Four-dimensional black holes with unusual horizons

Abstract

We show that in presence of a cosmological constant or, more generally, of a scalar potential, there can exist actually more possibilities for the horizon geometry of a four-dimensional black hole than the hitherto known spherical, hyperbolic or flat cases. In particular, there are black holes whose event horizons are noncompact manifolds with finite volume, which are topologically spheres with two punctures. We give concrete examples of such black holes in Einstein-Maxwell-AdS gravity and discuss their thermodynamics. These exotic solutions, that seem to have been overlooked in the existing literature, may provide interesting testgrounds to address questions related to black hole physics or holography.