It has recently been suggested [S. B. Giddings, Phys. Lett. B { \bf 754}, 39 (2016)] that the Hawking black-hole radiation spectrum originates from an effective quantum "atmosphere" which extends well outside the black-hole horizon. In particular, comparing the Hawking radiation power of a $(3+1)$-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole of horizon radius $r_{ \text{ H}}$ with the familiar Stefan-Boltzmann radiation power of a $(3+1)$-dimensional flat space perfect blackbody emitter, Giddings concluded that the source of the Hawking semi-classical black-hole radiation is a quantum region outside the Schwarzschild black-hole horizon whose effective radius $r_{ \text{ A}}$ is characterized by the relation $\Delta r\equiv r_{ \text{ A}}-r_{ \text{ H}}\sim r_{ \text{ H}}$. It is of considerable physical interest to test the general validity of Giddings's intriguing conclusion. To this end, we study the Hawking radiation of $(D+1)$-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes. We find that the dimensionless radii $r_{ \text{ A}}/r_{ \text{ H}}$ which characterize the black-hole quantum atmospheres, as determined from the Hawking black-hole radiation power and the $(D+1)$-dimensional Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law, are a decreasing function of the number $D+1$ of spacetime dimensions. In particular, it is shown that radiating $(D+1)$-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes are characterized by the relation $(r_{ \text{ A}}-r_{ \text{ H}})/r_{ \text{ H}}\ll1$ in the large $D\gg1$ regime. Our results therefore suggest that, at least in some physical cases, the Hawking emission spectrum originates from quantum excitations very near the black-hole horizon.
Categories: gr-qc astro-ph.HE hep-th