Fragile black holes

The AdS/CFT correspondence may give a new way of understanding field theories in extreme conditions, as in the quark–gluon plasma phase of quark matter. The correspondence normally involves asymptotically AdS black holes with dual field theories which are defined on locally flat boundary spacetimes; the implicit assumption is that the distortions of spacetime which occur under extreme conditions do not affect the field theory in any unexpected way. However, AdS black holes are [to varying degrees] fragile, in the sense that they become unstable to stringy effects when their event horizons are sufficiently distorted. This implies that field theories on curved backgrounds may likewise be unstable in a suitable sense. We investigate this phenomenon, focussing on the “fragility” of AdS₅ black holes with flat event horizons. We find that, when they are distorted, these black holes are always unstable in string theory. This may have consequences for the detailed structure of the quark matter phase diagram at extreme values of the spacetime curvature.     

Geometrothermodynamics of black holes

The thermodynamics of black holes is reformulated within the context of the recently developed formalism of geometrothermodynamics. This reformulation is shown to be invariant with respect to Legendre transformations, and to allow several equivalent representations. Legendre invariance allows us to explain a series of contradictory results known in the literature from the use of Weinhold’s and Ruppeiner’s thermodynamic metrics for black holes. For the Reissner–Nordström black hole the geometry of the space of equilibrium states is curved, showing a non trivial thermodynamic interaction, and the curvature contains information about critical points and phase transitions. On the contrary, for the Kerr black hole the geometry is flat and does not explain its phase transition structure.     

Connecting black holes and black strings

Static vacuum spacetimes with one compact dimension include black holes with localized horizons but also uniform and nonuniform black strings where the horizon wraps over the compact dimension. We present new numerical solutions for these localized black holes in 5 and 6 dimensions. Combined with previous 6D nonuniform string results, these provide evidence that the black hole and nonuniform string branches join at a topology changing solution.     

Thermodynamics of black holes

The thermodynamic approach is used to investigate the properties of black holes. The presence of surface gravitation makes it possible to introduce a coefficient of surface tension of black holes and capillary fluctuations of the horizon due to this surface tension; this makes it possible to find the temperature dependence of the surface entropy and the energy of the black holes. It is shown that there is a critical temperature at which a black hole explodes.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 9, pp. 34–36, September, 1977.Some further matters will be discussed in a following paper in collaboration with Professor D. D. Ivanenko, t o whom the author is very grateful for fruitful discussions.     

Pulsation of black holes

The Hawking–Penrose singularity theorem states that a singularity forms inside a black hole in general relativity. To remove this singularity one must resort to a more fundamental theory. Using a corrected dynamical equation arising in loop quantum cosmology and braneworld models, we study the gravitational collapse of a perfect fluid sphere with a rather general equation of state. In the frame of an observer comoving with this fluid, the sphere pulsates between a maximum and a minimum size, avoiding the singularity. The exterior geometry is also constructed. There are usually an outer and an inner apparent horizon, resembling the Reissner–Nordström situation. For a distant observer the horizon crossing occurs in an infinite time and the pulsations of the black hole quantum “beating heart” are completely unobservable. However, it may be observable if the black hole is not spherical symmetric and radiates gravitational wave due to the quadrupole moment, if any.     

Scalar field black holes

With a suitable decomposition of its energy-momentum tensor into pressureless matter and a vacuum type term, we investigate the spherical gravitational collapse of a minimally coupled, self-interacting scalar field, showing that it collapses to a singularity. The formed blackhole has a mass \(M \sim 1/m\) (in Planck units), where m is the mass of the scalar field. If the latter has the axion mass, \(m \sim 10^{-5}\) eV, the former has a mass \(M \sim 10^{-5} M_{\odot }\).     

Lower dimensional black holes

A survey of black hole physics in two spacetime dimensions is presented. Basic properties, specific solutions and quantum aspects are considered in turn. The relationship between string theoretic black holes and those arising in other (1+l)-dimensional theories of gravity is discussed.     

Rotating hairy black holes

We construct stationary black-hole solutions in SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory which carry angular momentum and electric charge. Possessing nontrivial non-Abelian magnetic fields outside their regular event horizon, they represent nonperturbative rotating hairy black holes.     

Ricci nilsoliton black holes

We follow a constructive approach and find higher-dimensional black holes with Ricci nilsoliton horizons. The spacetimes are solutions to the Einstein equation with a negative cosmological constant and generalise therefore, Anti-de Sitter black hole spacetimes. The approach combines a work by Lauret–which relates the so-called Ricci nilsolitons and Einstein solvmanifolds–and an earlier work by the author. The resulting black hole spacetimes are asymptotically Einstein solvmanifolds and thus, are examples of solutions which are not asymptotically Anti-de Sitter. We show that any nilpotent group in dimension n≤6$n\le 6$ has a corresponding Ricci nilsoliton black hole solution in dimension (n+2)$(n+2)$. Furthermore, we show that in dimensions (n+2)>8$(n+2)>8$, there exist an infinite number of locally distinct Ricci nilsoliton black hole metrics.     

Regular phantom black holes

We study self-gravitating, static, spherically symmetric phantom scalar fields with arbitrary potentials (favored by cosmological observations) and single out 16 classes of possible regular configurations with flat, de Sitter, and anti-de Sitter asymptotics. Among them are traversable wormholes, bouncing Kantowski-Sachs (KS) cosmologies, and asymptotically flat black holes (BHs). A regular BH has a Schwarzschild-like causal structure, but the singularity is replaced by a de Sitter infinity, giving a hypothetic BH explorer a chance to survive. It also looks possible that our Universe has originated in a phantom-dominated collapse in another universe, with KS expansion and isotropization after crossing the horizon. Explicit examples of regular solutions are built and discussed. Possible generalizations include k-essence type scalar fields (with a potential) and scalar-tensor gravity.