We describe the behavior of 5-dimensional black strings, subject to the Gregory-Laflamme instability. Beyond the linear level, the evolving strings exhibit a rich dynamics, where at intermediate stages the horizon can be described as a sequence of 3-dimensional spherical black holes joined by black string segments. These segments are themselves subject to a Gregory-Laflamme instability, resulting in a self-similar cascade, where ever-smaller satellite black holes form connected by ever-thinner string segments. This behavior is akin to satellite formation in low-viscosity fluid streams subject to the Rayleigh-Plateau instability. The simulation results imply that the string segments will reach zero radius in finite asymptotic time, whence the classical space-time terminates in a naked singularity. Since no fine-tuning is required to excite the instability, this constitutes a generic violation of cosmic censorship.
We analyze the null geodesic equations in five dimensional spherically symmetric spacetime with collapsing inhomogeneous dust cloud. By using a new method, we prove the existence and non-existence of solutions to null geodesic equation emanating from central singularity for smooth initial distribution of dust. Moreover, we also show that the null geodesics can extend to null infinity in a certain case, which imply the violation of cosmic censorship conjecture.
We study the cosmic censorship of dynamical $p$-brane systems in a $D$-dimensional background. This is the generalization of the analysis in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory, which was discussed by Horne and Horowitz [Phys. Rev. D 48, R5457 (1993)]. We show that a timelike curvature singularity generically appears from an asymptotic region in the time evolution of the $p$-brane solution. Since we can set regular and smooth initial data in a dynamical M5-brane system in 11-dimensional supergravity, this implies a violation of cosmic censorship.
We present a plausible counterexample to cosmic censorship in four dimensional Einstein-Maxwell theory with asymptotically anti-de Sitter boundary conditions. Smooth initial data evolves to a region of arbitrarily large curvature that is visible to distant observers. Our example is based on a holographic model of an electrically charged, localised defect which was previously studied at zero temperature. We partially extend those results to nonzero temperatures.
We investigate the validity of weak cosmic censorship conjecture for electrically charged black holes in the presence of gravity's rainbow under charged particle absorption. The rainbow effect is shown to play an important role when the black hole is modified by a particle carrying energy and electric charge. Remarkably, we prove that the rainbow-charged black hole can be overspun beyond the extremal condition under charged particle absorption. Further, it is demonstrated that the second law of thermodynamics and cosmic censorship conjecture are violated owing to the rainbow effect.
We determine the end point of the axisymmetric ultraspinning instability of asymptotically flat Myers-Perry black holes in D = 6 spacetime dimensions. In the non-linear regime, this instability gives rise to a sequence of concentric rings connected by segments of black membrane on the rotation plane. The latter become thinner over time, resulting in the formation of a naked singularity in finite asymptotic time and hence a violation of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture in asymptotically flat higher-dimensional spaces.
Rotating and/or charged black hole spacetimes possess a Cauchy horizon, beyond which Einstein's equations of General Relativity cease to be deterministic. This led to the formulation of the Strong Cosmic Censorship conjecture that such horizons become irregular under field perturbations. We consider linear field perturbations of rotating and electrically-charged (Kerr-Newman-de Sitter) black holes in a universe with a positive cosmological constant. By calculating the quasinormal modes for scalar and fermion fields, we provide evidence for the existence of weak solutions to Einstein's equation…
We argue that cosmic censorship is violated in the collision of two black holes in high spacetime dimension D when the initial total angular momentum is sufficiently large. The two black holes merge and form an unstable bar-like horizon, which grows a neck in its middle that pinches down with diverging curvature. When D is large, the emission of gravitational radiation is strongly suppressed and cannot spin down the system to a stable rotating black hole before the neck grows. The phenomenon is demonstrated using simple numerical simulations of the effective theory in the 1/D expansion. We pro…
We present a plausible counterexample to the weak cosmic censorship conjecture in the four-dimensional Einstein-Scalar theory with asymptotically flat boundary conditions. Our setup stems from the analysis of the massive Klein-Gordon equation on a fixed Kerr black hole background. In particular, we construct the quasinormal spectrum numerically, and analytically in the WKB approximation, then go on to compute its backreaction on the Kerr geometry. In the regime of parameters where the analytic and numerical techniques overlap we find perfect agreement. We give strong evidence for the existence…
We study collisions of boosted rotating black holes in $D=6$ and 7 spacetime dimensions with a non-zero impact parameter. We find that there exists an open set of initial conditions such that the intermediate state of the collision is a black hole with a dumbbell-like horizon which is unstable to a local Gregory-Laflamme-type instability. We are able to provide convincing numerical evidence that the evolution of such an instability leads to a pinch off of the horizon in finite asymptotic time thus forming a naked singularity, as in similar unstable black holes. Since the black holes in the ini…
Strong cosmic censorship conjecture has been one of the most important leap of faith in the context of general relativity, providing assurance in the deterministic nature of the associated field equations. Though it holds well for asymptotically flat spacetimes, a potential failure of the strong cosmic censorship conjecture might arise for spacetimes inheriting Cauchy horizon along with a positive cosmological constant. We have explicitly demonstrated that violation of the censorship conjecture holds true in the presence of a Maxwell field even when higher spacetime dimensions are invoked. In …
Deterministic nature of general relativity is ensured by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, which asserts that spacetime cannot be extended beyond Cauchy horizon with square integrable connection. Although this conjecture holds true for asymptotically flat black hole spacetimes in general relativity, a potential violation of this conjecture occurs in charged asymptotically de Sitter spacetimes. Since it is expected that Einstein-Hilbert action will involve higher curvature corrections, in this article we have studied whether one can restore faith in the strong cosmic censorship when high…
We study the behaviour of a free massive scalar wave-packet near the Cauchy horizon of an $\mathrm{AdS}_2$ black hole and find that it becomes infinitely differentiable for smooth initial data, independently of the parameters describing the spacetime or the scalar. This indicates a violation of the strong cosmic censorship conjecture at the classical level. We discuss our result in connection with some recent observations of violation of the conjecture for certain nearly extremal black holes.
The fate of strong cosmic censorship is ultimately linked to the extendibility of perturbation across the Cauchy Horizon and known to be violated in the near extremal region of a charged de Sitter black hole. Similar violations can also be realized in higher curvature theories, with the strength of violation becoming stronger as compared to general relativity. In this work, we extend this analysis further to study the validity of strong cosmic censorship conjecture in the context of the regularised four-dimensional Einstein Gauss-Bonnet theory with respect to both scalar and electromagnetic pe…
We adopt the energy momentum relation of charged particles to study the thermodynamics laws and weak cosmic censorship conjecture of $D$-dimensional $f(R)$ AdS black holes in different phase spaces by considering charged particle absorption. In the normal phase space, it turns out that the laws of thermodynamic and the weak cosmic censorship conjecture are valid. In the extended phase space, though the first law of thermodynamics is valid, the second law of thermodynamics is invalid. More interestingly, the weak cosmic censorship conjecture is shown to be violated only in higher-dimensional ne…
The strong cosmic censorship conjecture, whose validation asserts the deterministic nature of general relativity, has been studied for charged BTZ black holes in three dimensional general relativity, as well as for Nth order pure Lovelock gravity in d=2N+1 spacetime dimensions. Through both analytical and numerical routes, we have computed the ratio of the imaginary part of the quasi-normal mode frequencies with the surface gravity at the Cauchy horizon. The lowest of which corresponds to the key parameter associated with violation of strong cosmic censorship conjecture. Our results demonstrat…
We study the evolution of black hole collisions and ultraspinning black hole instabilities in higher dimensions. These processes can be efficiently solved numerically in an effective theory in the limit of large number of dimensions D. We present evidence that they lead to violations of cosmic censorship. The post-merger evolution of the collision of two black holes with total angular momentum above a certain value is governed by the properties of a resonance-like intermediate state: a long-lived, rotating black bar, which pinches off towards a naked singularity due to an instability akin to t…
We give two new analytical solutions to the low-energy string theory action that violate the weak cosmic censorship conjecture. They are classical charged solutions to the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory in four dimensions that come in two types. The first represents one single naked singularity whose asymptotic region is flat. Its mass respects the positive mass theorem. The absence of horizons allows us to probe quantum aspects of gravity by direct observation of these singularities. The second represents singularities that come in pairs that "seem to create their own spacetime", and the reg…
The strong cosmic censorship conjecture states (SCCC) that one cannot extend spacetime beyond the Cauchy horizon with a square-integrable connection. This conjecture was postulated to save the deterministic nature of the most successful theory of gravitation, general relativity. In order to explore the validation/violation of the SCCC for the charged anti-de Sitter black hole spacetime, we compute the ratio of the imaginary part of the quasinormal mode frequencies and the surface gravity at the Cauchy horizon both analytically and numerically. The lowest value of which defines the key paramete…
By dropping particles into black hole, we have employed the recently new assumption [1] that the change of the black hole mass(enthalpy) should be the same amount as the energy of an infalling particle($ω= dM$), to carefully test the laws of thermodynamics and the weak cosmic censorship conjecture of a conformal anomaly corrected AdS black hole in different phase spaces. Using the energy-momentum relation, the result shows that the first law, second law and weak cosmic censorship conjecture of black hole are all valid in the normal phase space, no violations occur. In the extended phase space,…
We construct exact, time-dependent, black hole solutions of Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory with arbitrary dilaton coupling, $a$. For $a=1$ this theory arises as the four-dimensional low-energy effective description of heterotic string theory. These solutions represent electrically charged, spherically symmetric black holes emitting or absorbing charged null fluids and generalize the Vaidya and Bonnor-Vaidya solutions of general relativity and of Einstein-Maxwell theory, respectively. The $a=1$ case stands out as special, in the sense that it is the only choice of the coupling that allows for …
The validity of the cosmic censorship conjecture for the Kerr-Sen black hole, which is a solution to the low-energy effective field theory for four-dimensional heterotic string theory, is investigated using charged particle absorption. When the black hole absorbs the particle, the charge on it changes owing to the conserved quantities of the particle. Changes in the black hole are constrained to the equation for the motion of the particle and are consistent with the laws of thermodynamics. Particle absorption increases the mass of the Kerr-Sen black hole to more than that of the absorbed charg…
In the framework of the new version of the gedanken experiments proposed by Sorce and Wald, we investigate the weak cosmic censorship conjecture (WCCC) for an Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton-Axion (EMDA) black hole. Our result shows that no violations of WCCC can occur with the increase of the background solution parameters for this near-extremal EMDA black hole when the second order correction of the perturbations is taken into account. Namely, the near-extremal EMDA black hole cannot be over-charged or over-spun.
It has been shown that the Strong Cosmic Censorship (SCC) can be violated by a scalar field in a near-extremal Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter black hole. In this paper, we investigate the Strong Cosmic Censorship in a Born-Infeld-de Sitter black hole by a scalar perturbation field with/without a charge. When the Born-Infeld parameter b becomes small, the nonlinear electrodynamics effect starts to play an important role and tends to rescue SCC. Specifically, we find that the SCC violation region decreases in size with decreasing b. Moreover, for a sufficiently small b, SCC can always be restored …
We produce the first concrete evidence that violation of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture can occur in asymptotically flat spaces of five dimensions by numerically evolving perturbed black rings. For certain thin rings, we identify a new, elastic-type instability dominating the evolution, causing the system to settle to a spherical black hole. However, for sufficiently thin rings the Gregory-Laflamme mode is dominant, and the instability unfolds similarly to that of black strings, where the horizon develops a structure of bulges connected by necks which become ever thinner over time.
We study the phenomena of mass inflation using the Ori model for a rotating BTZ black hole that is sufficiently far from extremality, and show that the right Cauchy horizon ($\mathcal{CH}^+_R$) of the BTZ black hole becomes singular. Motivated by the recent analysis of Dias, Reall, Santos [J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2019) 097], we choose the retrograde quasinormal modes to govern the decay of perturbations exterior to the black hole. The resulting model captures the violation of the strong cosmic censorship conjecture near extremality. On the other hand, far from extremality, the $\mathcal{CH}^+…
It has been argued that the strong cosmic censorship conjecture is violated by Reissner-Nordström-de Sitter black holes: for near-extremal black holes, generic scalar field perturbations arising from smooth initial data have finite energy at the Cauchy horizon even though they are not continuously differentiable there. In this paper, we consider the analogous problem for coupled gravitational and electromagnetic perturbations. We find that such perturbations exhibit a much worse violation of strong cosmic censorship: for a sufficiently large near-extremal black hole, perturbations arising from…
By neglecting the effects of self-force and radiation, we investigate the possibility of destroying the Kerr-MOG black hole through the point particle absorption process. Using the instability of event horizon and equation of particle motion, we get the upper and lower energy bounds allowed for a matter particle to produce the naked singularity. We find that the energy gap always exists between the upper and lower energy bounds for both extremal and near-extremal black holes, which means some tailored particles can actually lead to the violation of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture. Howeve…
We investigate the laws of thermodynamics and weak cosmic censorship conjecture in the normal and extended phase space of a Kerr-AdS black hole by analyzing the energy-momentum relation of the absorbed fermion dropping into the horizon. In the normal phase space, the first law, second law as well as the weak cosmic censorship conjecture are found to be valid in all the initial states of the black hole. However, in the extended phase space, although the first law and weak cosmic censorship conjecture are still valid, the second law becomes more subtle. We find that the validity or violation of …
The cosmic censorship conjecture essentially states that naked singularities should not form from generic initial conditions. Since black hole parameters can change their values under Hawking evaporation, one has to ask whether it is possible to reach extremality by simply waiting for the black hole to evaporate. If so a slight perturbation would likely render the singularity naked. Fortunately, at least for the case of asymptotically flat 4-dimensional Reissner-Nordström black hole, Hiscock and Weems showed that it can never reach extremality despite the fact that for a sufficiently massive b…
We examine the stability and the strong cosmic censorship in the Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter (RN-dS) black hole by investigating the evolution of a scalar field non-minimally coupled to the curvature. We find that when the coupling parameter is negative, the RN-dS black hole experiences instability. The instability disappears when the coupling parameter becomes non-negative. With the increase of the coupling parameter, the violation of the strong cosmic censorship occurs at a larger critical charge ratio. But such an increase of the critical charge is suppressed by the increase of the cosmolo…
We examine the achronal averaged null energy condition~(ANEC) for a class of conformal field theories~(CFT) at strong coupling in curved spacetime. By applying the AdS/CFT duality, we find holographic models which violate the achronal ANEC for $3+1$ and $4+1$-dimensional boundary theories. In our model, the bulk spacetime is an asymptotically AdS vacuum bubble solution with neither causality violation nor singularities. The conformal boundary of our bubble solution is asymptotically flat and is causally proper in the sense that a "fastest null geodesics" connecting any two points on the bounda…
We study the collapse of spheroidal configurations of collisionless particles in full general relativity. This setup was originally considered by Shapiro and Teukolsky (1991), where it was found that prolate configurations with a sufficiently large semimajor axis gave rise to diverging curvature, but no apparent horizon. This was taken as evidence for the formation of a naked singularity, in violation of cosmic censorship. We revisit such configurations using different coordinates/slicing, and considering a range of values for the semimajor axis and eccentricity of the initial matter distribut…
It was recently shown that the Strong Cosmic Censorship conjecture might be violated for near-extremally-charged black holes in de Sitter space. Here, we extend our study to charged fermionic fields in the exterior of Reissner-Nordström-de Sitter black holes. We identify three families of modes; one related to the photon sphere, a second related to the de Sitter horizon and a third which dominates near extremality. We show that for near-extremally-charged black holes there is a critical fermionic charge below which Strong Cosmic Censorship may potentially be violated. Surprisingly enough, as o…
The singularity theorems of Hawking and Penrose tell us that singularities are common place in general relativity. Singularities not only occur at the beginning of the Universe at the Big Bang, but also in complete gravitational collapses that result in the formation of black holes. If singularities - except the one at the Big Bang - ever become "naked", i.e., not shrouded by black hole horizons, then it is expected that problems would arise and render general relativity indeterministic. For this reason, Penrose proposed the cosmic censorship conjecture, which states that singularities should …
We investigate the strong cosmic censorship for the Dirac field in the higher dimensional Reissner-Norstrom--de Sitter black hole. To achieve this, we first use the conformal transformation trick to massage the Dirac equation to a pair of coupled equations in a meticulously chosen orthonormal basis and derive the criterion on the quasinormal modes for the violation of the strong cosmic censorship, which turns out to be independent of the spacetime dimension. Then we apply the Crank-Nicolson method to evolve our Dirac equation in the double null coordinates and extract the low-lying quasinormal…
The shear viscosity is an important characterization of how a many-body system behaves like a fluid. We study the shear viscosity in a strongly interacting solvable model, consisting of coupled Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) islands. As temperature is lowered, the model exhibits a crossover from an incoherent metal with local criticality to a marginal fermi liquid. We find that while the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density in the marginal Fermi liquid regime satisfies a Kovtun-Son-Starinets (KSS) like bound, it can strongly violate the KSS bound in a robust temperature range of the incoherent…
