Spacetime Topology and the Laws of Black Hole-Soliton Mechanics

Abstract

The domain of outer communication of an asymptotically flat spactime must be simply connected. In five dimensions, this still allows for the possibility of an arbitrary number of 2-cycles supported by magnetic flux carried by Maxwell fields. As a result, stationary, asymptotically flat, horizonless solutions—“gravitational solitons”—may exist with non-vanishing mass, charge, and angular momenta. These gravitational solutions satisfy a Smarr-like relation, as well as a first law of mechanics. Furthermore, the presence of solitons leads to new terms in the well-known first law of black hole mechanics for spacetimes containing black hole horizons and non-trivial topology in the exterior region. I outline the derivation of these results and consider an explicit example in five-dimensional supergravity.

Keywords

• black holes in higher dimensions
• supergravity
• black hole thermodynamics
• gravitational aspects of string theory