Area invariance of apparent horizons under arbitrary Lorentz boosts

DOI10.1007/S10714-009-0859-XzbMATH Open1185.83016arXiv0708.0276OpenAlexW1926137706MaRDI QIDQ848710FDOQ848710

Authors: Sarp Akcay, Richard Matzner, Vishnu Natchu 

Publication date: 4 March 2010

Published in: General Relativity and Gravitation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: It is a well known analytic result in general relativity that the 2-dimensional area of the apparent horizon of a black hole remains invariant regardless of the motion of the observer, and in fact is independent of the $t=constant$ slice, which can be quite arbitrary in general relativity. Nonetheless the explicit computation of horizon area is often substantially more difficult in some frames (complicated by the coordinate form of the metric), than in other frames. Here we give an explicit demonstration for very restricted metric forms of (Schwarzschild and Kerr) vacuum black holes. In the Kerr-Schild coordinate expression for these spacetimes they have an explicit Lorentz-invariant form. We consider {it boosted} versions with the black hole moving through the coordinate system. Since these are stationary black hole spacetimes, the apparent horizons are two dimensional cross sections of their event horizons, so we compute the areas of apparent horizons in the boosted space with (boosted) $t=constant$, and obtain the same result as in the unboosted case. Note that while the invariance of area is generic, we deal only with black holes in the Kerr-Schild form, and consider only one particularly simple change of slicing which amounts to a boost. Even with these restrictions we find that the results illuminate the physics of the horizon as a null surface and provide a useful pedagogical tool. As far as we can determine, this is the first explicit calculation of this type demonstrating the area invariance of horizons. Further, these calculations are directly relevant to transformations that arise in computational representation of moving black holes. We present an application of this result to initial data for boosted black holes.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0708.0276

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zbMATH Keywords

Apparent horizonsLorentz boosts

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Special relativity (83A05) Black holes (83C57) Geometrodynamics and the holographic principle (83E05)

Cites Work

• The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time
• Republication of: A new class of vacuum solutions of the Einstein field equations
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• A Relativist's Toolkit
• General relativity. An introduction for physicists.
• Physics and initial data for multiple black hole spacetimes

Cited In (1)

• Boosted Kerr black hole

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