Topological Structure of The Upper End of Future Null Infinity

Abstract

We propose a method to determine the topological structure of an event horizon far in the future of a spacetime from the geometrical information of its future null infinity. In the present article, we mainly consider spacetimes with two black holes. Although, in most of cases, the black holes coalesce and their event horizon is topologically a single sphere far in the future, there are several possibilities that the black holes do not coalesce eternally and such exact solutions. In our formulation, the geometrical structure of future null infinity is related to the topological structure of the upper end of the future null infinity through the Poincare\'-Hopf's theorem. Since the upper end of the future null infinity determines the event horizon far in the future under the conformal embedding, the topology of event horizon far in the future will be affected by the geometrical structure of the future null infinity. Our method is not only for the case of black hole coalescence. Also we can consider more than two black holes or a black hole with non-trivial topology.