Bicycling Black Rings

We present detailed physics analyses of two different 4+1-dimensional asymptotically flat vacuum black hole solutions with spin in two independent planes: the doubly spinning black ring and the bicycling black ring system ("bi-rings"). The latter is a new solution describing two concentric orthogonal rotating black rings which we construct using the inverse scattering technique. We focus particularly on extremal zero-temperature limits of the solutions. We construct the phase diagram of currently known zero-temperature vacuum black hole solutions with a single event horizon, and discuss the non-uniqueness introduced by more exotic black hole configurations such as bi-rings and multi-ring saturns.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figure

Black Rings in (Anti)-deSitter space

We construct solutions for thin black rings in Anti-deSitter and deSitter spacetimes using approximate methods. Black rings in AdS exist with arbitrarily large radius and satisfy a bound |J| \leq LM, which they saturate as their radius becomes infinitely large. For angular momentum near the maximum, they have larger area than rotating AdS black holes. Thin black rings also exist in deSitter space, with rotation velocities varying between zero and a maximum, and with a radius that is always strictly below the Hubble radius. Our general analysis allows us to include black Saturns as well, which we discuss briefly. We present a simple physical argument why supersymmetric AdS black rings must not be expected: they do not possess the necessary pressure to balance the AdS potential. We discuss the possible existence or absence of `large AdS black rings' and their implications for a dual hydrodynamic description. An analysis of the physical properties of rotating AdS black holes is also included.Comment: 38 pages, 6 figures. v2: changes in terminology, refs added. v3: minor improvements, refs added, published versio

Black Hole Monodromy and Conformal Field Theory

The analytic structure of solutions to the Klein-Gordon equation in a black hole background, as represented by monodromy data, is intimately related to black hole thermodynamics. It encodes the "hidden conformal symmetry" of a non-extremal black hole, and it explains why features of the inner event horizon appear in scattering data such as greybody factors. This indicates that hidden conformal symmetry is generic within a universality class of black holes.Comment: 20 pages, v2 minor corrections, updated reference