Modified gravity models such as Hořava-Lifshitz gravity or Einstein-æther theory violate local Lorentz invariance and therefore destroy the notion of a universal light cone. Despite this, in the infrared limit both models above possess static, spherically symmetric solutions with “universal horizons”—hypersurfaces that are causal boundaries between an interior region and asymptotic spatial infinity. In other words, there still exist black hole solutions. We construct a Smarr formula (the relationship between the total energy of the spacetime and the area of the horizon) for such a horizon in Einstein-æther theory. We further show that a slightly modified first law of black hole mechanics still holds with the relevant area now a cross-section of the universal horizon. We construct new analytic solutions for certain Einstein-æther Lagrangians and illustrate how our results work in these exact cases. Our results suggest that holography may be extended to these theories despite the very different causal structure as long as the universal horizon remains the unique causal boundary when matter fields are added.

Holography grew out of black hole thermodynamics, which relies on the causal structure and general covariance of general relativity. In Einstein-æther theory, a generally covariant theory with a dynamical timelike unit vector, every solution breaks local Lorentz invariance, thereby grossly modifying the causal structure of gravity. However, there are still absolute causal boundaries, called “universal horizons,” which are not Killing horizons yet obey a first law of black hole mechanics and must have an entropy if they do not violate a generalized second law. We couple a scalar field to the timelike vector and show via the tunneling approach that the universal horizon radiates as a blackbody at a fixed temperature, even if the scalar field equations also violate local Lorentz invariance. This suggests that the class of holographic theories may be much broader than currently assumed.

We extend the construction of Calabi-Yau manifolds to hypersurfaces in non-Fano toric varieties, requiring the use of certain Laurent defining polynomials, and explore the phases of the corresponding gauged linear sigma models. The associated non-reflexive and non-convex polytopes provide a generalization of Batyrev’s original work, allowing us to construct novel pairs of mirror models. We showcase our proposal for this generalization by examining Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in Hirzebruch n-folds, focusing on n=3,4 sequences, and outline the more general class of so-defined geometries.

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