Black hole horizons and quantum charged particles

Abstract

We point out a structural similarity between the characterization of black hole apparent horizons as stable marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTS) and the quantum description of a non-relativistic charged particle moving in given magnetic and electric fields on a closed surface. Specifically, the spectral problem of the MOTS-stability operator corresponds to a stationary quantum particle with a formal fine-structure constant $\alpha$ of negative sign. We discuss how such analogy enriches both problems, illustrating this with the insights into the MOTS-spectral problem gained from the analysis of the spectrum of the quantum charged particle Hamiltonian.