Bumpy black holes

TL;DR

This paper explores six-dimensional rotating black holes with non-uniform horizon structures, constructing new solutions, analyzing their approach to singularities, and providing evidence for transition mechanisms to other black hole configurations.

Contribution

It introduces new numerical solutions for bumpy black holes, investigates their critical behavior, and supports conjectures about horizon topology transitions and singularity formation.

Findings

Identification of three new bumpy black hole families.

Evidence of conical structures mediating black hole transitions.

Discovery of a bumpy black hole class ending in universal singularities.

Abstract

We study six-dimensional rotating black holes with bumpy horizons: these are topologically spherical, but the sizes of symmetric cycles on the horizon vary non-monotonically with the polar angle. We construct them numerically for the first three bumpy families, and follow them in solution space until they approach critical solutions with localized singularities on the horizon. We find strong evidence of the conical structures that have been conjectured to mediate the transitions to black rings, to black Saturns, and to a novel class of bumpy black rings. For a different, recently identified class of bumpy black holes, we find evidence that this family ends in solutions with a localized singularity that exhibits apparently universal properties, and which does not seem to allow for transitions to any known class of black holes.