A Young-Laplace law for black hole horizons
Abstract
Black hole horizon sections, modelled as marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTS), possess a notion of stability admitting a spectral characterization. Specifically, the "principal eigenvalue" λo of the MOTS-stability operator (an elliptic operator on horizon sections) must be non-negative. We discuss the expression of λo for axisymmetric stationary black hole horizons and show that, remarkably, it presents the form of the Young-Laplace law for soap bubbles in equilibrium, if λo is identified with a formal pressure difference between the inner and outer sides of the "bubble". In this view, that endorses the existing fluid analogies for black hole horizons, MOTS-stability is interpreted as a consequence of a pressure increase in the black hole trapped region.
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