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# CECS-PHY-00/01ULB-TH-00/01 Black Hole Scan

## I Introduction

Black holes are much more than a particular class of exact solutions of the Einstein Equations; they are an essential feature of the spacetime dynamics in almost any sensible theory of gravity. Within the framework of General Relativity, the singularity theorems of Hawking and Penrose  show that singular configurations –such as the Schwarzschild black hole– are inevitable under quite generic initial conditions. Furthermore, the Schwarzschild solution describes the leading asymptotic behavior of the geometry for any localized distribution of matter. The existence of this solution at spacelike infinity is a central ingredient to prove the positivity of energy in General Relativity . On the other hand, black holes are also fundamental objects where the thermodynamics of the gravitational field and its connection with information theory is expected to shed light on the quantization problem.

In this paper, we survey the black hole solutions in a class of gravitation theories, selected by requiring that they have a unique anti-de Sitter vacuum with a fixed cosmological constant. For a given dimension $`d`$, the Lagrangians under consideration are labeled by an integer $`k=1,2,\mathrm{},\left[\frac{d1}{2}\right]`$, where the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian corresponds to $`k=1`$. For each of these theories we examine their static, spherically symmetric solutions. The existence of physical black holes is then used as a criterion to assess the validity of those theories, leading to a natural splitting between theories with even and odd $`k`$.

Coupling these gravity theories with the Maxwell action predicts the smallest size of a spherically symmetric electrically charged source, except for $`k=1`$.

An important aspect of the black holes under consideration is their thermodynamics, which is expected to be a reflection of the underlying quantum theory. The canonical ensemble for minisuperspaces containing the black holes found in these theories is well defined provided a negative cosmological constant exists. It is found that black holes are unstable against decay by Hawking radiation, unless their horizon radius is large, compared to the AdS radius.

Among all theories under consideration, there is only one representative in each odd dimension, given by a Chern-Simons action, having physical black holes whose spectrum has a mass gap separating them from AdS spacetime. These black holes always reach thermal equilibrium with a heat bath, and have positive specific heat, which guarantees their stability under thermal fluctuations.

### A Higher Dimensional Gravity Revisited

The standard higher dimensional extension of the four-dimensional Einstein-Hilbert (EH) action reads

$$I_{EH}=\frac{1}{2(d2)\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}G}d^dx\sqrt{g}(R2\mathrm{\Lambda }).$$
(1)
String and $`M`$-theory corrections to this action would bring in higher powers of curvature –see, e.g. Refs. . This may be a source of inconsistencies because higher powers of curvature could give rise to fourth order differential equations for the metric. This not only complicates the causal evolution, but in general would introduce ghosts and violate unitarity. However, Zwiebach  and Zumino  observed that ghosts are avoided if stringy corrections would only consist of the dimensional continuations of the Euler densities, so that the resulting field equations remain second order.

These theories are far from exotic. Indeed, they are described by the most general Lagrangians constructed with the same principles as General Relativity, that is, general covariance and second order field equations for the metric. These theories were first discussed by Lanczos for $`d=5`$ in $`1938`$  and more recently by Lovelock for $`d3`$ .

The Lanczos-Lovelock (LL) action is a polynomial of degree $`[d/2]`$ in curvature***Here $`[x]`$ is the integer part of $`x`$., which can also be written in terms of the Riemann curvature $`R^{ab}=d\omega ^{ab}+\omega _c^a\omega ^{cb}`$ and the vielbein $`e^a`$ asWedge product between forms is understood throughout.

$$I_G=\kappa \underset{p=0}{\overset{[d/2]}{}}\alpha _pL^{(p)},$$
(2)
where $`\alpha _p`$ are arbitrary constants, and $`L^{(p)}`$ is given by

$$L^{(p)}=ϵ_{a_1\mathrm{}a_d}R^{a_1a_2}R^{a_{2p1}a_{2p}}e^{a_{2p+1}}e^{a_d}.$$
(3)
In first order formalism the action (2) is regarded as a functional of the vielbein and the spin connection, and the corresponding field equations obtained varying with respect to $`e^a`$ and $`\omega ^{ab}`$read

$`{\displaystyle \underset{p=0}{\overset{[\frac{d1}{2}]}{}}}\alpha _p(d2p)_a^p`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{p=1}{\overset{[\frac{d1}{2}]}{}}}\alpha _pp(d2p)_{ab}^p`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (5)
where we have defined

$`_a^p:=`$ $`ϵ_{ab_1\mathrm{}b_{d1}}R^{b_1b_2}\mathrm{}R^{b_{2p1}b_{2p}}e^{b_{2p+1}}\mathrm{}e^{b_{d1}},`$
$`_{ab}^p:=`$ $`ϵ_{aba_3\mathrm{}a_d}R^{a_3a_4}\mathrm{}R^{a_{2p1}a_{2p}}T^{a_{2p+1}}e^{a_{2p+2}}\mathrm{}e^{a_d}.`$
Here $`T^a=de^a+\omega _b^ae^b`$ is the torsion $`2`$-form.

Note that in even dimensions, the term $`L^{(d/2)}`$ is the Euler density and therefore does not contribute to the field equations. However, the presence of this term in the action –with a fixed weight factor– guarantees the existence of a well defined variational principle for asymptotically locally AdS spacetimes . Moreover, the Euler density should assign different weights to non-homeomorphic geometries in the quantum theory.

The first two terms in the LL action (2) are the cosmological and kinetic terms of the EH action (1) respectively, and therefore General Relativity is contained in the LL theory as a particular case.

The linearized approximation of the LL and EH actions around a flat, torsionless background are classically equivalent . However, beyond perturbation theory the presence of higher powers of curvature in the Lagrangian makes both theories radically different. In particular, black holes and big-bang solutions of (2), have different asymptotic behaviors from their EH counterparts in general. Hence, a generic solution of the LL action cannot be approximated by a solution of Einstein’s theory.

### B Drawbacks

For a given dimension and an arbitrary choice of coefficients $`\alpha _p`$’s, higher dimensional LL theories have some drawbacks. One difficulty is the fact that the dynamical evolution can become unpredictable because the Hessian matrix cannot be inverted for a generic field configuration. Thus, the velocities are multivalued functions of the momenta and therefore the passage from the Lagrangian to the Hamiltonian is ill defined .

A reflection of this problem can be viewed in the static, spherically symmetric solutions of (4) and (5). For arbitrary $`\alpha _p`$’s there are negative energy solutions with horizons and positive energy solutions with naked singularities .

These problems can be curbed if the coefficients $`\alpha _p`$’s are chosen in a suitable way. The aim of the next section is to show that requiring the theories to possess a unique cosmological constant, strongly restricts the coefficients $`\alpha _p`$’s. As a consequence, one obtains a set of theories labelled by an integer $`k`$ which lead to well defined black hole configurations.

## II Selecting Sensible Theories

The field equations of LL theory (4) can be rearranged as a polynomial of $`k`$th degree in the curvature

$$ϵ_{ab_1\mathrm{}b_{d1}}\beta _0\overline{R}_{\beta _1}^{b_1b_2}\mathrm{}\overline{R}_{\beta _k}^{b_{2k1}b_{2k}}e^{b_{2k+1}}\mathrm{}e^{b_{d1}}=0$$
(6)
where $`\overline{R}_{\beta _i}^{ab}:=R^{ab}+\beta _ie^ae^b`$, and the coefficients $`\beta _i`$’s are related to the $`\alpha _p`$’s through

$$\underset{p}{\overset{[\frac{d1}{2}]}{}}(d2p)\alpha _px^p=\beta _0\underset{i}{\overset{k}{}}(x\beta _i).$$
(7)
Equation (6) can possess in general, several constant curvature solutions with different radii $`r_i=|\beta _i|^{1/2}`$, making the value of the cosmological constant ambiguous. In fact, the cosmological constant could change in different regions of a spatial section, or it could jump arbitrarily as the system evolves in time .

On the other hand, solving (6) for a given global isometry leads in general to several solutions with different asymptotic behaviors. Some of these solutions are “spurious” in the sense that perturbations around them yield ghosts. For instance, if $`\alpha _1`$ and $`\alpha _2`$ were the only nonvanishing coefficients in the LL action (3), two different static, spherically symmetric solutions would be obtained, which are asymptotically (A)dS and flat respectively. The perturbations around the latter solution are gravitons, while those on the former are spurious in the sense described above .

These problems are overcome demanding the theory to have a unique cosmological constant.

Requiring the existence of a unique cosmological constant implies that locally maximally symmetric solutions possess only one fixed radius, that is $`R^{ab}=\beta e^ae^b`$. This in turn means that the polynomial (7) must have only one real root. Hence, the coefficients $`\alpha _p`$’s are fixed through equation (7), so that the real $`\beta `$’s in (6) are all equal, allowing –for $`d7`$– an arbitrary number of distinct imaginary $`\beta `$’s which must come in conjugate pairs. Under this assumption, solutions representing localized sources of matter approach a constant curvature spacetime with a fixed radius in the asymptotic region.

In what follows, we consider the simplest class of such theories, namely, we assume the field equations to be of the form (6) with only one real $`\beta :=\frac{1}{l^2}`$, and no complex rootsA negative cosmological constant is assumed for later convenience, but this analysis does not depend on its sign.. These theories are described by the action

$$I_k=\kappa \underset{p=0}{\overset{k}{}}c_p^kL^{(p)},$$
(8)
which is obtained from (2) with the choice

$$\alpha _p:=c_p^k=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{l^{2(pk)}}{(d2p)}\left(\begin{array}{c}k\\ p\end{array}\right)\hfill & ,\text{ }pk\hfill \\ 0\hfill & ,\text{ }p>k\hfill \end{array}$$
(9)
where $`1k[\frac{d1}{2}]`$.

For a given dimension $`d`$, the coefficients $`c_p^k`$ give rise to a family of inequivalent theories, labeled by the integer $`k\{1,\mathrm{},[\frac{d1}{2}]\}`$ which represents the highest power of curvature in the Lagrangian. This set of theories possesses only two fundamental constants, $`\kappa `$ and $`l`$, related to the gravitational constant $`G_k`$ and the cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ through§§§Here the gravitational constant has natural units given by $`[G_k]=(`$length$`)^{d2k}`$.

$`\kappa `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(d2)!\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}G_k}},`$ (10)
$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(d1)(d2)}{2l^2}}.`$ (11)
The field equations for the action $`I_k`$ in (8), read

$`ϵ_{ba_1\mathrm{}a_{d1}}\overline{R}^{a_1a_2}\overline{R}^{a_{2k1}a_{2k}}e^{a_{2k+1}}e^{a_{d1}}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (12)
$`ϵ_{aba_3\mathrm{}a_d}\overline{R}^{a_3a_4}\overline{R}^{a_{2k1}a_{2k}}T^{a_{2k+1}}e^{a_{2k+2}}e^{a_{d1}}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (13)
with $`\overline{R}^{ab}:=R^{ab}+\frac{1}{l^2}e^ae^b`$.

### A Examples

There are special cases of interest which are obtained for particular values of the integer $`k`$.

* The Einstein-Hilbert action in $`d`$ dimensions (1) is recovered setting $`k=1`$ in (8).
* At the other end of the range, $`k=[\frac{d1}{2}]`$, even and odd dimensions must be distinguished. These cases are exceptional in that they are the only ones which allow sectors with non-trivial torsion , as discussed in Appendix A. When $`d=2n1`$, the maximum value of $`k`$ is $`n1`$, and the corresponding Lagrangian is a Chern-Simons (CS) $`2n1`$-form defined through (()VII A). For $`d=2n`$ and $`k=n1`$, the action can be written as the Pfaffian of the $`2`$-form $`\overline{R}^{ab}=R^{ab}+\frac{1}{l^2}e^ae^b`$ and, in this sense, it has a Born-Infeld-like (BI-like) form given by (95)Strictly speaking one must add the Euler density to the Lagrangian in (8) with the coefficient $`\alpha _n=c_n^{n1}:=\frac{l^2}{2n}`$, which does not modify the field equations. Therefore, the same BI Lagrangian (95) is recovered from (9) but now the index $`p`$ ranges from $`0`$ to $`n`$..
* In three and four dimensions equation (9) defines only one possible theory which corresponds to EH. As is well known, the EH action is equivalent to CS theory in three dimensions , and for $`d=4`$ the EH action coincides with the BI action up to the Euler density.
* In five and six dimensions, there are only two inequivalent theories which correspond to $`k=1,2`$. In five dimensions, $`k=1`$ represents EH and $`k=2`$ leads to CS. For $`d=6`$, one obtain EH and BI respectively.
* For $`d7`$ there exist other interesting possibilities which are neither EH, BI nor CS. For instance, consider the theory given by the action $`I_k`$ in (8) with $`k=2`$, which exists only for dimensions greater than 4. In this case the Lagrangian reads

$$L=\kappa \left(\frac{l^4}{d}L^{(0)}+\frac{2l^2}{d2}L^{(1)}+\frac{1}{d4}L^{(2)}\right),$$
(14)
with

$`L^{(0)}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_{a_1\mathrm{}a_d}e^{a_1}e^{a_d},`$ (15)
$`L^{(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_{a_1\mathrm{}a_d}R^{a_1a_2}e^{a_3}e^{a_d},`$ (16)
$`L^{(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_{a_1\mathrm{}a_d}R^{a_1a_2}R^{a_3a_4}e^{a_5}e^{a_d}.`$ (17)

Here $`L^{(0)}`$ and $`L^{(1)}`$ are proportional to the standard cosmological and kinetic terms for the EH action, and $`L^{(2)}`$ is proportional to the four dimensional Gauss-Bonnet density ,

$$^2:=(R_{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }R^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }4R_{\mu \nu }R^{\mu \nu }+R^2),$$
(18)
where $`R^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }`$, $`R^{\mu \nu }`$ and $`R`$ are the Riemann, Ricci and scalar curvatures, respectively. The action in standard tensor components reads

$$I_2=\frac{2(d3)!\kappa }{l^2}\underset{M}{}d^dx\sqrt{g}\left[\frac{l^2^2}{2(d3)(d4)}+R\mathrm{\Lambda }\right],$$
(19)
with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ given by (11). In sum, the theory with $`k=2`$ is described by a Lagrangian which is a linear combination of Gauss-Bonnet density, the EH Lagrangian and the volume term with fixed weights.

Each of the theories described by $`I_k`$ for all $`k`$ possesses a unique cosmological constant. In fact, as is apparent from equations (12) and (13), spacetimes satisfying $`\overline{R}^{ab}=0`$ are the only locally maximally symmetric solutions. This ensures that localized matter fields give rise to solutions which are asymptotically AdS spacetimes.

## III Static and Spherically Symmetric Solutions

In this section, we test the theories described by $`I_k`$ analyzing their static, spherically symmetric solutions including their electrically charged extensions. It is shown that they possess well behaved black holes, resembling the Schwarzschild-AdS and Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS solutions. The subset of theories with $`k`$ odd differ from their even counterparts, because in the first case there is a unique black hole solution, whereas in the latter, an additional solution with a naked singularity exists.

### A Pure Gravity

Consider static and spherically symmetric solutions of equations (12) and (13) for a fixed value of the label $`k`$. In Schwarzschild-like coordinates, the metric can be written as

$$ds^2=N^2(r)f^2(r)dt^2+\frac{dr^2}{f^2(r)}+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2.$$
(20)
Replacing this ansatz in the field equations (12) and (13) leads to the following equations for $`N`$ and $`f^2`$

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dN}{dr}}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (21)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\left(r^{d1}\left[F(r)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{l^2}}\right]^k\right)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (22)
where the function $`F(r)`$ is given by

$$F(r)=\frac{1f^2(r)}{r^2}.$$
(23)
Integrating equations (22) yields

$`N`$ $`=`$ $`N_{\mathrm{}},`$ (24)
$`f^2(r)`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{l^2}}\sigma \left({\displaystyle \frac{C_1}{r^{d2k1}}}\right)^{1/k},`$ (25)
where the integration constant $`N_{\mathrm{}}`$ relates coordinate time to the proper time of an observer at spatial infinity and in what follows is chosen equal to one. Here $`\sigma =(\pm 1)^{(k+1)}`$, and the integration constant $`C_1`$ is identified as

$`C_1=2G_k(M+C_0),`$

where $`M`$ stands for the mass, as is discussed in detail in section III.C.

For even $`k`$, the ambiguity of sign expressed through $`\sigma `$ in (25) implies that there are two possible solutions provided $`C_1>0`$. The solution with $`\sigma =1`$ describes a real black hole with a unique event horizon surrounding the singularity at the origin. The solution with $`\sigma =1`$ has a naked singularity with positive mass.

If $`k`$ is odd, there is no ambiguity of sign because $`\sigma `$ cannot be different from unity, therefore in that case there exists a unique static, spherically symmetric solution, which corresponds to a black hole with positive mass.

The black hole mass for any value of $`k`$ is a monotonically increasing function of the horizon radius $`r_+`$, which reads

$$M(r_+)=\frac{r_+^{d2k1}}{2G_k}\left(1+\frac{r_+^2}{l^2}\right)^kC_0.$$
(26)
The additive constant $`C_0`$ is chosen so that the horizon shrinks to a point for $`M0`$, hence

$$C_0=\frac{1}{2G_k}\delta _{d2k,1},$$
(27)
which vanishes in all cases except for CS theory.

Summarizing, for a given dimension $`d3`$ the full set of $`[\frac{d1}{2}]`$ inequivalent theories given by the action $`I_k`$ in (8), possess asymptotically AdS black hole solutions whose line elements read

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{l^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2G_kM+\delta _{d2k,1}}{r^{d2k1}}}\right)^{1/k}\right)dt^2+`$ (29)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dr^2}{1+\frac{r^2}{l^2}\left(\frac{2G_kM+\delta _{d2k,1}}{r^{d2k1}}\right)^{1/k}}}+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2.`$
One can see from (29) that for $`k=1`$, the three dimensional black hole  and Schwarzschild-AdS solutions of the $`d`$-dimensional Einstein-Hilbert action with negative cosmological constant are recovered. The black hole solutions corresponding to BI and CS theories  are obtained also from (29) setting $`k=[\frac{d1}{2}]`$.

The whole set of black hole metrics given by (29) share a common causal structure when $`M>0`$, which coincides with the familiar one described by the Penrose diagram of the four dimensional Schwarzschild-AdS solution. Nevertheless, the presence of the Kronecker delta within the metrics (29) signals the existence of two possible black hole vacua ($`M=0`$) with different causal structures. The generic case holds for the whole set of theories except CS, whose line elements are described by (29) with $`d2k1`$, that is

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{l^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2G_kM}{r^{d2k1}}}\right)^{1/k}\right)dt^2+`$ (31)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dr^2}{1+\frac{r^2}{l^2}\left(\frac{2G_kM}{r^{d2k1}}\right)^{1/k}}}+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2.`$
Analogously with the Schwarzschild-AdS metric, this set possesses a continuous mass spectrum, whose vacuum state is the AdS spacetime. The other case is obtained only for $`d=2n1`$ dimensions, and it is a peculiarity of CS theories, whose black hole solutions are recovered from (29) with $`k=n1`$, which read

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{l^2}}\left(2G_{n1}M+1\right)^{\frac{1}{n1}}\right)dt^2+`$ (33)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dr^2}{1+\frac{r^2}{l^2}\left(2G_{n1}M+1\right)^{\frac{1}{n1}}}}+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2.`$
In that case, the black hole vacuum ($`M=0`$) differs from AdS spacetime. Although this configuration has no constant curvature for $`d>3`$, it possesses the same causal structure as the three-dimensional zero mass black hole. Another common feature with $`2+1`$ dimensions is the existence of a mass gap between the zero mass black hole and AdS spacetime, where the later is obtained for $`M=\frac{1}{2G_{n1}}`$.

### B Coupling to the Electromagnetic Field

The standard coupling with the electromagnetic field is obtained adding to the gravitational action $`I_k`$ in Eq. (8) the Maxwell termThe constant $`ϵ`$ is related with the “vacuum permeability” through $`ϵ=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}ϵ_0}`$. Its natural units are $`[ϵ]=(`$length$`)^{d4}`$.

$$I_M=\frac{1}{4ϵ\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}}\sqrt{g}F^{\mu \nu }F_{\mu \nu }\text{ }d^dx.$$
(34)
Electrically charged solutions which are static and spherically symmetric can be found through the ansatz (20), and requiring that and the only non vanishing component of the electromagnetic field strength be

$$F_{0r}=_rA_0(r).$$
(35)
The field equations for $`N`$, $`f^2`$and $`A_0`$ read

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dN}{dr}}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (36)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}(r^{d2}p)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (37)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dA_0}{dr}}+Np`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (38)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\left(r^{d1}\left[F(r)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{l^2}}\right]^k\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G_k}{ϵ}}r^{d2}p^2,`$ (39)
where $`F(r)`$ is defined in equation (23), and $`p(r)`$ is a redefinition of the electric field,

$$p=\frac{1}{N}F_{0r}.$$
(40)
Integrating these equations yields

$`N`$ $`=`$ $`N_{\mathrm{}}=1,`$ (41)
$`p(r)`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{r^{d2}}},`$ (42)
$`A_0(r)`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _{\mathrm{}}+{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{(d3)}}{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{r^{d3}}}\text{ },`$ (43)
$`f^2(r)`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{l^2}}\sigma g_k(r),`$ (44)
with $`\sigma =(\pm 1)^{(k+1)}`$ and

$$g_k(r)=\left(\frac{2G_kM+\delta _{d2k,1}}{r^{d2k1}}\frac{ϵG_k}{\left(d3\right)}\frac{Q^2}{r^{2(dk2)}}\right)^{\frac{1}{k}}.$$
(45)
The integration constants $`M`$ and $`Q`$ in (45) are the mass and the electric charge of the black hole respectively, as is shown in the next subsection.

Equations (44) provide the electrically charged extension of the vacuum solution (25)\**\**\**The expression (45) is valid for $`d>3`$. The three dimensional case is discussed in Refs. .. The presence of $`\sigma `$ in (44) leads to a similar picture as in the uncharged case. When $`k`$ is odd, there is a unique electrically charged black hole solution because $`\sigma `$ is always equal to one, but when $`k`$ is even, the solution with $`\sigma =1`$ represents a black hole, and the solution with $`\sigma =1`$ possess a naked singularity.

Therefore, electrically charged asymptotically AdS black hole solutions are obtained from (44) with $`\sigma =1`$, whose line element read –for $`d>3`$– as

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{l^2}}g_k(r)\right)dt^2+`$ (47)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dr^2}{1+\frac{r^2}{l^2}g_k(r)}}+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2,`$
where $`g_k(r)`$ is given by (45).

As is naturally expected, the set of black holes described by (47), reduce to the $`d`$-dimensional Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS solution for $`k=1`$. The electrically charged black hole solutions corresponding to BI and CS theories  are also recovered for $`d=2n`$ and $`d=2n1`$ respectively, as it can be seen replacing $`k=n1`$ in (47).

For a generic value of the label $`k`$, in analogy with standard Reissner-Nordström-AdS geometry, the black hole solutions given by (47) possess in general two horizons located at the roots of $`f^2(r)`$. They satisfy $`0<r_{}<r_+`$ provided the mass is bounded from below as $`Mh_k(Q)`$, where $`h_k`$ is a monotonically increasing function of the electric charge. Both horizons merge when the bound is saturated, corresponding to the extreme case, that is $`r_+=r_{}`$ for $`M=h_k(Q)`$. Solutions with $`M<h_k(Q)`$ possess naked singularities which should be considered unphysical. Thus, for a given electric charge, the existence of a lower bound on $`M`$ is in agreement with the cosmic censorship principle.

An important difference with the Reissner-Nordström-AdS case ($`k=1`$) is shared by all electrically charged black hole solutions with $`k1`$, as can be inferred evaluating the scalar curvature for the metrics (47), given by

$$R=\frac{1}{r^{d2}}\frac{d^2}{dr^2}\left[r^{d2}\left(g_k(r)\frac{r^2}{l^2}\right)\right].$$
(48)
For any $`k1`$, equation (48) has a branch point unbounded singularity at the zero of the function $`g_k(r)`$. This is a real timelike singularity located at

$$r_e=\left(\frac{ϵ}{2(d3)}\frac{Q^2}{(M+\frac{1}{2G_k}\delta _{d2k,1})}\right)^{\frac{1}{d3}},$$
(49)
which can be reached in a finite proper time. However, an external observer is protected from it because it is surrounded by both horizons, i.e. $`0<r_e<r_{}<r_+`$.

When $`k`$ is even, spacetime cannot be extended to $`r<r_e`$, because in that case the metric (47) would become complex. This means that the manifold possesses a real boundary at $`r=r_e`$, and therefore, $`r_e`$ is the smallest possible size of a spherical body endowed of electric charge $`Q`$ and mass $`M`$.

For odd values of $`k1`$ there is no obstruction to define spacetime within the region $`r<r_e`$. However, as it can be seen from (48), there is an additional timelike singularity located at $`r=0`$. In that case, a spherical source with electric charge $`Q`$ and mass $`M`$, whose radius is smaller than $`r_e`$ possesses an exterior geometry described by (47) which cannot be empty, since it has a singularity at $`r=r_e`$. This means that the original source generates “a shield”, which acts as the effective source of the external geometry. Hence again, $`r_e`$ is the smallest size for the source.

This means that the presence of electric charge brings in a new length scale into the system, except when one deals with the EH action. For CS theory ($`d=2k+1`$), the radius $`r_e`$ depends on the gravitational constant. However, in the generic case, which is given by the set of theories which are neither EH or CS, the radius $`r_e`$ depends only on intrinsic features of the source and it is completely independent from gravity. That is, $`r_e`$ is independent of the label $`k`$, the gravitational constant $`G_k`$ and the cosmological constant – or equivalently the AdS radius $`l`$ –, that is

$$r_e=\left(\frac{ϵ}{2(d3)}\frac{Q^2}{M}\right)^{\frac{1}{d3}},$$
(50)
which has the same expression as the classical radius of the electron in $`d`$ dimensions. It is noteworthy that $`r_e`$ is encoded in the geometry.

Remarkably, the only theory within the family discussed here, which is unable to predict a minimum size for the source is General Relativity.

### C Mass and Electric Charge from Boundary Terms

In order to identify the integration constants appearing in the black hole solutions (29) and (47) with the mass and electric charge, it is convenient to carry out the canonical analysis . The total action can be written in Hamiltonian form as

$$I_T=I_G+I_M+B,$$
(51)
where $`I_G`$ and $`I_M`$ are the canonical actions for gravity and electromagnetism, respectively

$`I_G`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^dx(\pi ^{ij}\dot{g}_{ij}N^{}H_GN^iH_{Gi})},`$ (52)
$`I_M`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^dx(p^i\dot{A}_iN^{}H_MN^iH_{Mi}A_0_ip^i)},`$ (53)
and $`B`$ stands for a boundary term which is needed so that the action attains an extremum on the classical solution. Here $`H_{G\mu }`$ and $`H_{M\mu }`$ are the Hamiltonian generators of diffeomorphisms on the gravitational and electromagnetic phase spaces, respectively (see Ref. ).

In case of static, spherically symmetric spacetimes, a general theorem  implies that the extremum of the action can be found through a minisuperspace model, which is obtained replacing the Ansätze (20) and (35) into the action, as well. Hence, one deals with a simple one-dimensional model which allows fixing the boundary term $`B`$as a function of the integration constants requiring the total action (51) to have an extremum on the classical solutions. The minisuperspace action takes the form

$`I_T`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }t{\displaystyle \frac{N}{2}\left[\frac{d}{dr}\left\{\frac{r^{d1}}{G_k}\left[F(r)+\frac{1}{l^2}\right]^k\right\}\frac{1}{ϵ}r^{d2}p^2\right]𝑑r}`$ (55)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵ}}\mathrm{\Delta }t{\displaystyle A_0\frac{d}{dr}\left(r^{d2}p\right)𝑑r}+B,`$
where $`N:=N^{}(r)f^2(r)`$, and $`p`$ is a redefinition of the canonical momentum $`p^r`$, conjugate to $`A_r`$,

$$p=\frac{1}{N}F_{0r}=\frac{ϵ\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}}{r^{d2}\sqrt{\gamma }}p^r,$$
(56)
and $`\gamma `$ is the determinant of the angular metric.

The action (55) is a functional of the fields $`N`$, $`f^2`$, $`A_0`$ and $`p`$, whose variation leads to a bulk term which vanishes on the field equations (39). Thus, the variation of the action (55) on shell is a boundary term given by

$`\delta I_T`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }t{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}\left(N\frac{r^{d1}}{2G_k}\delta \left[F(r)+\frac{1}{l^2}\right]^k\right)𝑑r}`$ (58)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵ}}\mathrm{\Delta }t{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}\left(A_0r^{d2}\delta p\right)𝑑r}+\delta B,`$
which means that the action is stationary on the black hole solution provided

$$\delta B=\mathrm{\Delta }t(N_{\mathrm{}}\delta M+\varphi _{\mathrm{}}\delta Q).$$
(59)
Since $`\delta M`$ is multiplied by the proper time separation at infinity, one identifies $`M`$ and $`Q`$ as the mass and the electric charge up to additive constants. The additive constant related with the mass is called $`C_0`$ and it is fixed in (27), requiring that the horizon shrink to a point for $`M0`$. The additive constant related with the electric charge vanishes demanding that the electrically charged solution (47) reduces to the uncharged one (29) for $`Q=0`$. Therefore, the boundary term that must be added to the action is

$$B=\mathrm{\Delta }t(M+\varphi _{\mathrm{}}Q)+B_0,$$
(60)
where $`N_{\mathrm{}}`$ has been chosen equal to $`1`$, and $`B_0`$ is an arbitrary constant without variation. This proves that the integration constants $`M`$ and $`Q`$ appearing in the black hole metrics (47) and (29) are the mass and the electric charge respectively.

These results are confirmed also through an alternative method which holds for even dimensions, as is discussed in Appendix B.

### D Asymptotically flat limit $`(l\mathrm{})`$

The black hole metrics (29) and (47) tend asymptotically to an AdS spacetime with radius $`l`$, whose curvature satisfies $`R^{ab}l^2e^ae^b`$ at the boundary. Then, their asymptotically flat limit is obtained by taking $`l\mathrm{}`$. Thus, instead of taking the vanishing limit of the volume term $`(\alpha _00)`$, the vanishing cosmological constant limit of the action $`I_k`$ is obtained setting $`l\mathrm{}`$ in (9). This procedure is consistent with taking the same limit in the field equations (12) and (13).

When $`l\mathrm{}`$ the only non-vanishing term in (9) is the $`k`$th one, consequently the action is obtained from (2) with the following choice of coefficients:

$$\alpha _p:=\stackrel{~}{c}_p^k=\frac{1}{(d2k)}\delta _p^k.$$
(61)
Therefore, replacing (61) in (2), a new family of Lagrangians labeled by the integer $`k\{1,2,\mathrm{},[\frac{d1}{2}]\}`$, is obtained. For a fixed value of $`k`$, the Lagrangian is given just by $`L^{(k)}`$ defined in (3), so that the action reads

$$\stackrel{~}{I}_k=\frac{\kappa }{(d2k)}ϵ_{a_1\mathrm{}a_d}R^{a_1a_2}R^{a_{2k1}a_{2k}}e^{a_{2k+1}}e^{a_d},$$
(62)
where $`\kappa `$ is defined in (10). The field equations coincide with the $`l\mathrm{}`$ limit of (12), (13), which merely amounts to replacing $`\overline{R}^{ab}`$ by $`R^{ab}`$.

Note that for $`k=1`$, the standard EH action without cosmological constant is recovered, while for $`k=2`$ the Lagrangian is the Gauss-Bonnet density (18).

Static and spherically symmetric solutions of (62) lead to a similar picture as in the electrically (un)charged asymptotically AdS case: when $`k`$ is odd, one obtains only one solution describing a black hole, but for even values of $`k`$, two different solutions exist, one of them describes a black hole, while the other possesses naked singularities even when the mass bound holds.

It is simple to verify that black hole solutions of the action (62) correspond to the vanishing cosmological constant limit of the solutions for pure gravity (29). This also holds for the electrically charged solutions (47).

#### 1 $`Q=0:`$

The asymptotically flat solutions without electric charge are given by

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1\left({\displaystyle \frac{2G_kM}{r^{d2k1}}}\right)^{1/k}\right)dt^2+`$ (64)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dr^2}{1\left(\frac{2G_kM}{r^{d2k1}}\right)^{1/k}}}+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2.`$
The generic cases correspond to $`d2k10`$, for which the metrics (64) represent black hole solutions with an event horizon located at $`r_+=(2G_kM)^{1/(d2k1)}`$. As usual, their common vacuum geometry is the flat Minkowski spacetime, and their causal structure is described through the standard Penrose diagram of the Schwarzschild solution. In case of $`k=1`$ (EH), the Schwarzschild solution is recovered from (64) for $`d>3`$. Exceptional cases occur when $`d=2k+1`$, for which the action (62) correspond to a CS theory for the Poincaré group $`ISO(d1,1)`$. Their static, spherically symmetric solutions (64) do not describe black holes because they have a naked singularity at the origin. This can be inferred from (33) because when $`l\mathrm{}`$ the horizon recedes to infinity. For instance, in three dimensions, the solution (64) represent a conical spacetime .

#### 2 $`Q0`$:

The electrically charged asymptotically flat black hole solutions can be obtained for $`d>3`$ from (47) in the limit $`l\mathrm{}`$. As for the uncharged solutions, the generic case holds for $`d2k10`$, whose line elements read

$$ds^2=\left(1g_k(r)\right)dt^2+\frac{dr^2}{1g_k(r)}+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2,$$
(65)
with $`g_k(r)`$ given by

$$g_k(r)=\left(\frac{2G_kM}{r^{d2k1}}\frac{ϵG_k}{(d3)}\frac{Q^2}{r^{2(dk2)}}\right)^{\frac{1}{k}}.$$
(66)
For different generic values of the label $`k`$, the black hole solutions given by (65) resemble the Reissner-Nordström one, possessing two horizons which are found solving $`g_k(r)=1`$. As usual, these horizons satisfy $`0<r_{}<r_+`$ provided the mass is bounded from below by

$$Q^2\frac{(d2k1)}{ϵG_k}\left(\frac{(d3)G_kM}{dk2}\right)^{\frac{2d2k4}{d2k1}}.$$
(67)
The extreme case occurs when both horizons coalesce, that is

$$r_+=r_{}=\left(\frac{(d3)G_kM}{dk2}\right)^{\frac{1}{d2k1}},$$
(68)
so that the bound (67) is saturated.

The $`d`$-dimensional Reissner-Nordstrom solution is obtained from (65) setting $`k=1`$. Equation (67) reproduces the well known four-dimensional bound given by

$$Q_{EH}^2\frac{GM^2}{ϵ},$$
(69)
which is saturated when $`r_+=r_{}=G_kM`$, as can be seen from (68) for $`d=4`$ and $`k=1`$.

A further example corresponds to the electrically charged black hole in the vanishing cosmological constant limit of the BI action. The bound and the extreme radius are obtained in that case from (67) and (68) for $`d=2n`$ and $`k=n1`$:

$`Q_{BI}^2`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵG_{n1}}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{(2n3)G_{n1}M}{n1}}\right]^{2(n1)}`$ (70)
$`r_+`$ $`=`$ $`r_{}={\displaystyle \frac{(2n3)G_{n1}M}{n1}}.`$ (71)
The full set of asymptotically flat electrically charged black hole solutions (65) share a common feature with its asymptotically AdS counterparts given by (47) in the generic case $`(d2k10)`$. That is the existence of a timelike singularity for $`k1`$ located at the zero of $`g_k(r)`$ in (66) given by

$$r_e=\left(\frac{ϵ}{2(d3)}\frac{Q^2}{M)}\right)^{\frac{1}{d3}},$$
(72)
which satisfies $`0<r_e<r_{}<r_+`$ and is again interpreted as the smallest possible size of a spherical body with electric charge $`Q`$ and mass $`M`$. Then one concludes that this feature is absent only when one deals with the EH action with or without cosmological constant.

## IV Thermodynamics

### A Temperature

As usual, we define the black hole temperature by the condition that in the Euclidean sector, the solution be well defined (smooth) at the horizon. This means that the Euclidean time is a periodic coordinate with period

$$\tau =4\pi \left(\frac{df^2}{dr}|_{r_+}\right)^1,$$
(73)
which is identified with $`\beta =\frac{1}{\kappa _BT}`$, where $`\kappa _B`$ is the Boltzmann constant. Thus, the Hawking temperature is given by

$$T=\frac{1}{4\pi \kappa _B}\frac{df^2}{dr}|_{r_+}.$$
(74)
For the electrically uncharged cases, the black hole temperature for the set of metrics (29) is

$$T=\frac{1}{4\pi \kappa _Bk}\left((d1)\frac{r_+}{l^2}+\frac{(d2k1)}{r_+}\right).$$
(75)
For all $`k`$ such that $`d2k10`$, the function $`T(r_+)`$ exhibits the same behavior as the standard Schwarzschild-AdS black hole (which is obtained for $`k=1`$), that is: the temperature diverges at $`r_+=0`$. It has a minimum at $`r_c`$ given by

$$r_c=l\sqrt{\frac{d2k1}{d1}},$$
(76)
and grows linearly for large $`r_+`$. Considering $`k=n1`$, formula (75) reproduces the known results for BI ($`d=2n`$) and CS ($`d=2n1`$) black holes . The temperature (75) reaches an absolute minimum at $`r_c`$ equal to

$$T_c=\frac{\sqrt{\left(d2k1\right)\left(d1\right)}}{2\pi \kappa _Bkl},$$
(77)
provided the existence of a nonvanishing cosmological constant ($`l\mathrm{}`$).

In case of CS theory, that is when $`d2k1=0`$, $`T(r_+)`$ is not divergent at all, its absolute minimum is at $`r_c=0`$ and $`T_c=0`$. Thus, CS black holes are the only exceptional cases among all the possibilities considered here. Both, CS and generic cases are depicted in Figure $`1`$.

### B Specific Heat and Thermal Equilibrium

As seen in Section III.A, the black hole mass is a monotonically increasing function of $`r_+`$, therefore the behavior of $`T(M)`$ is qualitatively similar to that of $`T(r_+)`$.

Using (75) and (26), the specific heat $`C_k=\frac{M}{T}`$, can be expressed as a function of $`r_+`$,

$$C_k=k\frac{2\pi \kappa _B}{G_k}r_+^{d2k}\left(\frac{r_+^2+r_c^2}{r_+^2r_c^2}\right)\left(1+\frac{r_+^2}{l^2}\right)^{k1},$$
(78)
In case of $`d2k10`$, the specific heat (78) possesses an unbounded discontinuity at $`r_+=r_c`$ (see Figure $`1`$), signaling a phase transition. The specific heat $`C`$ is positive for $`r_+>r_c`$, and has the opposite sign for $`r_+<r_c`$.

Again, the CS case is exceptional. Setting $`d=2n1`$ and $`k=n1`$ in (78), the specific heat is found as

$$C_{CS}=\left(n1\right)\frac{2\pi \kappa _B}{G_{n1}}r_+\left(1+\frac{r_+^2}{l^2}\right)^{n2},$$
(79)
which is a continuous monotonically increasing positive function of $`r_+`$ and does not diverge for any finite value of $`r_+`$ .

The presence of a negative cosmological constant makes it possible for the family of black hole solutions (29) to reach thermal equilibrium, as is possible for the Schwarzschild-AdS4 spacetime  and for the three-dimensional black hole. Let us assume that any black hole described by (29) is immersed in a thermal bath of temperature $`T_0>T_c`$. If $`d2k10`$, the thermal behavior splits in two branches: for $`r_+<r_c`$, the specific heat is negative and therefore black hole state is driven away from that with temperature $`T_0`$; for $`r_+>r_c`$, the black hole state is attracted towards the equilibrium configuration at temperature $`T_0`$ (see Figure $`3`$). Thus, the temperature $`T_0`$ corresponds to two equilibrium states of radii $`r_u`$ (unstable) and $`r_s`$ (locally stable), with $`r_u<r_c<r_s`$. Neglecting quantum tunneling processes, there are two possible scenarios: if the initial black hole state has $`r_+<r_u`$, the black hole cannot reach the equilibrium because it evaporates until its final stage. Otherwise, for $`r_+>r_u`$, the black hole evolves towards an equilibrium configuration at $`r_+=r_s`$.

If the heat bath has temperature below $`T_c`$, the black hole cannot reach a stable equilibrium state and must evaporate, as depicted in Figure $`4`$.

None of the above arguments hold for the Chern-Simons case. When $`d2k=1`$, the specific heat (79) is always positive, therefore the equilibrium configuration is always reached, independently from the initial black hole state and for any finite temperature of the heat bath.

### C Entropy

It is well known that the partition function which describes the black hole thermodynamics is obtained through the Euclidean path integral in the saddle point approximation around the black hole solution . That is,

$`Ze^{I_E},`$

which means that the Euclidean action evaluated on the black hole configuration is identified with $`\beta `$ times the free energy of the system

$$I_E=\beta M\frac{S}{\kappa _B}+\beta \underset{i}{}\mu _iQ_i.$$
(80)
where the $`\mu _i`$’s are the chemical potentials corresponding to the charges $`Q_i`$. The Euclidean minisuperspace action is given by the Wick-rotated form of (55), that is

$`I_E`$ $`=`$ $`\beta {\displaystyle \underset{r_+}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{N}{2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{r^{d1}}{G_k}}\left[F(r)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{l^2}}\right]^k\right\}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵ}}r^{d2}p^2\right]𝑑r+`$ (82)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵ}}\beta {\displaystyle \underset{r_+}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}A_0{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\left(r^{d2}p\right)𝑑r+B_E,`$
In what follows we shall consider the electrically uncharged cases only. The bulk part of the Euclidean action is a linear combination of the constrains and therefore, its on-shell value is given by the boundary term $`B_E`$. This boundary piece is determined by the requirement that $`I_E`$ be stationary on the black hole geometry. Varying (82) leads to

$$\delta I_E=\frac{\beta N_{\mathrm{}}}{2G_k}\underset{r_+}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{d}{dr}\left\{r^{d1}\delta \left[F(r)+\frac{1}{l^2}\right]^k\right\}𝑑r+\delta B_E,$$
(83)
on shell. From this expression, one finds

$`\delta B_E=\beta \delta M{\displaystyle \frac{2\pi k}{G_k}}r_+^{d2k1}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{r_+^2}{l^2}}\right)^{k1}\delta r_+,`$

where $`N_{\mathrm{}}`$ has been set equal to one and we have used $`\frac{df^2}{dr}|_{r_+}=4\pi \beta ^1`$. From (80) one identifies

$$\delta S=k\frac{2\pi \kappa _B}{G_k}r_+^{d2k1}\left(1+\frac{r_+^2}{l^2}\right)^{k1}\delta r_+,$$
(84)
which is integrated into

$$S_k=k\frac{2\pi \kappa _B}{G_k}\underset{0}{\overset{r_+}{}}r^{(d2k1)}\left(1+\frac{r^2}{l^2}\right)^{k1}𝑑r.$$
(85)
This is a monotonically increasing function of $`r_+`$, in agreement with the second law of thermodynamics. In (85) the lower limit in the integral has been fixed by the condition $`S_k(r_+=0)=0`$ for the whole set of black holes given by (29).

For the EH action (that is for $`k=1`$), expression (85) readily reproduces, for the Schwarzschild-AdS solution

$`S_{EH}={\displaystyle \frac{2\pi \kappa _B}{(d2)G}}r_+^{d2},`$

which in standard units  is the celebrated “area law”

$`S_{EH}={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _B}{\stackrel{~}{G}}}{\displaystyle \frac{A}{4}}.`$

For $`k=\left[\frac{d1}{2}\right]`$ (BI and CS), formula (85) reduces to the known results . The theory described by $`I_2`$ in (19) is an intrinsically higher dimensional one, and the corresponding black hole entropy is given by

$$S_2=\frac{4\pi \kappa _B}{G_\mathrm{𝟐}}r_+^{d4}\left[\frac{1}{(d4)}+\frac{r_+^2}{(d2)l^2}\right].$$
(86)
Hence, the area law is a peculiarity of the Einstein-Hilbert theory ($`k=1`$), while for $`k1`$ the entropy (85) becomes proportional to the area in the large $`r_+`$ limit, that is

$$S_kk\frac{2\pi \kappa _B}{(d2)G_kl^{2(k1)}}r_+^{d2}=k\frac{G}{G_kl^{2(k1)}}S_{EH},$$
(87)
with $`r_+>>l`$.

### D Asymptotically flat limit

In the limit $`l\mathrm{}`$, the geometry of the uncharged black hole is given by (64) whose corresponding temperature is

$$T^0=\frac{1}{4\pi \kappa _Bk}\frac{(d2k1)}{r_+}.$$
(88)
This gives a vanishing value for CS theory $`(d2k1=0)`$, which is consistent with the fact that in that case, the geometry possesses a singularity which is not surrounded by a horizon in the limit $`l\mathrm{}`$, so that no temperature can be associated with it. For all the other cases $`(d2k10)`$, the horizon is located at $`r_+=(2G_kM)^{1/(d2k1)}`$, so that the black hole temperature (88) is a monotonically decreasing function of the mass. Therefore, thermal equilibrium can never be reached, consistently with the fact that the specific heat is always negative

$$C^0=k\frac{2\pi \kappa _B}{G_k}r_+^{d2k}.$$
(89)
The entropy is also an increasing function of $`r_+`$,

$$S_k^0=k\frac{2\pi \kappa _B}{G_k}\frac{r_+^{(d2k)}}{(d2k)},$$
(90)
which is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics. Note that formula (90) is proportional to the area of the horizon only for $`k=1`$ (EH). Thus, in the $`l\mathrm{}`$ limit, the area law cannot be recovered even as an approximation in the cases with $`k1`$.

### E Canonical Ensemble

In four dimensions, Hawking and Page have shown that in the presence of a negative cosmological constant, the partition function in the canonical ensemble is well defined, unlike in case of a vanishing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ . The same argument can be extended for higher dimensions for the whole set of theories (8) labelled by $`k`$.

The partition function in the canonical ensemble reads

$$Z(\beta )=_0^{\mathrm{}}e^{\beta M}\rho (M)𝑑M,$$
(91)
where $`\rho (M)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{S_k}{\kappa _B}\right)`$ is the density of states as a function of the energy. The convergence of this integral depends on the asymptotic behavior of $`S_k`$ for large $`M`$,

$`S_ka_{d,k}M^{\left(\frac{d2}{d1}\right)},`$

where $`a_{d,k}`$ is a positive constant. Thus, the integrand of (91) goes as $`\mathrm{exp}(\beta M+\kappa _B^1a_{d,k}M^{\left(\frac{d2}{d1}\right)})`$ and therefore the partition function converges.

This argument breaks down in the $`l\mathrm{}`$ limit: in that case, the entropy is

$`S_k^0=a_{d,k}^0M^{\left(\frac{d2k}{d2k1}\right)},`$

with $`a_{d,k}^0`$ a different positive constant, which yields a divergent partition function.

The lesson one can draw from this exercise is that the presence of a negative cosmological constant is sufficient to render the canonical ensemble well defined for all the theories described here.

## V Summary and Discussion

### A Theories described by the action $`I_k`$

We have examined a family of gravitation theories in dimension $`d`$, whose common feature is to possess vacuum solutions with maximal symmetry. This means that the theories –described by the action $`I_k`$– have a unique cosmological constant. For a given $`d`$ there exist $`[\frac{d1}{2}]`$ different theories labeled by the integer $`k`$, which is the highest power of curvature in the Lagrangian. For $`k=1`$, the EH action is recovered, while for the largest value of $`k`$, that is $`k=[\frac{d1}{2}]`$, BI and CS theories are obtained. These three cases exhaust the different possibilities up to six dimensions, and new interesting cases arise for $`d7`$. For instance, the case with $`k=2`$, which is described by the action (19), exists only for $`d>4`$: In five dimensions this theory is equivalent to CS, for $`d=6`$ it is equivalent to BI, and for $`d=7`$ and up, it defines a new class of theories.

### B Special cases selected from cosmic censorship

A first distinction between the different theories mentioned above comes from the study of their spherically symmetric, static solutions. It is found that for odd $`k`$, physical black holes satisfying the cosmic censorship criterion exist. For even $`k`$, however, both physical black holes and solutions with naked singularities with positive mass exist. This already casts doubt on the soundness of this subset of theories. Moreover, the absence of a cosmic censorship principle would be in conflict with the existence of a positive energy theorem obtained from supersymmetry. This means that the supersymmetric extensions of the theories considered here can be expected to be very different for odd and even $`k`$. In fact, as it has been shown in , CS theories with even $`k`$ –defined for $`d=5,9,\mathrm{}`$–, have a supersymmetric extension based on superunitary groups, whereas for odd $`k`$ $`(d=3,7,11,\mathrm{})`$ the corresponding supergravities are based on the orthosymplectic groups.

The different theories considered here are summarized in the scheme shown in Fig. 5.

Here we have highlighted the odd $`k`$ columns as they would represent better candidates for physical theories based on the criterion of cosmic censorship versus supersymmetry.

Note that CS theories are the representatives of the lowest possible dimension for a given $`k`$. Moreover, CS gravity theories exhibit local AdS symmetry whereas all other gravitation theories of the same dimension only have local Lorentz invariance (see Appendix A).

Over the years, 11-dimensional spacetime has been believed to be the arena for the ultimate unified theory. From the present analysis, it follows that in $`d=11`$, the cases $`k=1,3,5`$ are of special interest. The supersymmetric extension for $`k=1`$ is the famous Cremmer-Julia-Scherk supergravity , which only exists if the cosmological constant vanishes . The supersymmetric extension for $`k=5`$ with a finite $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is also known , whose vanishing cosmological constant version is described in . The corresponding supersymmetric extension of the gravity theory with $`k=3`$ is an open problem.

### C Black Holes

For all dimensions and for any $`k`$, there exist well behaved black hole solutions, in the sense that the singularities are hidden by an event horizon. For $`d2k1`$, the causal structure of these black holes is the same as that of Schwarzschild-AdS and Reissner-Nordström-AdS spacetimes. However, this set of black holes differs from standard $`d`$-dimensional Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström solutions in that their asymptotic behavior, with respect to the vacuum, is given by $`g_{00}\overline{g}_{00}r^{\left(\frac{d2k1}{k}\right)}`$. Again, the CS case stands separate from the rest, in that the causal structure of the vacuum is the same as that of $`2+1`$ dimensions, and analogously, there is a mass gap between the $`M=0`$ black hole and AdS spacetime $`\left(M=\frac{1}{2G_{n1}}\right)`$. Furthermore, in the vanishing cosmological constant limit, the CS theory supports no static, spherically symmetric black holes.

In the electrically charged case, the black holes for $`k1`$ predict a minimum size for a physical source. It is noteworthy that the geometry encodes this restriction for all cases, except for the EH action.

### D Thermodynamics

The presence of a negative cosmological constant for the entire set of theories described by the action $`I_k`$ makes it possible for black holes to reach thermal equilibrium with a heat bath. The AdS radius $`l`$ acts as a regulator allowing the canonical ensemble to be well defined, unlike the case of zero cosmological constant. The black hole entropy obeys the area law only in the case $`k=1`$. For other values of $`k`$, the entropy respects the second law of thermodynamics, because $`\frac{dS}{dr_+}>0`$, but the area law is recovered only in the limit $`\frac{r_+}{l}\mathrm{}`$.

In the limit $`\mathrm{\Lambda }0`$, the area law never holds, except for $`k=1`$. In that limit, the temperature has no minimum and consequently the thermodynamic equilibrium cannot be reached.

The thermodynamic behavior is qualitatively the same as the Schwarzschild-AdS4 black hole in the generic cases $`d2k1`$. On the other hand, Chern-Simons black holes for odd dimensions behave like the $`d=3`$ case.

In the generic cases, black holes have a minimum temperature $`T_c`$ at $`r_+=r_c=l\sqrt{\frac{d2k1}{d1}}`$, so that –as is depicted in Figure $`3`$– those whose horizon radius exceed the unstable equilibrium position $`r_u`$ can reach equilibrium with a heat bath of temperature higher than $`T_c`$. If the heat bath has a temperature below $`T_c`$, or $`r_+<r_u`$, the black holes evaporate.

In the CS case, the temperature grows linearly with $`r_+`$, hence there is no critical temperature and the thermal equilibrium is always attained.

In an equilibrium configuration, the free energy $`F=MTS`$ can be expressed as a function of $`r_+`$. For fixed $`k`$ the behavior of $`F`$ can be found from (26), (75) and (85) as

$`F(r_+`$ $``$ $`0){\displaystyle \frac{r_+^{d2k1}}{2(d2k)G_k}},`$ (93)
$`F(r_+`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{}){\displaystyle \frac{r_+^{d1}}{2(d2)G_kl^{2k}}}.`$ (94)
This change in sign has been interpreted as an indication that, for small $`r_+`$ the black hole would be unstable for decay into AdS spacetime, while for large $`r_+`$ the black hole would be stable . This suggests that a phase transition would occur at $`F(r_+)=0`$. This conclusion, however contradicts the fact that the phase transition actually occurs at the critical value $`r_c`$, where the specific heat $`C`$ changes sign, and which does not coincide with the zero of $`F(r_+)`$. In particular, considering the EH action $`(k=1)`$, the change of sign in $`F`$ occurs at $`r_+=l`$ while $`r_c=l\sqrt{\frac{d3}{d1}}<l`$. Moreover, for the CS case, $`d2k=1`$, there is no phase transition at all, although $`F`$ still has a change in sign. The source of the disagreement lies in that the canonical ensemble is defined keeping $`T`$ fixed, while the limits in (93) and (94) do not respect this condition.

¿From all the evidence presented here, it is apparent that CS theories form an exceptional class: They are genuine gauge theories whose supersymmetric extension is known; their black hole spectrum has a mass gap separating it from AdS spacetime, and these black holes possess remarkable thermodynamical properties. CS black holes can reach thermal equilibrium with a heat bath at any temperature, and the positivity of the specific heat guarantees their stability under thermal fluctuations.

In contrast with the generic case, a small CS black hole is stable against decay by Hawking radiation. This suggests that, as in the three dimensional case, CS (super)gravities could have a well defined quantum theory.

## VI Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to R. Aros, M. Bañados, M. Contreras, M. Henneaux, C. Martínez, F. Méndez, R. Olea, M. Plyushchay, J. Saavedra and C. Teitelboim for many enlightening discussions and helpful comments. This work was supported in part through grants 1990189, 1980788 from FONDECYT, and by the “Actions de Recherche Concertées” of the “Direction de la Recherche Scientifique - Communauté Française de Belgique”, by IISN - Belgium (convention 4.4505.86). The institutional support of Fuerza Aérea de Chile, I. Municipalidad de Las Condes, and a group of Chilean companies (AFP Provida, CODELCO, Empresas CMPC, and Telefónica del Sur) is also recognized. CECS is a Millenium Science Institute. J. Z. wishes to thank the organizers of the $`1999`$ ICTP Summer Workshop on Black Hole Physics for hospitality in Trieste. J. C. and J.Z thank the organizers of the V La Hechicera School, Mérida.

## VII Appendix

### A CS & BI Theories

Requiring that the integrability conditions of equation (4) do not impose further algebraic constraints on the curvature or the torsion beyond Eq. (5) implies that the coefficients $`\alpha _p`$’s in Eq. (2) satisfy a recursive equation, whose solution fixes them in terms of the gravitational and cosmological constants . An equivalent way to express this is that the $`\alpha _p`$’s become fixed as in equation (9) with $`k=[\frac{d1}{2}]`$, just requiring the existence of a sector in the theory with propagating torsion. Thus, in $`d=2n`$ dimensions, the Lagrangian reads

$$L=\frac{\kappa l^2}{2n}ϵ_{a_1\mathrm{}a_d}\overline{R}^{a_1a_2}\mathrm{}\overline{R}^{a_{d1}a_d},$$
(95)
where††††††A positive cosmological constant is obtained making $`l^2l^2`$. $`\overline{R}^{ab}:=R^{ab}+\frac{1}{l^2}e^ae^b`$.

The expression (95) is proportional to the Pfaffian of the $`2`$-form $`\overline{R}^{ab}`$ and, in this sense, it has a Born-Infeld-like form :

$$L=2^{n1}(n1)!\kappa l^2\sqrt{det\left(R^{ab}+\frac{1}{l^2}e^ae^b\right)}.$$
(95)
For $`d=2n1`$ dimensions, the Lagrangian is given by the Euler-Chern-Simons form for the AdS group, whose exterior derivative is proportional to the Euler density in $`2n`$ dimensions,

$`dL_{G\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}n1}^{AdS}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa l}{2n}}ϵ_{A_1\mathrm{}A_{2n}}\overline{R}^{A_1A_2}\mathrm{}\overline{R}^{A_{2n1}A_{2n}}`$ (96)
$`=`$ $`\overline{\kappa }_{2n},`$ ()
where $`\overline{R}^{AB}`$ stands for the AdS curvature. This Lagrangian was discussed in  and also in  for torsion-free manifolds.

Additional terms which depend explicitly on the torsion are required by local supersymmetry  and they can be consistently added to the Lagrangian only for $`d=4m1`$ .

These torsional Lagrangians are odd under parity and are obtained from the Chern characters associated with the AdS curvature in $`4m`$ dimensions. Furthermore, the coefficients in front of the different terms in these torsional Lagrangians are necessarily quantized. The odd dimensional action, with or without torsional terms, has a larger local symmetry given by $`SO(d1,2)`$, so that beyond standard local Lorentz symmetry ($`\delta e^a=\lambda _b^ae^b`$ and $`\delta \omega ^{ab}=D\lambda ^{ab}`$), these theories are invariant also under local “AdS-translations:”

$`\delta e^a`$ $`=`$ $`D\lambda ^a`$ (97)
$`\delta \omega ^{ab}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{l^2}}(\lambda ^ae^b\lambda ^be^a).`$ ()
### B Conserved Charges from a Background-Independent Surface Integral

If one deals with more general solutions possessing different isometries, the identification of the integration constants with the conserved charges through the minisuperspace trick does not work, because in general the reduced action does not lead to the true extremum of the original action. The Hamiltonian method provides a way to express the mass as a surface integral . However, this procedure requires the invertibility of the symplectic matrix associated with the action $`I_k`$. This is impossible to perform globally in phase space, because there are field configurations for which the symplectic form degenerates. Therefore, no general formula could be found for an arbitrary field configuration.

A way to circumvent this problem is carried out in $`d=2n`$ following a recently proposed method  which is appropriate to deal with asymptotically AdS spacetimes.

Consider the action $`I_k`$ defined in (8). In first order formalism, the existence of an extremum of $`I_k`$ for asymptotically locally AdS spacetimes fixes the boundary term that must be added to the action as being proportional to the Euler density multiplied by a fixed weight factor. Hence, in order to cancel the boundary term coming from the variation of $`I_k`$, the total action including the boundary term –up to a constant–, is given by

$$I_T=I_k+\kappa \alpha _n_{2n},$$
(98)
with

$$\alpha _n=c_n^k:=\frac{(1)^{n+k+1}l^{2(nk)}}{2n\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n1}{k}\right)}.$$
(99)
The total action $`I_T`$ is invariant under diffeomorphisms by construction, because $`I_k`$ is written in terms of differential forms. Thus, Noether’s theorem provides a conserved current $`(dJ=0)`$ associated with this invariance, which can be locally written as $`J=dQ`$. Assuming the topology of the manifold to be of the form $`=R\times \mathrm{\Sigma }`$, this procedure yields a regularized and background-independent expression for the conserved charges associated with a Killing vector $`\xi `$, which is globally defined on the boundary of the spatial section $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. The surface integral reads

$$Q(\xi )=\underset{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{}\xi ^\mu \omega _\mu ^{ab}𝒯_{ab},$$
(100)
where, $`𝒯_{ab}`$ is the variation of the total Lagrangian with respect to the curvature

$$𝒯_{ab}:=\frac{\delta L_T}{\delta R^{ab}}=\underset{p=1}{\overset{n}{}}c_p^kp𝒯_{ab}^p,$$
(101)
with

$$𝒯_{ab}^p=\kappa ϵ_{aba_3\mathrm{}a_d}R^{a_3a_4}\mathrm{}R^{a_{2p1}a_{2p}}e^{a_{2p+1}}\mathrm{}e^{a_d},$$
(102)
and where the coefficients $`c_p^k`$ are defined through equations (9) and (99).

The mass is obtained from (100) when $`\xi =_t`$, without making further assumptions about the matching with a background geometry nor with its topology.

One way to check this result is evaluating the mass for the black hole metrics (29), which leads to the expected result

$$Q(_t)=M.$$
(103)
It is a simple exercise to check that formula (100) vanishes when evaluated on any constant curvature spacetime – satisfying $`\overline{R}^{ab}=R^{ab}+l^2e^ae^b=0`$ – which admits at least one Killing vector. This means that spaces which are locally AdS have vanishing Noether charges for the whole set of theories defined by $`I_k`$ in even dimensions. These spaces in general possess non-trivial topologies and could be regarded as different possible vacua. Hence one can find massive solutions which correspond to excitation of the corresponding vacuum in the same topological sector.


text:
# Observations of Eddington-limited type-I X-ray bursts from 4U 1812–12

## 1 Introduction

Since its first Uhuru detections (Forman, Jones, & Tananbaum (1976); Forman et al. (1978)), 4U 1812$``$12 was observed by several satellite X-ray experiments: OSO 7 (1M 1812-121, Markert et al. (1979)), Ariel V (3A 1812-121, Warwick et al. (1981)), HEAO 1 (1H 1815$``$121, Wood et al. (1984)), and EXOSAT (GPS 1812-120, Warwick et al. (1988)). From these observations, it is clear that 4U 1812$``$12 is a persistent, though variable, source. Uhuru found a 2–10 keV maximum intensity of $`5\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ and a variability of a factor of at least 2 (Forman et al. (1978)). Similar variability characteristics were observed by Ariel V, as the source varied in the range $`36\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the same energy band (Warwick et al. (1981)), while lower intensities of $`2\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ and $`3\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ were measured by HEAO 1 (2–10 keV, Wood et al. (1984)) and EXOSAT (2–6 keV, Warwick et al. (1988)). The 3–10 keV source spectrum as obtained by the EXOSAT GSPC was best fitted by a power law (Gottwald et al. (1995)). 4U 1812$``$12 is being monitored by RXTE-ASM since February 1996 111the ASM measurements are publicly available at URL http://www.space.mit.edu/XTE, confirming its previously reported characteristics. The source is always detected, with an average 2–10 keV flux of $`3.8\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ ($`20`$ mCrab) and a variability of a factor $`3`$ on $`1`$ week time scale.

Three X-ray bursts were detected from this source in 1982 by Hakucho (Murakami et al. (1983)). Two of the events showed clear evidence for photospheric radius expansion, and reached a maximum 1–22 keV intensity of $`1.7\times 10^7\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. The burst spectra were consistent with a $`2.5`$ keV blackbody emission, and showed evidence for softening during the exponential decay (e-folding time $`\tau 20`$ s). This indicated the bursts to be type-I, i.e. thermonuclear flashes originating on the hot surface of a neutron star, and the source to be likely located in a low-mass X-ray binary. During the observation no persistent emission was detected above 20 Uhuru flux units ($`5\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ in 2-10 keV). Anyway this is not in disagreement with the identification of the Hakucho burster with the persistent source 4U 1812$``$12. Murakami et al. (1983) also proposed the association of the burst source with the transient Ser X-2, observed once in 1965 (Friedman, Byram & Chubb (1967)). More recently, a single-peaked burst from 4U 1812$``$12 was observed by the BeppoSAX-WFC instrument on 1997 Mar 12.2209 UT (Burderi et al. (1997)). The event had a peak intensity of 1.2 and 0.6 Crab in the 1.5–10 keV and 10$``$26 keV band respectively, and a decay time of $`20`$ s.

4U 1812$``$12 is classified as an atoll source, which is common among the type-I X-ray bursters, and shows band-limited noise and a $`0.8`$ Hz QPO (Wijnands & van der Klis (1999)).

In this paper we investigate the burst characteristics of 4U 1812$``$12, about 15 years after the Hakucho observations of its type-I bursts. The event observed by Burderi et al. (1997) is also re-analysed. Through a homogeneus sample of Eddington-limited type-I X-ray bursts, we accurately estimate the source distance and test the reliabilty of near-Eddington bursts as a standard candle. In the next section we briefly introduce the Wide Field Cameras telescopes and report on the observations of 4U 1812$``$12. Time-resolved spectroscopy of the bursts is presented in Section 3, while the scientific implications of our results are discussed in Section 4.

## 2 Observations

The Wide Field Cameras (WFC) on board the BeppoSAX satellite consist of two identical coded aperture multi-wire proportional counters (Jager et al. (1997)) pointing in opposite directions. Each camera covers a $`40\mathrm{°}\times 40\mathrm{°}`$ full width to zero-response field of view, the largest ever flown for an arcminute resolution X-ray telescope. With their source location accuracy in the range $`1\mathrm{}`$$`3\mathrm{}`$ (99% confidence), a time resolution of 0.488 ms, and an energy resolution of 18% at 6 keV, the WFCs are effective in studying X-ray transient phenomena in the 2–28 keV bandpass. The imaging capability and the good instrument sensitivity (5-10 mCrab on-axis in $`10^4`$ s, depending on the number of sources in the field) allow an accurate monitoring of complex sky regions, like the Galactic centre.

One of the main scientific objectives of the WFCs is the study of the timing and spectral behaviour of both transient and persistent sources of the Galactic Bulge region on time scales ranging from seconds to years. To this end, an observation program of systematic wide field monitoring of the Sgr A sky region is being carried out since August 1996 (see e.g. Heise (1998); Heise et al. (1999); Ubertini et al. (1999)). This program consists of a series of observations, each lasting $`60`$ ks, nearly weekly spaced throughout the two visibility periods (August-October and February-April) of the Galactic Centre region.

The WFC Galactic Bulge monitoring program is significantly contributing in the study of X-ray bursting sources. Up to now, a total of 15 new objects were discovered in $`3.2`$ years observing time, thus enlarging the population of the bursters by $`35\%`$ (Heise et al. (1999); Ubertini et al. (1999)). The data of the two cameras are systematically searched for bursts and flares by analyzing the time profiles of the detectors in the 2–11 keV energy range with a time resolution down to 1 s. Reconstructed sky images are generated for any statistically meaningful event and the accuracy of the reconstructed position, which of course depends on the burst intensity, is typically better than $`5\mathrm{}`$. This analysis procedure has led to the identification of $`950`$ X-ray bursts (156 of which from the Bursting Pulsar GRO J1744$``$28) in a total of about $`4\times 10^6`$ s net observing time (e.g. Cocchi et al. 1998a ).

Whenever the WFCs point at the Galactic Centre region, 4U 1812$``$12 is in the field of view, though at a rather offset position, being $`18\mathrm{°}`$ away from Sgr A ($`l_{\mathrm{II}}=18.0\mathrm{°},b_{\mathrm{II}}=2.4\mathrm{°}`$). Due to the source’s relatively low intensity and to the unfavourable pointing, the WFC data is not sensitive enough to study the persistent emission with sufficient accuracy. A total of 8 X-ray bursts were detected at a position consistent with that of 4U 1812$``$12 during all the time spent on the source by the WFCs both in primary and in secondary observing mode ($`4`$ Ms net time in 3.2 years). None of the observed bursts can be associated with other known sources.

We analysed all the observed bursts, including the one already investigated by Burderi et al. (1997). The main characteristics of the observed bursts (hereafter burst A,B,…,H, chronologically) are summarised in Table 1. One of the bursts, namely burst C, was observed with much better statistics than the others, as it was in a more favourable position ($`10\mathrm{°}`$ offset). For this reason, burst C was analysed with a higher time resolution than the others.

## 3 Data Analysis and Results

Energy-resolved time histories of the bursts were constructed by accumulating the detector counts associated with the shadowgram obtained for the sky position of the analysed source, thus improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the profile. For a given source, the background is the sum of (part of) the diffuse X-ray background, the particles background and the contamination of other sources in the field of view. Source contamination is the dominating background component for crowded sky fields like the Galactic Bulge. Nevertheless, the probability of source confusion during a short time-scale event (10–100 s) like an X-ray burst is negligible. The time profiles of burst C were accumulated in three different energy bands (2–5, 5–10, and 10–28 keV, see Fig. 1). The time histories of the other bursts, due to their limited counting statistics, were obtained for the bands 2-8 and 8-28 keV only (Fig.2). The 2-28 keV time profiles of all the bursts are characterized by fast rise times (within a few seconds) and longer exponential decay with e-folding times of $`15`$ s. The high energy time histories of almost all the bursts show clear evidence for double-peaked profiles (see Fig.1 and Fig.2) and their e-folding times are significantly shorter ($`47`$ s) than the ones of the low energy profiles ($`1520`$ s), as reported in Table 1.

The integrated spectra of the eight bursts are all consistent with absorbed blackbody radiation with average colour temperatures of $`2`$ keV and an average blackbody radius of the emitting sphere of $`20`$ km assuming a standard 10 kpc source distance (Table 1). The spectra were subtracted for the source persistent emission, which accounts for only $`0.5\%`$ of the burst peak intensity. The $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ parameter could not be satisfactorily constrained for any of the bursts, so we kept its value fixed according to the interpolated value computed at the source position, namely $`N_\mathrm{H}=7.3\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (Dickey & Lockman (1990)).

Time-resolved spectra were accumulated for all the bursts, in order to study the time evolution of their spectral parameters. Thanks to the good counting statistics, the spectral analysis of burst C could be performed with a time resolution of 1 s. Conversely, for each of the other bursts only four time resolved spectra could be obtained with a poorer time resolution (4 s). The time intervals of the four spectra were chosen to match the first-peak, interpeak, second-peak and decay phases in the corresponding 8-28 keV burst time profiles (Fig.2). Since all the obtained spectra are consistent with absorbed blackbody emission, the time histories of the colour temperature and the emitting sphere radius can be determined (Table 2 and Fig.3). The blackbody radii were calculated assuming isotropic emission at a source distance of 10 kpc and not correcting for gravitational redshift and conversion to effective blackbody temperature from color temperature (see Lewin, van Paradijs, & Taam (1993) for details). A radius expansion by a factor of $`5`$ is observed in burst C while, probably due to the larger time bins used, a lower expansion factor ($`2`$) is obtained for all the other bursts but burst H, which does not show evidence for radius variations.

## 4 Discussion

Following the classification proposed by Hoffman, Marshall, & Lewin (1978), X-ray bursts are classified in two main types (type-I, type-II, see Lewin, van Paradijs & Taam (1993) for a comprehensive review).

On the basis of the spectral and timing properties of the eight bursts observed by the WFCs, it is apparent that 4U 1812$``$12 is a type-I burster. In fact, the blackbody emission and the measured colour temperatures of $`2`$ keV are consistent with type-I bursting. Moreover, spectral softening is observed in the time resolved spectra of the bursts (Table 2 and Figure 3), and the bursts time profiles can be fitted with exponential decays whose characteristic times are significantly shorter at higher energies (see e.g. Table 1). These results confirm the measurements obtained 15 years earlier by Hakucho (Murakami et al. (1983)), indicating 4U 1812$``$12 is a neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary.

The photospheric radius expansion derived from the time resolved spectral analysis of most of the observed bursts can be interpreted as adiabatic expansion during a high luminosity (Eddington-limit) type-I burst. Actually, the double-peaked profiles observed in the high energy (above 8 keV) time histories of the bursts (with the only exception of burst H) are typical of super-Eddington events (e.g. Lewin, van Paradijs, & Taam (1995)). Even though burst H is not double-peaked, its peak luminosity is consistent with those of the other observed events. Moreover, its 8–28 keV time profile could be associated with the flat-top profiles of some observed Eddington-limited type-I bursts (Lewin, van Paradijs, & Taam (1995)), so burst H too can be regarded as an event with peak luminosity close to the Eddington limit. We also notice that the two bursts which show less clear evidence for photospheric radius expansion, namely bursts E and H, are the less energetic ones, their fluences being the lowest observed (Table 1). We can regard their total energy release ($`5\times 10^{39}`$ erg assuming a 4 kpc distance, see later) as the minimum needed to drive the expansion of the photosphere of the neutron star in 4U 1812$``$12.

Eddington-luminosity X-ray bursts can lead to an estimate of the source distance, assuming the burst emission to be isotropic and the peak flux to be very close to the Eddington luminosity. Actually, the peak intensities observed for the eight events are all consistent with a constant value of $`4.53\pm 0.09`$ Crab (2–28 keV); the associated reduced $`\chi ^2`$ is 1.03 for 7 d.o.f.. This average peak intensity extrapolates to an unabsorbed bolometric flux of $`(15.03\pm 0.29)\times 10^8\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. The consistency of the peak luminosities of all the bursts with a constant value supports the adoption of the peak bolometric intensities of super-Eddington bursts as a standard candle. An average luminosity of Eddington-limited bursts was empirically calculated by Lewin, van Paradijs and Taam (1995) on a sample of bursters whose distance was estimated with other methods: a luminosity value of ($`3.0\pm 0.6\times 10^{38}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$) was obtained. The adoption of this standard luminosity leads to a distance value $`d=4.1\pm 0.5`$ kpc for 4U 1812$``$12. On the other hand, assuming the theoretical Eddington luminosity for a typical $`1.4\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ neutron star ($`2\times 10^{38}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$) we obtain $`d3.3`$ kpc. For the calculated distance of $`4`$ kpc, and with the simple assumptions on the burst emission made in Section 3, an average radius of $`8\pm 1`$ km for the blackbody emitting region during the bursts is obtained. This value, which supports the neutron-star nature of the collapsed object, should indeed be regarded as a lower limit for the actual neutron star radius, according to Ebisuzaki, Hanawa & Sugimoto (1984).

Assuming the source’s persistent spectrum to be consistent with the one suggested by Barret et al. (2000) for the X-ray bursters in low state, i.e. a Comptonized spectrum with electron temperature $`k\mathrm{T}_e25`$ keV and $`\tau 3`$, the bolometric luminosity of 4U 1812$``$12 can be extrapolated. For a distance of $`4`$ kpc and an average 2–10 keV persistent intensity of $`4\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$, we obtain $`L_{bol}5.6\times 10^{36}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. We also derive, for a canonical $`1.4\mathrm{M}_{}`$ neutron star with a radius of 10 km, an average accretion rate of $`5\times 10^{10}\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{y}^1`$. These values are common among low-mass X-ray binaries.

Due to the non-continuous WFCs coverage of the Galactic Centre region and to the BeppoSAX orbit characteristics, we cannot accurately establish the burst occurrence rate of 4U 1812$``$12. Anyway the minimum observed intervals are 6.53 d and 6.16 d for bursts A-B (August 1996) and F-G (October 1998) respectively, and such intervals are of the same order of magnitude than the one measured by Hakucho in 1982 (4.61 d). Under the hypothesis that the above values are the actual wait times for bursts B and G, we can calculate the ratio $`\alpha =E_p/E_b`$, where $`E_b`$ and $`E_p`$ are the bolometric fluences of the burst and of the persistent emission between two contiguous bursts, respectively. Average 2–10 keV intensities of $`(4.4\pm 0.4)\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ and $`(3.5\pm 0.9)\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ were measured by RXTE-ASM between bursts A-B and F-G respectively. Again, with the former assumptions on the spectrum of the persistent emission, we determine $`\alpha =(6.4\pm 1.0)\times 10^2`$ and $`\alpha =(5.8\pm 1.9)\times 10^2`$ for the two events. These values are consistent with each other and are within the observed range ($`1010^3`$, distribution peaking at $`10^2`$) for the $`\alpha `$ parameter of known X-ray bursters, even if on the higher side. This is suggestive of helium-burning with no spare fuel left for the next burst, and possibly of steady burning of part of the accreted matter (Lewin, van Paradijs, & Taam (1993); van Paradijs et al. (1988)).

As pointed out above, the eight bursts we analysed show very similar features. Moreover, their characteristics are also consistent with those of the bursts detected by Hakucho (Murakami et al. (1983)). For the Hakucho bursts, 1–22 keV peak intensities of $`4.6`$ Crab were measured. Also the event Burderi et al. (1997) reported to have very different burst parameters, i.e. single peak profile and much lower luminosity (1.2 Crab in 1.5–10 keV), is actually very similar to the others, according to the results of our re-analysis (burst D). The above consistencies, together with the $`56`$ d burst wait times observed by both Hakucho and BeppoSAX, suggest the burst characteristics of the binary 4U 1812$``$12 to be remarkably stable in observations spanning $`15`$ years apart.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the staff of the BeppoSAX Science Operation Centre and Science Data Centre for their help in carrying out and processing the WFC Galactic Centre observations. The BeppoSAX satellite is a joint Italian and Dutch program. M.C., A.B., L.N. and P.U. thank Agenzia Spaziale Nazionale (ASI) for grant support. M.C. also thanks M. Federici (IAS) for technical support.