Overspinning problem in Kerr black holes: second order corrections and self-energy

TL;DR

This paper investigates the overspinning problem in Kerr black holes, demonstrating that including second order corrections and null energy conditions prevents their destruction in thought experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a second order correction to the black hole's mass in gedanken experiments, showing it safeguards extremal and near-extremal Kerr black holes from destruction.

Findings

Second order corrections prevent black hole destruction.

Null energy condition is crucial for stability.

Self-energy considerations relate to matter-black hole interactions.

Abstract

We consider gedanken experiments to destroy Kerr black holes by means of absorbing matter with sufficient energy and angular momentum. It is shown that extremal and near-extremal Kerr black holes cannot be destroyed in a process that includes a second order contribution to its final mass, and matter sources satisfy the null energy condition. Such contribution is calculated using hypersurface integration on the event horizon, and it traces similarities with terms related to matter-black hole interactions and a rotational self-energy lower bound suggested in previous works.