Work

Frozen firewall: generic singularity formation on an extremal horizon

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: A bstract It is known that linearized perturbations of extremal black holes result in growing curvature on the horizon. However, nonlinear perturbations typically do not evolve to extremal black holes and do not have growing curvature at late times. We show that a large class of nonlinear perturbations of an extremal planar anti-de Sitter black hole does have horizon curvature that grows unbounded in time. The late time behavior of the nonlinear evolution is found to be captured by a linearized analysis. We argue that the generic nonlinear perturbation behaves similarly.

Source: Journal of High Energy Physics

DOI: 10.1007/jhep01(2026)120

Authors: Gary T. Horowitz, Maciej Kolanowski, Jorge E. Santos

Institution: University of Cambridge

Language: English

Topic: Black Holes and Theoretical Physics

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: Simonsen Foundation, Central Laser Facility, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Large Facilities Office

Awards: G2584772680, G4820487070, G5051563511, G6777236812