Existence of outermost apparent horizons with product of spheres topology (Q1006901)

\textit{W. H. Meeks, III, L. Simon} and \textit{S-T. Yau}, [Ann. Math. (2) 116, 621--659 (1982; Zbl 0521.53007)] proved that the outermost minimal surface in an asymptotically flat manifold of dimension 3 is topologically a two sphere. This result was generalized by \textit{G. J. Galloway} and \textit{R. Schoen} [Commun. Math. Phys. 266, No. 2, 571--576 (2006; Zbl 1190.53070 ] to higher dimensions, showing that the outermost minimal surface must be of positive Yamabe type and admit a metric of positive scalar curvature. Thus one can wonder whether there exist examples of apparent horizons with topology \(S^n\times S^{m+1}\). In this paper the author gives a positive answer to this question. His main result is the following. For any \(n,m \geq 1\) there exists an asymptotically flat, scalar flat \((n + m + 2)\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \((M, g)\) with outermost apparent horizon which is an outermost smooth minimal hypersurface with topology \(S^n\times S^{m+1}\). In the context of general relativity these hypersurfaces correspond to outermost apparent horizons of black holes.