Cauchy Horizon Research Articles

On the global uniqueness for the Einstein–Maxwell-scalar field system with a cosmological constant: I. Well posedness and breakdown criterion

This paper is the first part of a trilogy dedicated to the following problem: given spherically symmetric characteristic initial data for the Einstein–Maxwell-scalar field system with a cosmological constant Λ, with the data on the outgoing initial null hypersurface given by a subextremal Reissner–Nordström black hole event horizon, study the future extendibility of the corresponding maximal globally hyperbolic development (MGHD) as a ‘suitably regular’ Lorentzian manifold. In this first part we establish well posedness of the Einstein equations for characteristic data satisfying the minimal regularity conditions leading to classical solutions. We also identify the appropriate notion of a maximal solution, from which the construction of the corresponding MGHD follows, and determine breakdown criteria. This is the unavoidable starting point of the analysis; our main results will depend on the detailed understanding of these fundamentals. In the second part of this series (Costa et al , arXiv:1406.7253) we study the stability of the radius function at the Cauchy horizon. In the third and final paper (Costa et al ,arXiv:1406.7261) we show that, depending on the decay rate of the initial data, mass inflation may or may not occur; in fact, it is even possible to have (non-isometric) extensions of the spacetime across the Cauchy horizon as classical solutions of the Einstein equations.

Yet another proof of Hawking and Ellisʼs Lemma 8.5.5

The fact that the null generators of a future Cauchy horizon are past-complete was first proved by Hawking and Ellis (1973 The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)). Then, Budzyński, Kondracki and Królak outlined a proof free from the error found in the original one (2000 New properties of Cauchy and event horizons arXiv:gr-qc/0011033). Now, Minguzzi has published his version of the proof (2014 J. Math. Phys. 55 082503), patching a previously unnoticed hole in the preceding two. I am not aware of any flaws in that last proof, but it is quite difficult. In this note, I present a simpler one.

Smoothness of Compact Horizons

We prove that compact Cauchy horizons in a smooth spacetime satisfying the null energy condition are smooth. As an application, we consider the problem of determining when a cobordism admits Lorentzian metrics with certain properties. In particular, we prove a result originally due to Tipler without the smoothness hypothesis necessary in the original proof.

Charged black holes in string-inspired gravity. I. Causal structures and responses of the Brans-Dicke field

We investigate gravitational collapses of charged black holes in string-inspired gravity models, including dilaton gravity and braneworld model, as well as f(R) gravity and the ghost limit. If we turn on gauge coupling, the causal structures and the responses of the Brans-Dicke field depend on the coupling between the charged matter and the Brans-Dicke field. For Type IIA inspired models, a Cauchy horizon exists, while there is no Cauchy horizon for Type I or Heterotic inspired models. For Type IIA inspired models, the no-hair theorem is satisfied asymptotically, while it is biased to the weak coupling limit for Type I or Heterotic inspired models. Apart from string theory, we find that in the ghost limit, a gravitational collapse can induce inflation by itself and create one-way traversable wormholes without the need of other special initial conditions.

Completeness of Cauchy horizon generators

It is proved that every compactly generated future Cauchy horizon has past complete generators, and dually. No condition on the differentiability of the horizon is imposed.

Time machines with the compactly determined Cauchy horizon

The building of a time machine, if possible at all, requires the relevant regions of spacetime to be compact (that is, physically speaking, free from sources of unpredictability such as infinities and singularities). Motivated by this argument we consider the spacetimes with the compactly determined Cauchy horizons (CDCHs), the defining property of which is the compactness of $\overline{J^-(\EuScript U)}\cap J^+(\EuScript S_0)$, where $\EuScript U$ is an open subset of the Cauchy horizon and $\EuScript S_0$ is a Cauchy surface of the initial globally hyperbolic region $\ingh$. The following two facts are established: 1) $\ingh$ has no globally hyperbolic maximal extension. This means that by shaping appropriately a precompact portion of a globally hyperbolic region one can \emph{force} the Universe to produce either a closed causal curve, or a quasiregular singularity, whichever it abhors less; 2) Before a CDCH is formed a null geodesic appears which infinitely approaches the horizon returning again and again in the same --- arbitrarily small --- region. The energy of the photon moving on such a geodesic increases with each passage, or at least falls insufficiently fast. As a result, an observer located in the mentioned region would see a bunch of photons passing through his laboratory with the arbitrarily large total energy. We speculate that this phenomenon may have observable consequences.

Geometric relations for rotating and charged AdS black holes

We derive mass-independent equations and inequalities for Kerr–Newman-anti-de Sitter black holes. In particular, we obtain an equation that relates electric charge, angular momentum and the areas of the event and Cauchy horizons. An area-angular momentum-charge inequality is derived from this formula, which becomes an equality in the degenerate limit. The same equation is shown to hold for arbitrary degenerate black holes, which might, for example, be surrounded by matter.

Black hole interior mass formula

AbstractWe argue by explicit computations that, although the area product, horizon radii product, entropy product, and irreducible mass product of the event horizon and Cauchy horizon are universal, the surface gravity product, the surface temperature product and the Komar energy product of the said horizons do not seem to be universal for Kerr–Newman black hole spacetimes. We show the black hole mass formula on the Cauchy horizon following the seminal work by Smarr [Phys Rev Lett 30:71 (1973), Phys Rev D 7:289 (1973)] for the outer horizon. We also prescribe the four laws of black hole mechanics for the inner horizon. A new definition of the extremal limit of a black hole is discussed.

DS/CFT at uniform energy density and a de Sitter “bluewall”

We describe a class of spacetimes that are asymptotically de Sitter in the Poincare slicing. Assuming that a dS/CFT correspondence exists, we argue that these are gravity duals to a CFT on a circle leading to uniform energy-momentum density, and are equivalent to an analytic continuation of the Euclidean AdS black brane. These are solutions with a complex parameter which then gives a real energy-momentum density. We also discuss a related solution with the parameter continued to a real number, which we refer to as a de Sitter "bluewall". This spacetime has two asymptotic de Sitter universes and Cauchy horizons cloaking timelike singularities. We argue that the Cauchy horizons give rise to a blue-shift instability.

Cauchy horizon stability in a collapsing spherical dust cloud: I. Geometric optics approximation and spherically symmetric test fields

A spherical dust cloud which is initially at rest and which has a monotonously decaying density profile collapses and forms a shell-focusing singularity. Provided the density profile is not too flat, meaning that its second radial derivative is negative at the centre, this singularity is visible to local, and sometimes even to global observers. According to the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, such naked singularities should be unstable under generic, non-spherical perturbations of the initial data or when more realistic matter models are considered. In an attempt to gain further insight into this stability issue, in this work we initiate the analysis of a simpler but related problem. We discuss the stability of test fields propagating in the vicinity of the Cauchy horizon associated to the naked central singularity. We first study the high-frequency limit and show that the fields undergo a blueshift as they approach the Cauchy horizon. However, in contrast to what occurs at inner horizons of black holes, we show that the blueshift is uniformly bounded along incoming and outgoing null rays. Motivated by this boundedness result, we take a step beyond the geometric optics approximation and consider the Cauchy evolution of spherically symmetric test scalar fields. We prove that under reasonable conditions on the initial data a suitable rescaled field can be continuously extended to the Cauchy horizon. In particular, this result implies that the physical field is everywhere finite on the Cauchy horizon away from the central singularity.

Interacting thin shells in the interior of a Reissner–Nordstrøm black hole

In this paper we consider some applications of the extended Dray-t’Hooft–Redmount relation, considered earlier in Neronov (JHEP 11:007, 2001), Langlois and Maeda (Phys Rev Lett 88:181301, 2002), Berezin and Smirnov (Gravit Cosmol 9(4):235, 2003). In particular, using this relation, we study geometries of interacting thin shells near the future Cauchy horizon of a Reissner–Nordstrøm black hole.

Mass inflation inside black holes revisited

The mass inflation phenomenon implies that black hole interiors are unstable due to a back-reaction divergence of the perturbed black hole mass function at the Cauchy horizon. The mass inflation was initially derived by using the generalized Dray–’t Hooft–Redmount (DTR) relation in the linear approximation of the Einstein equations near the perturbed Cauchy horizon of the Reissner–Nordström black hole. However, this linear approximation for the DTR relation is improper for the highly nonlinear behavior of back-reaction perturbations at the black hole horizons. An additional weak point in the standard mass inflation calculations is in a fallacious using of the global Cauchy horizon as a place for the maximal growth of the back-reaction perturbations instead of the local inner apparent horizon. It is derived the new spherically symmetric back-reaction solution for two counter-streaming light-like fluxes near the inner apparent horizon of the charged black hole by taking into account its separation from the Cauchy horizon. In this solution the back-reaction perturbations of the background metric are truly the largest at the inner apparent horizon, but, nevertheless, remain small. The back reaction, additionally, removes the infinite blue-shift singularity at the inner apparent horizon and at the Cauchy horizon.

Naked singularity explosion in higher-dimensional dust collapse

In the context of the large extra dimensions or TeV-scale gravity, it has been argued that an effective naked singularity, called the visible border of spacetime, would be generated by high-energy particle collisions. Motivated by this interesting possibility, we investigate a particle creation by a naked singularity in general dimensions, adopting a spherically symmetric self-similar dust collapse as the simple model of a naked singularity formation. The power and energy of the particle emission behave in two distinct ways depending on a parameter in the model. In a generic case, the emission power is proportional to the quadratic inverse of the remaining time to the Cauchy horizon, which has been known for the four-dimensional case in the literature. On the other hand, in a degenerate case the emission power is proportional to the quartic inverse of the remaining time to the Cauchy horizon, and depends on the total mass of a dust fluid in spite that the central region of the collapse is scale-free due to the self-similarity. In the both cases, within a test-field approximation the energy radiated before any quantum gravitational effect dominates amounts to TeV. This suggests that a backreaction is not ignorable in the TeV-scale gravity context, in contrast to the similar phenomena in stellar collapse.

Static spherically symmetric solution of the Einstein-aether theory

By using the Euler-Lagrange equations, we find a static spherically symmetric solution in the Einstein-aether theory with the coupling constants restricted. The solution is similar to the Reissner-Nordstrom solution in that it has an inner Cauchy horizon and an outer black hole event horizon. But a remarkable difference from the Reissner-Nordstrom solution is that it is not asymptotically flat but approaches a two-dimensional sphere. The resulting electric potential is regular in the whole spacetime except for the curvature singularity. On the other hand, the magnetic potential is divergent on both the Cauchy horizon and the outer event horizon.

Inside and outside stories of black-branes in anti de Sitter space

In this paper, we investigate the dynamics inside and outside of black-branes in anti de Sitter space by numerical simulations using double-null formalism. We prepare a charged planar matter shell which, due to a negative cosmological constant, collapses and dynamically forms a black-brane with an apparent horizon, a singularity and a Cauchy horizon. The gravitational collapse cannot form a naked overcharged black-brane and hence weak cosmic censorship is safe. Although mass inflation occurs, the effect is much milder than in the case of charged black holes; hence, strong cosmic censorship seems not to be safe. We observed the scalar field dynamics outside the horizon. There should remain a non-trivial scalar field combination—‘charge cloud’—between the horizon and the boundary. This can give some meaning in terms of the AdS/CFT correspondence.

What happens at the horizon(s) of an extreme black hole?

A massless scalar field exhibits an instability at the event horizon of an extreme black hole. We study numerically the nonlinear evolution of this instability for spherically symmetric perturbations of an extreme Reissner–Nordstrom (RN) black hole. We find that generically the endpoint of the instability is a non-extreme RN solution. However, there exist fine-tuned initial perturbations for which the instability never decays. In this case, the perturbed spacetime describes a time-dependent extreme black hole. Such solutions settle down to extreme RN outside, but not on, the event horizon. The event horizon remains smooth but certain observers who cross it at late time experience large gradients there. Our results indicate that these dynamical extreme black holes admit a C1 extension across an inner (Cauchy) horizon.

Area products for stationary black hole horizons

Area products for multi-horizon stationary black holes often have intriguing properties, and are often (though not always) independent of the mass of the black hole itself (depending only on various charges, angular momenta, and moduli). Such products are often formulated in terms of the areas of inner (Cauchy) horizons and outer (event) horizons, and sometimes include the effects of unphysical "virtual" horizons. But the conjectured mass-independence sometimes fails. Specifically, for the Schwarzschild-de Sitter [Kottler] black hole in (3+1) dimensions it is shown by explicit exact calculation that the product of event horizon area and cosmological horizon area is not mass independent. (Including the effect of the third "virtual" horizon does not improve the situation.) Similarly, in the Reissner-Nordstrom-anti-de Sitter black hole in (3+1) dimensions the product of inner (Cauchy) horizon area and event horizon area is calculated (perturbatively), and is shown to be not mass independent. That is, the mass-independence of the product of physical horizon areas is not generic. In spherical symmetry, whenever the quasi-local mass m(r) is a Laurent polynomial in aerial radius, r=sqrt{A/4\pi}, there are significantly more complicated mass-independent quantities, the elementary symmetric polynomials built up from the complete set of horizon radii (physical and virtual). Sometimes it is possible to eliminate the unphysical virtual horizons, constructing combinations of physical horizon areas that are mass independent, but they tend to be considerably more complicated than the simple products and related constructions currently being mooted in the literature.

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-Nordstrom 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.

Noise kernel for the self-similar Tolman-Bondi metric: Fluctuations on the Cauchy horizon

We attempt to calculate the point separated Noise Kernel for self similar Tolman Bondi metric, using a method similar to that developed by Eftekharzadeh et. al for ultra-static spacetimes referring to the work by Page. In case of formation of a naked singularity, the Noise Kernel thus obtained is found to be regular except on the Cauchy horizon, where it diverges. The behavior of the noise in case of the formation of a covered singularity is found to be regular. This result seemingly renders back reaction non-negligible which questions the stability of the results obtained from the semiclassical treatment of the self similar Tolman Bondi metric.

Weakly Regular Einstein–Euler Spacetimes with Gowdy Symmetry: The Global Areal Foliation

We consider weakly regular Gowdy-symmetric spacetimes on T3 satisfying the Einstein-Euler equations of general relativity, and we solve the initial value problem when the initial data set has bounded variation, only, so that the corresponding spacetime may contain impulsive gravitational waves as well as shock waves. By analyzing, both, future expanding and future contracting spacetimes, we establish the existence of a global foliation by spacelike hypersurfaces so that the time function coincides with the area of the surfaces of symmetry and asymptotically approaches infinity in the expanding case and zero in the contracting case. More precisely, the latter property in the contracting case holds provided the mass density does not exceed a certain threshold, which is a natural assumption since certain exceptional data with sufficiently large mass density are known to give rise to a Cauchy horizon, on which the area function attains a positive value. An earlier result by LeFloch and Rendall assumed a different class of weak regularity and did not determine the range of the area function in the contracting case. Our method of proof is based on a version of the random choice scheme adapted to the Einstein equations for the symmetry and regularity class under consideration. We also analyze the Einstein constraint equations under weak regularity.