Reimagining Gravity: Generalized Symmetries, Double Copy, and Spinning Black Holes
Abstract
General relativity is a century-old subject. Yet modern explorations through generalized symmetries, scattering amplitudes, and effective field theory have raised open problems, motivating a reassessment of conventional views on gravitation, spacetime, and spin. First, do generalized symmetries exist in dynamical gravity as a low-energy EFT? Second, is there a field-theoretic explanation for the tree-level double copy relationship between general relativity and Yang-Mills theory? Third, what are the exact equations of motion or Lagrangians of four-dimensional spinning black holes in external fields, in point-particle effective theory? In this dissertation, three different perspectives on gravity are developed to shed light on each of these puzzles. In Part I, we view gravity as a gauge theory of Lorentz group to establish a one-form symmetry of dynamical gravity. In Part II, we investigate how far gravity can be viewed as a gauge theory of diffeomorphisms, in connection with color-kinematics duality and double copy. In Part III, we view four-dimensional gravity as a nonlinear interaction between self-dual and anti-self-dual parts. We apply this view to the derivation of four-dimensional spinning black hole solutions as well as their dynamics in point-particle effective theory. First, we derive a new self-dual black hole metric from classical double copy and show that the Kerr metric represents a pair of self-dual and anti-self-dual Taub-NUT solutions, elevating the Newman-Janis algorithm to a rigorous derivation. Second, we propose a dynamical probe counterpart of Newman-Janis algorithm. We give a Lagrangian derivation of spinning black hole Compton amplitudes that exhibit correct factorizations and are free of spurious poles for all helicity configurations while developing a chiral formalism that manifests and maximally utilizes the simplicity of the self-dual sector.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{kim2026reimagining,
title = {{Reimagining Gravity: Generalized Symmetries, Double Copy, and Spinning Black Holes}},
author = {Joon-Hwi Kim},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.28736},
eprint = {2608.28736},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28736},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Reimagining Gravity: Generalized Symmetries, Double Copy, and Spinning Black Holes
AU - Joon-Hwi Kim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.28736
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28736
AB - General relativity is a century-old subject. Yet modern explorations through generalized symmetries, scattering amplitudes, and effective field theory have raised open problems, motivating a reassessment of conventional views on gravitation, spacetime, and spin. First, do generalized symmetries exist in dynamical gravity as a low-energy EFT? Second, is there a field-theoretic explanation for the tree-level double copy relationship between general relativity and Yang-Mills theory? Third, what are the exact equations of motion or Lagrangians of four-dimensional spinning black holes in external fields, in point-particle effective theory? In this dissertation, three different perspectives on gravity are developed to shed light on each of these puzzles. In Part I, we view gravity as a gauge theory of Lorentz group to establish a one-form symmetry of dynamical gravity. In Part II, we investigate how far gravity can be viewed as a gauge theory of diffeomorphisms, in connection with color-kinematics duality and double copy. In Part III, we view four-dimensional gravity as a nonlinear interaction between self-dual and anti-self-dual parts. We apply this view to the derivation of four-dimensional spinning black hole solutions as well as their dynamics in point-particle effective theory. First, we derive a new self-dual black hole metric from classical double copy and show that the Kerr metric represents a pair of self-dual and anti-self-dual Taub-NUT solutions, elevating the Newman-Janis algorithm to a rigorous derivation. Second, we propose a dynamical probe counterpart of Newman-Janis algorithm. We give a Lagrangian derivation of spinning black hole Compton amplitudes that exhibit correct factorizations and are free of spurious poles for all helicity configurations while developing a chiral formalism that manifests and maximally utilizes the simplicity of the self-dual sector.
ER -