Quantum and classical aspects of scalar and vector fields around black holes

Abstract: This thesis presents recent studies on test scalar and vector fields around black holes. It is separated in two parts according to the asymptotic properties of the spacetime under study. In the first part, we investigate scalar and Proca fields on an asymptotically flat background. For the Proca field, we obtain a complete set of equations of motion in higher dimensional spherically symmetric backgrounds. These equations are solved numerically, both to compute Hawking radiation spectra and quasi-bound states. In the former case, we carry out a precise study of the longitudinal degrees of freedom induced by the field mass. This can be used to improve the model in the black hole event generators currently used at the Large Hadron Collider. Regarding quasi-bound states, we find arbitrarily long lived modes for a charged Proca field, as well as for a charged scalar field, in a Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole. The second part of this thesis presents research on superradiant instabilities of scalar and Maxwell fields on an asymptotically anti-de Sitter background. For the scalar case, we introduce a charge coupling between the field and the background, and show that superradiant instabilities do exist for all $\ell$ modes, in higher dimensions. For the Maxwell case, we first propose a general prescription to impose boundary conditions on the Kerr-anti-de Sitter spacetime, and obtain two Robin boundary conditions. Then these two conditions are implemented to study superradiant unstable modes and vector clouds. In particular, we find that the new branch of quasinormal modes may be unstable in a larger parameter space. Furthermore, the existence of vector clouds indicates that one may find a vector hairy black hole solution for the Einstein-Maxwell-anti-de Sitter system at the nonlinear level, which implies that, in such system, the Kerr-Newman-anti-de Sitter black hole is not a unique solution.