Zero temperature black holes and the failure of semi-classical analysis

Abstract

The extreme Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes have zero surface gravity. However, a semi-classical analysis seems to be ill-definite for these objects and apparently no notion of temperature exists for them. It is argued here that these properties are shared for all kind of black holes whose surface gravity is zero. Two examples are worked out explicitely: the scalar-tensor cold black holes and extreme black holes resulting from a gravity system coupled to a generalized Maxwell field in higher dimensions. The reasons for this anomolous behaviour are discussed as well as its thermodynamics implications.