Quasi-local rotating black holes in higher dimension: geometry

With a help of a generalized Raychaudhuri equation non-expanding null surfaces are studied in arbitrarily dimensional case. The definition and basic properties of non-expanding and isolated horizons known in the literature in the 4 and 3 dimensional cases are generalized. A local description of horizon's geometry is provided. The Zeroth Law of black hole thermodynamics is derived. The constraints have a similar structure to that of the 4 dimensional spacetime case. The geometry of a vacuum isolated horizon is determined by the induced metric and the rotation 1-form potential, local generalizations of the area and the angular momentum typically used in the stationary black hole solutions case.Comment: 32 pages, RevTex

Bending branes for DCFT in two dimensions

We consider a holographic dual model for defect conformal field theories (DCFT) in which we include the backreaction of the defect on the dual geometry. In particular, we consider a dual gravity system in which a two-dimensional hypersurface with matter fields, the brane, is embedded into a three-dimensional asymptotically Anti-de Sitter spacetime. Motivated by recent proposals for holographic duals of boundary conformal field theories (BCFT), we assume the geometry of the brane to be determined by Israel junction conditions. We show that these conditions are intimately related to the energy conditions for the brane matter fields, and explain how these energy conditions constrain the possible geometries. This has implications for the holographic entanglement entropy in particular. Moreover, we give exact analytical solutions for the case where the matter content of the brane is a perfect fluid, which in a particular case corresponds to a free massless scalar field. Finally, we describe how our results may be particularly useful for extending a recent proposal for a holographic Kondo model.Comment: 35 pages + appendices, 12 figures, v2: added references and a paragraph on negative tension solutions, v3: updated reference

Ambitoric geometry I: Einstein metrics and extremal ambikaehler structures

We present a local classification of conformally equivalent but oppositely oriented 4-dimensional Kaehler metrics which are toric with respect to a common 2-torus action. In the generic case, these "ambitoric" structures have an intriguing local geometry depending on a quadratic polynomial q and arbitrary functions A and B of one variable. We use this description to classify Einstein 4-metrics which are hermitian with respect to both orientations, as well a class of solutions to the Einstein-Maxwell equations including riemannian analogues of the Plebanski-Demianski metrics. Our classification can be viewed as a riemannian analogue of a result in relativity due to R. Debever, N. Kamran, and R. McLenaghan, and is a natural extension of the classification of selfdual Einstein hermitian 4-manifolds, obtained independently by R. Bryant and the first and third authors. These Einstein metrics are precisely the ambitoric structures with vanishing Bach tensor, and thus have the property that the associated toric Kaehler metrics are extremal (in the sense of E. Calabi). Our main results also classify the latter, providing new examples of explicit extremal Kaehler metrics. For both the Einstein-Maxwell and the extremal ambitoric structures, A and B are quartic polynomials, but with different conditions on the coefficients. In the sequel to this paper we consider global examples, and use them to resolve the existence problem for extremal Kaehler metrics on toric 4-orbifolds with second betti number b2=2.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure, partially replaces arXiv:1010.099

Geometry of Generic Isolated Horizons

Geometrical structures intrinsic to non-expanding, weakly isolated and isolated horizons are analyzed and compared with structures which arise in other contexts within general relativity, e.g., at null infinity. In particular, we address in detail the issue of singling out the preferred normals to these horizons required in various applications. This work provides powerful tools to extract invariant, physical information from numerical simulations of the near horizon, strong field geometry. While it complements the previous analysis of laws governing the mechanics of weakly isolated horizons, prior knowledge of those results is not assumed.Comment: 37 pages, REVTeX; Subsections V.B and V.C moved to a new Appenedix to improve the flow of main argument

Multipole Moments of Isolated Horizons

To every axi-symmetric isolated horizon we associate two sets of numbers, $M_n$ and $J_n$ with $n = 0, 1, 2, ...$, representing its mass and angular momentum multipoles. They provide a diffeomorphism invariant characterization of the horizon geometry. Physically, they can be thought of as the `source multipoles' of black holes in equilibrium. These structures have a variety of potential applications ranging from equations of motion of black holes and numerical relativity to quantum gravity.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure. Minor typos corrected, reference adde

Inviolable energy conditions from entanglement inequalities

Via the AdS/CFT correspondence, fundamental constraints on the entanglement structure of quantum systems translate to constraints on spacetime geometries that must be satisfied in any consistent theory of quantum gravity. In this paper, we investigate such constraints arising from strong subadditivity and from the positivity and monotonicity of relative entropy in examples with highly-symmetric spacetimes. Our results may be interpreted as a set of energy conditions restricting the possible form of the stress-energy tensor in consistent theories of Einstein gravity coupled to matter.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, v2: refs added, expanded discussion of strong subadditivity constraints in sections 2.1 and 4.