Quantum corrections to the Hawking radiation spectrum

Abstract

In 1995, Bekenstein and Mukhanov suggested that the Hawking radiation spectrum was discrete if the area spectrum was quantized in such a way that the allowed areas were integer multiples of a single unit area. However, in 1996, Barreira, Carfora, and Rovelli argued that the Hawking radiation spectrum was continuous if the area spectrum was quantized with an infinite number of unit areas, as predicted by loop quantum gravity, rather than quantized with the single unit area considered by Bekenstein and Mukhanov. In this paper, contrary to what Barreira, Carfora, and Rovelli argued, we show that the Hawking radiation spectrum is still discrete when the area spectrum is quantized as loop quantum gravity predicts. In particular, we show that, for a black hole of a given temperature, the Hawking radiation spectrum is truncated at frequencies below a certain frequency.