Bouncing geodesics, black hole singularities, and singularities of thermal correlators

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Hauptverfasser: Grozdanov, Sašo, Valach, Samuel, Vrbica, Mile
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Grozdanov, Sašo
Valach, Samuel
Vrbica, Mile
author_facet Grozdanov, Sašo
Valach, Samuel
Vrbica, Mile
contents Bouncing geodesics have been used as valuable probes of black hole singularities. In the dual boundary theory, the presence of bouncing geodesics is encoded in the analytic structure of correlation functions. Thus, when their existence is related to the presence of a black hole singularity, this presents a practical holographic framework to analyse, diagnose, and classify spacetimes with curvature singularities. To make this intuition precise, we use the Hadamard theory of hyperbolic differential equations to prove that both bulk and boundary retarded propagators diverge whenever two points can be connected by a null geodesic. We clarify why this statement remains valid beyond the geodesic regime (for operators of any dimension) and examine how holographic renormalisation modifies the structure of the dual propagator. We also present a general characterisation of bouncing geodesics and the associated singularities in correlation functions for arbitrary spacetimes. Furthermore, we compare the analytic structure of the correlators in position and momentum space and discuss explicit examples. Finally, we demonstrate the validity and concrete limitations of the bouncing geodesic approach to the study of black hole singularities. In particular, we show an explicit example of a black hole in the self-dual linear axion model, which has a curvature singularity despite the absence of bouncing geodesics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_15598
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bouncing geodesics, black hole singularities, and singularities of thermal correlators
Grozdanov, Sašo
Valach, Samuel
Vrbica, Mile
High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Bouncing geodesics have been used as valuable probes of black hole singularities. In the dual boundary theory, the presence of bouncing geodesics is encoded in the analytic structure of correlation functions. Thus, when their existence is related to the presence of a black hole singularity, this presents a practical holographic framework to analyse, diagnose, and classify spacetimes with curvature singularities. To make this intuition precise, we use the Hadamard theory of hyperbolic differential equations to prove that both bulk and boundary retarded propagators diverge whenever two points can be connected by a null geodesic. We clarify why this statement remains valid beyond the geodesic regime (for operators of any dimension) and examine how holographic renormalisation modifies the structure of the dual propagator. We also present a general characterisation of bouncing geodesics and the associated singularities in correlation functions for arbitrary spacetimes. Furthermore, we compare the analytic structure of the correlators in position and momentum space and discuss explicit examples. Finally, we demonstrate the validity and concrete limitations of the bouncing geodesic approach to the study of black hole singularities. In particular, we show an explicit example of a black hole in the self-dual linear axion model, which has a curvature singularity despite the absence of bouncing geodesics.
title Bouncing geodesics, black hole singularities, and singularities of thermal correlators
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15598