Black holes and the absorption rate of cosmological scalar fields

Abstract

We study the absorption of a massless scalar field by a static black hole. Using the continuity equation that arises from the Klein-Gordon equation, it is possible to define a normalized absorption rate $\Gamma(t)$ for the scalar field as it falls into the black hole. It is found that the absorption mainly depends upon the characteristics wavelengths involved in the physical system: the mean wavenumber and the width of the wave packet, but that it is insensitive to the scalar field's strength. By taking a limiting procedure, we determine the minimum absorption fraction of the scalar field's mass by the black hole, which is around 50%.