Identification of black hole horizons using scalar curvature invariants

Abstract

We introduce the concept of a geometric horizon, which is a surface distinguished by the vanishing of certain curvature invariants which characterize its special algebraic character. We motivate its use for the detection of the event horizon of a stationary black hole by providing a set of appropriate scalar polynomial curvature invariants that vanish on this surface. We extend this result by proving that a non-expanding horizon, which generalizes a Killing horizon, coincides with the geometric horizon. Finally, we consider the imploding spherically symmetric metrics and show that the geometric horizon identifies a unique quasi-local surface corresponding to the unique spherically symmetric marginally trapped tube, implying that the spherically symmetric dynamical black holes admit a geometric horizon. Based on these results, we propose a suite of conjectures concerning the application of geometric horizons to more general dynamical black hole scenarios.

52 pages

References in corpus (9)

• Extraction of Gravitational Waves in Numerical Relativity
• The region with trapped surfaces in spherical symmetry, its core, and their boundaries
• Invariant characterization of the Kerr spacetime: Locating the horizon and measuring the mass and spin of rotating black holes using curvature invariants
• A Note on trapped Surfaces in the Vaidya Solution
• Local Invariants Vanishing on Stationary Horizons: A Diagnostic for Locating Black Holes
• On the parameters of the Kerr-NUT-(anti-)de Sitter space-time
• Curvature invariant characterization of event horizons of four-dimensional black holes conformal to stationary black holes
• Algebraic classification of five-dimensional spacetimes using scalar invariants
• A set of invariant quality factors measuring the deviation from the Kerr metric

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Geometric Horizons
• Action principle selection of regular black holes
• Geometric surfaces: An invariant characterization of spherically symmetric black hole horizons and wormhole throats
• Suppression of spacetime singularities in quantum gravity
• A Critical Assessment of Black Hole Solutions With a Linear Term in Their Redshift Function
• A non-local way around the no-global-symmetries conjecture in quantum gravity?
• Symmetry and instability of marginally outer trapped surfaces
• All $2D$ generalised dilaton theories from $d\ge 4$ gravities
• Persistence in black hole lattice cosmological models
• On black holes in teleparallel torsion theories of gravity
• Weighing the curvature invariants
• On black holes in new general relativity
• Black holes and their horizons in semiclassical and modified theories of gravity
• Alternative characterization of a black hole boundary