Near-Horizon Conformal Structure of Black Holes

Abstract

The near-horizon properties of a black hole are studied within an algebraic framework, using a scalar field as a simple probe to analyze the geometry. The operator H governing the near-horizon dynamics of the scalar field contains an inverse square interaction term. It is shown that the operators appearing in the corresponding algebraic description belong to the representation space of the Virasoro algebra. The operator H is studied using the representation theory of the Virasoro algebra. We observe that the wave functions exhibit scaling behaviour in a band-like region near the horizon of the black hole.