Black Holes in Higher Dimensions

Black holes are one of the most remarkable predictions of Einstein's general relativity. In recent years, ideas in brane-world cosmology, string theory and gauge/gravity duality have motivated studies of black holes in more than four dimensions, with surprising results. In higher dimensions, black holes exist with exotic shapes and unusual dynamics. Edited by leading expert Gary Horowitz, this exciting book is the first devoted to this new field. The major discoveries are explained by the people who made them: Rob Myers describes the Myers–Perry solutions that represent rotating black holes in higher dimensions; Ruth Gregory describes the Gregory–Laflamme instability of black strings; and Juan Maldacena introduces gauge/gravity duality, the remarkable correspondence that relates a gravitational theory to nongravitational physics. Accessible to anyone with a standard course in general relativity, this is an important resource for graduate students and researchers in general relativity, string theory and high energy physics.

List of contributors; Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. Black holes in four dimensions Gary Horowitz; Part II. Five Dimensional Kaluza–Klein Theory: 2. The Gregory–Laflamme instability Ruth Gregory; 3. Final state of Gregory–Laflamme instability Luis Lehner and Frans Pretorius; 4. General black holes in Kaluza–Klein theory Gary Horowitz and Toby Wiseman; Part III. Higher Dimensional Solutions: 5. Myers–Perry black holes Rob Myers; 6. Black rings Roberto Emparan and Harvey Reall; Part IV. General Properties: 7. Constraints on the topology of higher dimensional black holes Greg Galloway; 8. Blackfolds Roberto Emparan; 9. Algebraically special solutions in higher dimensions Harvey Reall; 10. Numerical construction of static and stationary black holes Toby Wiseman; Part V. Advanced Topics: 11. Black holes and branes in supergravity Don Marolf; 12. The gauge/gravity duality Juan Maldacena; 13. The fluid/gravity correspondence Veronika Hubeny, Mukund Rangamani and Shiraz Minwalla; 14. Horizons, holography and condensed matter Sean Hartnoll; Index.

Edited by leading expert Gary Horowitz, this is the first book devoted to black holes in more than four dimensions. The major discoveries are explained by those who made them, making this an important resource for graduate students and researchers in general relativity, string theory and high energy physics.

Gary Horowitz is a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has made numerous contributions to classical and quantum gravity. In particular, he (co-)discovered a class of higher dimensional black holes called 'black branes'. Professor Horowitz is a member of the National Academy of Science, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the International Committee for the General Relativity and Gravitation Society. He has won the Xanthopoulos Prize in general relativity and has written over 150 research articles.