Conservation laws for dynamical black holes

Abstract

An essentially complete new paradigm for dynamical black holes in terms of trapping horizons is presented, including dynamical versions of the physical quantities and laws which were considered important in the classical paradigm for black holes in terms of Killing or event horizons. Three state functions are identified as surface integrals over marginal surfaces: irreducible mass, angular momentum and charge. There are three corresponding conservation laws, expressing the rate of change of the state function in terms of flux integrals, or equivalently as divergence laws for associated conserved currents. The currents of energy and angular momentum include the matter energy tensor in a physically appropriate way, plus terms attributable to an effective energy tensor for gravitational radiation. Four other state functions are derived: an effective energy, surface gravity, angular speed and electric potential. There follows a dynamical version of the so-called first law of black-hole mechanics. A corresponding zeroth law holds for null trapping horizons.