Growing hair on black holes

Abstract

A black hole can carry quantum numbers that are not associated with massless gauge fields, contrary to the spirit of the ‘‘no-hair’’ theorems. In the Higgs phase of a gauge theory, electric charge on a black hole generates a nonzero electric field outside the event horizon. This field is nonperturbative in ħ and is exponentially screened far from the hole. It arises from the cloud of virtual cosmic strings that surround the black hole. In the confinement phase, a magnetic charge on a black hole generates a classical field that is screened at long range by nonperturbative effects. Despite the sharp difference in their formal descriptions, the electric and magnetic cases are closely similar physically.