Accretion of phantom scalar field into a black hole

TL;DR

This paper presents the first full nonlinear numerical study of how phantom scalar fields are accreted by black holes, showing significant area reduction and suggesting a potential evaporation process due to exotic matter.

Contribution

It provides the first nonlinear numerical analysis of phantom scalar field accretion into black holes, demonstrating area reduction effects in full general relativity.

Findings

Black hole area can decrease by up to 50% during accretion.

Accretion can occur with both positive and negative total energy.

Exotic matter accretion may resemble black hole evaporation.

Abstract

Using numerical methods we present the first full nonlinear study of phantom scalar field accreted into a black hole. We study different initial configurations and find that the accretion of the field into the black hole can reduce its area down to 50 percent within time scales of the order of few masses of the initial horizon. The analysis includes the cases where the total energy of the space-time is positive or negative. The confirmation of this effect in full nonlinear general relativity implies that the accretion of exotic matter could be considered an evaporation process. We speculate that if this sort of exotic matter has some cosmological significance, this black hole area reduction process might have played a crucial role in black hole formation and population.