensional blackbody emission

Quantum covariance requires specific radiation flux

Flux consistency prevents breakdown of general covariance

Abstract

We show that in order to avoid a breakdown of general covariance at the quantum level the total flux in each outgoing partial wave of a quantum field in a black hole background must be equal to that of a (1+1)-dimensional blackbody at the Hawking temperature.