Greybody factors at large imaginary frequencies

Abstract

Extending a computation which appeared recently in hep-th/0301173, we compute the transmission and reflection coefficients for massless uncharged scalars and gravitational waves scattered by d>=4 Schwarzschild or d=4 Reissner-Nordstrom black holes, in the limit of large imaginary frequencies. The transmission coefficient has an interpretation as the "greybody factor" which determines the spectrum of Hawking radiation. The result has an interesting structure and we speculate that it may admit a simple dual description; curiously, for Reissner-Nordstrom the result suggests that this dual description should involve both the inner and outer horizons. We also discuss some numerical evidence in favor of the formulas of hep-th/0301173.