Fundamental properties and applications of quasi-local black hole horizons

TL;DR

This paper reviews the framework of quasi-local black hole horizons, such as trapping and dynamical horizons, which provide a more versatile and unified approach to studying black holes in dynamic spacetimes, with applications across physics.

Contribution

It summarizes recent developments and applications of quasi-local horizon concepts, extending black hole analysis beyond traditional event horizon descriptions.

Findings

Unified framework for analyzing dynamic black holes

Applications in numerical relativity and astrophysics

Generalization of classical black hole results

Abstract

The traditional description of black holes in terms of event horizons is inadequate for many physical applications, especially when studying black holes in non-stationary spacetimes. In these cases, it is often more useful to use the quasi-local notions of trapped and marginally trapped surfaces, which lead naturally to the framework of trapping, isolated, and dynamical horizons. This framework allows us to analyze diverse facets of black holes in a unified manner and to significantly generalize several results in black hole physics. It also leads to a number of applications in mathematical general relativity, numerical relativity, astrophysics, and quantum gravity. In this review, I will discuss the basic ideas and recent developments in this framework, and summarize some of its applications with an emphasis on numerical relativity.