The Mass-Angular Momentum Inequality for Multiple Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper proves a mass-angular momentum inequality for multiple black holes, showing the ADM mass is bounded below by the square root of total angular momentum, with equality only for extreme Kerr black holes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel harmonic map flow approach to establish the inequality for multiple black holes in axisymmetric, maximal initial data sets.

Findings

Mass-angular momentum inequality proven for multiple black holes

Equality holds only for extreme Kerr spacetime slices

New harmonic map flow technique developed for the proof

Abstract

This is the second in a series of two papers to establish the conjectured mass-angular momentum inequality for multiple black holes, modulo the extreme black hole 'no hair theorem'. More precisely it is shown that either there is a counterexample to black hole uniqueness, in the form of a regular axisymmetric stationary vacuum spacetime with an asymptotically flat end and multiple degenerate horizons which is 'ADM minimizing', or the following statement holds. Complete, simply connected, maximal initial data sets for the Einstein equations with multiple ends that are either asymptotically flat or asymptotically cylindrical, admit an ADM mass lower bound given by the square root of total angular momentum, under the assumption of nonnegative energy density and axisymmetry. Moreover, equality is achieved in the mass lower bound only for a constant time slice of an extreme Kerr spacetime. The proof is based on a novel flow of singular harmonic maps with hyperbolic plane target, under which the renormalized harmonic map energy is monotonically nonincreasing. Relevant properties of the flow are achieved through a refined asymptotic analysis of solutions to the harmonic map equations and their linearization.