Neighborhoods of Cauchy horizons in cosmological spacetimes with one killing field

In this paper we show how to construct an infinite dimensional family of analytic, vacuum spacetimes which each have (i) T³ × R topology, (ii) a smooth, compact Cauchy horizon, and (iii) a single Killing vector field which is spacelike in the globally hyperbolic region, null on the horizon and timelike in the (acausal) extension. The key idea is to use the horizons themselves as initial data surfaces and to prove the local existence of solutions using a version of the Cauchy-Kowalewski theorem. Factoring by the action of analytic, horizon preserving diffeomorphisms we define a “space of extendible vacuum spacetimes” of the given symmetry type and show (modulo certain smoothness estimates which we do not attempt to derive) that this space defines a Lagrangian submanifold of the usual phase space for Einstein's equations. We also study the linear perturbations of a class of the extendible spacetimes and show that the generic such perturbation blows up near the background solution's Cauchy horizon. This result, though limited by the linearity of the approximation, conforms to the usual picture of unstable Cauchy horizons demanded by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture.     

The Inner Structure of Black Holes

We study the gravitational collapse of a self-gravitating charged scalar-field. Starting with a regular spacetime, we follow the evolution through the formation of an apparent horizon, a Cauchy horizon and a final central singularity. We find a null, weak, mass-inflation singularity along the Cauchy horizon, which is a precursor of a strong, spacelike singularity along the r = 0 hypersurface. The inner black hole region is bounded (in the future) by singularities. This resembles the classical inner structure of a Schwarzschild black hole and it is remarkably different from the inner structure of a charged static Reissner-Nordström or a stationary rotating Kerr black holes.     

Symmetries of cosmological Cauchy horizons

We consider analytic vacuum and electrovacuum spacetimes which contain a compact null hypersurface ruled byclosed null generators. We prove that each such spacetime has a non-trivial Killing symmetry. We distinguish two classes of null surfaces, degenerate and non-degenerate ones, characterized by the zero or non-zero value of a constant analogous to the “surface gravity” of stationary black holes. We show that the non-degenerate null surfaces are always Cauchy horizons across which the Killing fields change from spacelike (in the globally hyperbolic regions) to timelike (in the acausal, analytic extensions). For the special case of a null surface diffeomorphic toT ³ we characterize the degenerate vacuum solutions completely. These consist of an infinite dimensional family of “plane wave” spacetimes which are entirely foliated by compact null surfaces. Previous work by one of us has shown that, when one dimensional Killing symmetries are allowed, then infinite dimensional families of non-degenerate, vacuum solutions exist. We recall these results for the case of Cauchy horizons diffeomorphic toT ³ and prove the generality of the previously constructed non-degenerate solutions. We briefly discuss the possibility of removing the assumptions of closed generators and analyticity and proving an appropriate generalization of our main results. Such a generalization would provide strong support for the cosmic censorship conjecture by showing that causality violating, cosmological solutions of Einstein's equations are essentially an artefact of symmetry.     

A Higher Dimensional Stationary Rotating Black Hole Must be Axisymmetric

A key result in the proof of black hole uniqueness in 4-dimensions is that a stationary black hole that is “rotating”—i.e., is such that the stationary Killing field is not everywhere normal to the horizon—must be axisymmetric. The proof of this result in 4-dimensions relies on the fact that the orbits of the stationary Killing field on the horizon have the property that they must return to the same null geodesic generator of the horizon after a certain period, P. This latter property follows, in turn, from the fact that the cross-sections of the horizon are two-dimensional spheres. However, in spacetimes of dimension greater than 4, it is no longer true that the orbits of the stationary Killing field on the horizon must return to the same null geodesic generator. In this paper, we prove that, nevertheless, a higher dimensional stationary black hole that is rotating must be axisymmetric. No assumptions are made concerning the topology of the horizon cross-sections other than that they are compact. However, we assume that the horizon is non-degenerate and, as in the 4-dimensional proof, that the spacetime is analytic.     

Gyroscope precession frequency analysis of a five-dimensional charged rotating Kaluza-Klein black hole

We study the spin precession frequency of a test gyroscope attached to a stationary observer in the five-dimensional rotating Kaluza-Klein black hole(RKKBH). We derive the conditions under which the test gyroscope moves along a timelike trajectory in this geometry, and the regions where the spin precession frequency diverges. The magnitude of the gyroscope precession frequency around the KK black hole diverges at two spatial locations outside the event horizon. However, in the static case, the behavior of the Lense-Thirring frequency of a gyroscope around the KK black hole is similar to the ordinary Schwarzschild black hole. Since a rotating Kaluza-Klein black hole is a generalization of the Kerr-Newman black hole, we present two mass-independent schemes to distinguish these two spacetimes.     

Horizons in 2+1-dimensional collapse of particles

A simple, geometrical construction is given for three-dimensional spacetimes with negative cosmological constant that contain two particles colliding head-on. Depending on parameters like particle masses and distance, the combined geometry will be that of a particle, or of a black hole. In the black hole case the horizon is calculated. It is found that the horizon typically starts at a point and spreads into a closed curve with corners, which propagate along spacelike caustics and disappear as the horizon passes the particles.      

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.     

A boosted Kerr black hole solution and the structure of a general astrophysical black hole

A solution of Einstein’s vacuum field equations that describes a boosted Kerr black hole relative to an asymptotic Lorentz frame at future null infinity is derived. The solution has three parameters (mass, rotation and boost) and corresponds to the most general configuration that an astrophysical black hole must have; it reduces to the Kerr solution when the boost parameter is zero. In this solution the ergosphere is north-south asymmetric, with dominant lobes in the direction opposite to the boost. However the event horizon, the Cauchy horizon and the ring singularity—which are the core of the black hole structure—do not alter, being independent of the boost parameter. Possible consequences for astrophysical processes connected with Penrose processes in the asymmetric ergosphere are discussed.     

Coordinates with Non-Singular Curvature for a Time Dependent Black Hole Horizon

A naive introduction of a dependency of the mass of a black hole on the Schwarzschild time coordinate results in singular behavior of curvature invariants at the horizon, violating expectations from complementarity. If instead a temporal dependence is introduced in terms of a coordinate akin to the river time representation, the Ricci scalar is nowhere singular away from the origin. It is found that for a shrinking mass scale due to evaporation, the null radial geodesics that generate the horizon are slightly displaced from the coordinate singularity. In addition, a changing horizon scale significantly alters the form of the coordinate singularity in diagonal (orthogonal) metric coordinates representing the space-time. A Penrose diagram describing the growth and evaporation of an example black hole is constructed to examine the evolution of the coordinate singularity.     

Horizons Non-Differentiable on a Dense Set

It is folklore knowledge amongst general relativists that horizons are well behaved, continuously differentiable hypersurfaces except perhaps on a negligible subset one needs not to bother with. We show that this is not the case, by constructing a Cauchy horizon, as well as a black hole event horizon, which contain no open subset on which they are differentiable. Received: 17 April 1997 / Accepted: 9 September 1997     

Entropy bound of horizons for accelerating,rotating and charged Plebanski–Demianski black hole

We first review the accelerating, rotating and charged Plebanski–Demianski (PD) black hole, which includes the Kerr–Newman rotating black hole and the Taub-NUT spacetime. The main feature of this black hole is that it has 4 horizons like event horizon, Cauchy horizon and two accelerating horizons. In the non-extremal case, the surface area, entropy, surface gravity, temperature, angular velocity, Komar energy and irreducible mass on the event horizon and Cauchy horizon are presented for PD black hole. The entropy product, temperature product, Komar energy product and irreducible mass product have been found for event horizon and Cauchy horizon. Also their sums are found for both horizons. All these relations are dependent on the mass of the PD black hole and other parameters. So all the products are not universal for PD black hole. The entropy and area bounds for two horizons have been investigated. Also we found the Christodoulou–Ruffini mass for extremal PD black hole. Finally, using first law of thermodynamics, we also found the Smarr relation for PD black hole.     

Black-hole singularities: a new critical phenomenon

The singularity inside a spherical charged black hole, coupled to a spherical, massless scalar field is studied numerically. The profile of the characteristic scalar field was taken to be a power of advanced time with an exponent alpha>0. A critical exponent alpha(crit) exists. For exponents below the critical one (alphaalpha(crit)) an all-encompassing, spacelike singularity evolves, which completely blocks the "tunnel" inside the black hole, preventing the use of the black hole as a portal for hyperspace travel.     

Spacetime Embedding Diagrams for Spherically Symmetric Black Holes

We show that it is possible to embed the 1 + 1 dimensional reduction of certain spherically symmetric black hole spacetimes into 2 + 1 Minkowski space. The spacetimes of interest (Schwarzschild de-Sitter, Schwarzschild anti de-Sitter, and Reissner-Nordström near the outer horizon) represent a class of metrics whose geometries allow for such embeddings. The embedding diagrams have a dynamic character which allows one to represent the motion of test particles. We also analyze various features of the embedding construction, deriving the general conditions under which our procedure provides a smooth embedding. These conditions also yield an embedding constant related to the surface gravity of the relevant horizon.     

Stationary solutions of the Dirac equation in the gravitational field of a charged black hole

A stationary solution of the Dirac equation in the metric of a Reissner-Nordström black hole has been found. Only one stationary regular state outside the black hole event horizon and only one stationary regular state below the Cauchy horizon are shown to exist. The normalization integral of the wave functions diverges on both horizons if the black hole is non-extremal. This means that the solution found can be only the asymptotic limit of a nonstationary solution. In contrast, in the case of an extremal black hole, the normalization integral is finite and the stationary regular solution is physically self-consistent. The existence of quantum levels below the Cauchy horizon can affect the final stage of Hawking black hole evaporation and opens up the fundamental possibility of investigating the internal structure of black holes using quantum tunneling between external and internal states.     

Area invariance of apparent horizons under arbitrary Lorentz boosts

It is a well known analytic result in general relativity that the 2-dimensional area of the apparent horizon of a black hole remains invariant regardless of the motion of the observer, and in fact is independent of the t = constant slice, which can be quite arbitrary in general relativity. Nonetheless the explicit computation of horizon area is often substantially more difficult in some frames (complicated by the coordinate form of the metric), than in other frames. Here we give an explicit demonstration for very restricted metric forms of (Schwarzschild and Kerr) vacuum black holes. In the Kerr–Schild coordinate expression for these spacetimes they have an explicit Lorentz-invariant form. We consider boosted versions with the black hole moving through the coordinate system. Since these are stationary black hole spacetimes, the apparent horizons are two dimensional cross sections of their event horizons, so we compute the areas of apparent horizons in the boosted space with (boosted) t = constant, and obtain the same result as in the unboosted case. Note that while the invariance of area is generic, we deal only with black holes in the Kerr–Schild form, and consider only one particularly simple change of slicing which amounts to a boost. Even with these restrictions we find that the results illuminate the physics of the horizon as a null surface and provide a useful pedagogical tool. As far as we can determine, this is the first explicit calculation of this type demonstrating the area invariance of horizons. Further, these calculations are directly relevant to transformations that arise in computational representation of moving black holes. We present an application of this result to initial data for boosted black holes.     

Event Horizon Image within Black Hole Shadow

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics - We argue that a genuine image of the black hole viewed by a distant observer is not its shadow, but a more compact event horizon image probed by...     

Black Holes as Atoms

Stationary spacetimes containing a black hole have several properties akin to those of atoms. For instance, such spacetimes have only three classical degrees of freedom, or observables, which may be taken to be the mass, the angular momentum, and the electric charge of the hole. There are several arguments supporting a proposal originally made by Bekenstein that quantization of these classical degrees of freedom gives an equal spacing for the horizon area spectrum of black holes. We review some of these arguments and introduce a specific Hamiltonian quantum theory of black holes. Our Hamiltonian quantum theory gives, among other things, a discrete spectrum for the classical observables, and it produces an area spectrum which is closely related to Bekenstein's proposal. We also present a foamlike model of horizons of spacetime. In our model spacetime horizon consists of microscopic Schwarzschild black holes. Applying our Hamiltonian approach to this model we find that the entropy of any horizon is one quarter of its area.     

Late-time Evolution of the Yang-Mills Field in the Spherically Symmetric Gravitational Collapse

We investigate the late-time evolution of theYang-Mills field in the self-gravitating backgrounds:Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom spacetimes. Thelate-time power-law tails develop in the threeasymptotic regions: the future timelike infinity, thefuture null infinity and the black hole horizon. Inthese two backgrounds, however, the late-time evolutionhas quantitative and qualitative differences. In the Schwarzschild black hole background, thelate-time tails of the Yang-Mills field are the same asthose of the neutral massless scalar field withmultipole moment l = 1. The late-time evolutionis dominated by the spacetime curvature. When the backgroundis the Reissner-Nordstrom black hole, the late-timetails have not only a smaller power-law exponent, butalso an oscillatory factor. The late-time evolution is dominated by the self-interacting term ofthe Yang-Mills field. The cause responsible for thedifferences is revealed.     

Probing strange stars and color superconductivity by r-mode instabilities in millisecond pulsars

An astrophysically realistic model of wave dynamics in black-hole spacetimes must involve a nonspherical background geometry with angular momentum. We consider the evolution of gravitational (and electromagnetic) perturbations in rotating Kerr spacetimes. We show that a rotating Kerr black hole becomes "bald" slower than the corresponding spherically symmetric Schwarzschild black hole. Moreover, our results turn over the traditional belief (which has been widely accepted during the last three decades) that the late-time tail of gravitational collapse is universal. Our results are also of importance both to the study of the no-hair conjecture and the mass-inflation scenario (stability of Cauchy horizons).     

The dangers of extremes

While extreme black hole spacetimes with smooth horizons are known at the level of mathematics, we argue that the horizons of physical extreme black holes are effectively singular. Test particles encounter a singularity the moment they cross the horizon, and only objects with significant back-reaction can fall across a smooth (now non-extreme) horizon. As a result, classical interior solutions for extreme black holes are theoretical fictions that need not be reproduced by any quantum mechanical model. This observation suggests that significant quantum effects might be visible outside extreme or nearly extreme black holes. It also suggests that the microphysics of such black holes may be very different from that of their Schwarzschild cousins.