Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / iii / Paper 311 / 3

For a small amount of matter falling into an initially and finally stationary rotating black hole, the Physical-process first law for a rotating black hole isLet $q^a$ be an affinely parametrized horizon generator, with affine parameter $\lambda =0$ at the background bifurcation surface. The horizon Killing vector field iswhere constancy of $\kappa$ is the Zeroth law of black-hole mechanics. The flux of the conserved Killing current through the horizon is

On the stationary background, expansion and shear vanish. To first order in the perturbation, the quadratic optical terms in the Null Raychaudhuri equation may be dropped, and the Einstein equation givesImpose the teleological final condition $\theta (\infty )=0$. Integration followed by reversal of integration order givesComparison with the Killing-energy flux proves the stated law.

The second law of black-hole mechanics states that, assuming the null energy condition and the usual predictability hypotheses, the area of cross-sections of a future event horizon never decreases toward the future.

Indeed, the horizon generators form a hypersurface-orthogonal null congruence, so their twist vanishes. If the expansion were negative anywhere, the null focusing theorem would make it diverge to $-\infty$ within finite affine parameter, provided the generator extends that far. This produces a conjugate point, after which the generator cannot remain on an achronal set such as an event horizon. Future completeness rules out the alternative that the generator simply ends first. Therefore $\theta \ge 0$ everywhere, and

Along the affine null geodesic write ${\Phi }^{\prime }=U^a{\nabla }_a\Phi$. Contracting the scalar stress tensor with $U^a{U}^b$ removes every term proportional to $g_{ab}$. Since $G_{ab}=T_{ab}$ andone obtainsPut $D=1-\xi {\Phi }^2$. An integration by parts givesThe stated endpoint condition kills the boundary term. If $\xi <0$, then $D>0$ and $\xi (4\xi -1)>0$, so the remaining integrand is nonnegative. Consequently this nonminimally coupled scalar satisfies the averaged null energy condition:

The result is weaker than the pointwise null energy condition used in the elementary proof of the second law of black-hole mechanics: $T_{ab}{U}^a{U}^b$ may be negative over a finite interval, so the expansion and area can have local behavior that the pointwise argument does not control. Nevertheless, the averaged null energy condition for a nonminimally coupled scalar supplies the integrated positivity required by strengthened global focusing and area theorems when their completeness, endpoint, and genericity hypotheses hold. Thus the calculation supports a suitable global second law for $\xi <0$, but the displayed averaged inequality alone does not prove pointwise area monotonicity without those additional assumptions.