Generic Isolated Horizons and their Applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generalized framework for isolated horizons that accommodates distortion and angular momentum, enabling analysis of black holes in more realistic, dynamic environments and advancing black hole thermodynamics and quantum gravity research.

Contribution

It extends the concept of isolated horizons to include distorted and rotating black holes, providing new tools for strong field analysis and quantum gravity applications.

Findings

Framework generalizes black hole laws to realistic scenarios

Enables extraction of physical information in strong gravity regions

Supports non-perturbative quantum gravity entropy calculations

Abstract

Boundary conditions defining a generic isolated horizon are introduced. They generalize the notion available in the existing literature by allowing the horizon to have distortion and angular momentum. Space-times containing a black hole, itself in equilibrium but possibly surrounded by radiation, satisfy these conditions. In spite of this generality, the conditions have rich consequences. They lead to a framework, somewhat analogous to null infinity, for extracting physical information, but now in the \textit{strong} field regions. The framework also generalizes the zeroth and first laws of black hole mechanics to more realistic situations and sheds new light on the `origin' of the first law. Finally, it provides a point of departure for black hole entropy calculations in non-perturbative quantum gravity.