No Arabic 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.
We wish to construct a minimal set of algebraically independent scalar curvature invariants formed by the contraction of the Riemann (Ricci) tensor and its covariant derivatives up to some order of differentiation in three dimensional (3D) Lorentzian spacetimes. In order to do this we utilize the Cartan-Karlhede equivalence algorithm since, in general, all Cartan invariants are related to scalar polynomial curvature invariants. As an example we apply the algorithm to the class of 3D Szekeres cosmological spacetimes with comoving dust and cosmological constant $Lambda$. In this case, we find that there are at most twelve algebraically independent Cartan invariants, including $Lambda$. We present these Cartan invariants, and we relate them to twelve independent scalar polynomial curvature invariants (two, four and six, respectively, zeroth, first, and second order scalar polynomial curvature invariants).
A short review of scalar curvature invariants in gravity theories is presented. We introduce how these invariants are constructed and discuss the minimal number of invariants required for a given spacetime. We then discuss applications of these invariants and focus on three topics that are of particular interest in modern gravity theories.
We study curvature invariants in a binary black hole merger. It has been conjectured that one could define a quasi-local and foliation independent black hole horizon by finding the level--$0$ set of a suitable curvature invariant of the Riemann tensor. The conjecture is the geometric horizon conjecture and the associated horizon is the geometric horizon. We study this conjecture by tracing the level--$0$ set of the complex scalar polynomial invariant, $mathcal{D}$, through a quasi-circular binary black hole merger. We approximate these level--$0$ sets of $mathcal{D}$ with level--$varepsilon$ sets of $|mathcal{D}|$ for small $varepsilon$. We locate the local minima of $|mathcal{D}|$ and find that the positions of these local minima correspond closely to the level--$varepsilon$ sets of $|mathcal{D}|$ and we also compare with the level--$0$ sets of $text{Re}(mathcal{D})$. The analysis provides evidence that the level--$varepsilon$ sets track a unique geometric horizon. By studying the behaviour of the zero sets of $text{Re}(mathcal{D})$ and $text{Im}(mathcal{D})$ and also by studying the MOTSs and apparent horizons of the initial black holes, we observe that the level--$varepsilon$ set that best approximates the geometric horizon is given by $varepsilon = 10^{-3}$.
In a companion paper [1], we have presented a cross-correlation approach to near-horizon physics in which bulk dynamics is probed through the correlation of quantities defined at inner and outer spacetime hypersurfaces acting as test screens. More specifically, dynamical horizons provide appropriate inner screens in a 3+1 setting and, in this context, we have shown that an effective-curvature vector measured at the common horizon produced in a head-on collision merger can be correlated with the flux of linear Bondi-momentum at null infinity. In this paper we provide a more sound geometric basis to this picture. First, we show that a rigidity property of dynamical horizons, namely foliation uniqueness, leads to a preferred class of null tetrads and Weyl scalars on these hypersurfaces. Second, we identify a heuristic horizon news-like function, depending only on the geometry of spatial sections of the horizon. Fluxes constructed from this function offer refined geometric quantities to be correlated with Bondi fluxes at infinity, as well as a contact with the discussion of quasi-local 4-momentum on dynamical horizons. Third, we highlight the importance of tracking the internal horizon dual to the apparent horizon in spatial 3-slices when integrating fluxes along the horizon. Finally, we discuss the link between the dissipation of the non-stationary part of the horizons geometry with the viscous-fluid analogy for black holes, introducing a geometric prescription for a slowness parameter in black-hole recoil dynamics.
We propose a simple method to prove non-smoothness of a black hole horizon. The existence of a $C^1$ extension across the horizon implies that there is no $C^{N + 2}$ extension across the horizon if some components of $N$-th covariant derivative of Riemann tensor diverge at the horizon in the coordinates of the $C^1$ extension. In particular, the divergence of a component of the Riemann tensor at the horizon directly indicates the presence of a curvature singularity. By using this method, we can confirm the existence of a curvature singularity for several cases where the scalar invariants constructed from the Riemann tensor, e.g., the Ricci scalar and the Kretschmann invariant, take finite values at the horizon. As a concrete example of the application, we show that the Kaluza-Klein black holes constructed by Myers have a curvature singularity at the horizon if the spacetime dimension is higher than five.