Symmetries of extremal horizons
Abstract
We prove an intrinsic analogue of Hawking's rigidity theorem for extremal horizons in arbitrary dimensions: any compact cross-section of a rotating extremal horizon in a spacetime satisfying the null energy condition must admit a Killing vector field. If the dominant energy condition is satisfied for null vectors, it follows that an extension of the near-horizon geometry admits an enhanced isometry group containing or the 2D Poincar\'e group . In the latter case, the associated Aretakis instability for a massless scalar field is shifted by one order in the derivatives of the field transverse to the horizon. We consider a broad class of examples including Einstein-Maxwell(-Chern-Simons) theory and Yang-Mills theory coupled to charged matter. In these examples we show that the symmetries are inherited by the matter fields.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.10200,
title = {Symmetries of extremal horizons},
author = {Alex Colling},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.10200},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
29 pages