Garrett Goon, Riccardo Penco

Perturbative corrections to General Relativity alter the expressions for both the entropy of black holes and their extremality bounds. We prove a universal relation between the leading corrections to these quantities. The derivation is purely thermodynamic and the result also applies beyond the realm of gravitational systems. In scenarios where the correction to the entropy is positive, our result proves that the perturbations decrease the mass of extremal black holes, when holding all other extensive variables fixed in the comparison. This implies that the extremality relations of a wide class of black holes display Weak Gravity Conjecture-like behavior.

Nathan Moynihan

We show that at 1PN all four-dimensional black hole solutions in asymptotically flat spacetimes can be derived from leading singularities involving minimally coupled three-particle amplitudes. Furthermore, we show that the rotating solutions can be derived from their non-rotating counterparts by a spin-factor deformation of the relevant minimally coupled amplitudes. To show this, we compute the tree-level and one-loop leading singularities for a heavy charged source with generic spin s. We compute the metrics both with and without a spin factor and show that we get both the Kerr-Newman and Reissner-Nordstr\"om solutions respectively. We then go on to compute the impulse imparted to the probe particle in the infinite spin limit and show that the spin factor induces a complex deformation of the impact parameter, as was recently observed for Kerr black holes in a recent paper by Arkani-Hamed et al. We interpret these observations as being the on-shell avatar of the Janis-Newman algorithm for charged black holes.

Vaclav Vavrycuk

In this paper, I revoke a debate about an origin of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) dimming. I argue that except for a commonly accepted accelerating expansion of the Universe, a cIn this paper, I revoke a debate about an origin of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) dimming. I argue that except for a commonly accepted accelerating expansion of the Universe, a conceivable alternative for explaining this observation is universe opacity caused by light extinction by intergalactic dust, even though it is commonly assumed that this effect is negligible. Using data of the Union2.1 SNe compilation, I find that the standard $\Lambda$CDM model and the opaque universe model fit the SNe Ia measurements at redshifts $z < 1.4$ comparably well. The optimum solution for the opaque universe model is characterized by the B-band intergalactic opacity $\lambda_B = 0.10 \pm 0.03 \, \mathrm{Gpc}^{-1}$ and the Hubble constant $H_0 = 68.0 \pm 2.5 \, \mathrm{km\,s^{-1}\, Mpc^{-1}}$. The intergalactic opacity is higher than that obtained from independent observations but still within acceptable limits. This result emphasizes that the issue of the accelerating expansion of the Universe as the origin of the SNe Ia dimming is not yet definitely resolved. Obviously, the opaque universe model as an alternative to the $\Lambda$CDM model is attractive, because it avoids puzzles and controversies associated with dark energy and the accelerating expansion.