The lecture notes by David Tong derive Friedmann equations in section 4.6.2 and classify Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime in sections 6.2.1–6.2.5. Section 6.2 distinguishes the central curvature singularity from regular horizons, including the extremal limit.
For , a Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime has an outer event horizon and an inner Cauchy horizon. Between them is timelike; inside the inner horizon is spacelike and the curvature singularity is timelike. The exact analytic extension contains repeated exterior blocks beyond the Cauchy horizons. Small perturbations produce severe inner-horizon blueshift and mass inflation, so that exact continuation is not a robust prediction for collapse. At the horizons merge into a degenerate Killing horizon; for the spherical electrovacuum solution instead has a naked singularity.
Mass inflation 2026-10-06
Mass inflation is the growth of the interior effective mass and curvature near an inner Cauchy horizon under suitably perturbed black-hole data. It can obstruct regular spacetime extensions that exist for an exact Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime. The extension regularity matters: curvature blowup alone does not rule out every continuous-metric extension.
If , then
There is no positive root and no horizon hiding in the extended Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime. Its Kretschmann scalar diverges there, so is a naked singularity. It is a timelike curvature singularity, as the normal to nearby hypersurfaces has positive squared norm .
Assume an asymptotically flat Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime, with , time normalized at infinity, and . Put
Near , the Euclidean radial-time metric is . With , it becomes
The Euclidean black-hole regularity condition removes a conical defect only if has period . Therefore the Reissner-Nordstrom Hawking temperature is
Equivalently this is the Reissner-Nordstrom horizon surface gravity divided by . The derivation assumes a nondegenerate horizon; the value zero at is obtained by the nonextremal limit, not by imposing conical regularity directly on the degenerate geometry.
For fixed nonzero , write . The horizon equation gives
The mass is increasing with , and
Thus the fixed-charge Reissner-Nordstrom temperature maximum occurs at
The curve starts at zero at , rises to this maximum, then falls as for large mass. During evaporation from , the mass moves from right to left: the temperature initially increases, reaches its maximum, and then decreases towards zero.
Figure 1.
Reissner-Nordstrom temperature at fixed charge, its maximum and the evaporation direction
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Under the printed thermal-emission cutoff, charged emission is absent throughout precisely when the entire mass path remains at or below the threshold:
Equality is allowed because emission is assumed to require , not merely . The initial large mass ensures that the path includes the maximum.
With charge then conserved, neutral Hawking radiation lowers the mass until the system approaches the charge-preserving Reissner-Nordstrom evaporation endpoint:
The limiting state is an extremal black hole, rather than a neutral zero-mass endpoint. Exact attainment in finite time is not established: near extremality , and the ideal radiation rate tends to zero. The conclusion is within the assumed thermal cutoff model, which omits nonthermal charge creation and other quantum corrections. For , the Schwarzschild temperature instead grows without bound in the extrapolated model, so no finite satisfies the stated all-the-way temperature bound.
A horizon separates regions according to a specified causal, dynamical or geometrical criterion. The criterion must be stated: an event horizon, an apparent horizon, a Killing horizon and a Cauchy horizon answer different questions. Some horizons describe a black hole, others an observer's acceleration or the universe's expansion. A vanishing coordinate metric component alone does not establish any of these definitions.
In an asymptotically flat spacetime, choose the relevant future null infinity , the endpoint of escaping outgoing light rays. The black-hole region and its future event horizon are
Here is the causal past. Events in cannot send a causal signal to the chosen infinity. This is a global definition: identifying the horizon requires the full future development, so a local measurement need not reveal whether an event lies on it. Smooth portions of an event horizon are null hypersurfaces generated by null geodesics. Generators may join at past caustics or crease sets, so the horizon need not be smooth everywhere. A past event horizon is defined by the time-reversed escape criterion; in the maximally extended Schwarzschild solution it bounds a white-hole region.
An observer-based definition replaces infinity by a future-inextendible worldline . Its future observer event horizon is the boundary of events that can signal to , conventionally . A past observer horizon similarly bounds events reachable from its past worldline. Such horizons depend on the observer and need not imply a black hole.
A Killing horizon is a null hypersurface to which a nonzero Killing vector field is normal. On it, is tangent to its null generators and satisfies . The surface gravity measures the failure of this Killing parameter to be an affine parameter; rescaling rescales . A degenerate Killing horizon has . Stationary black-hole horizons often are Killing horizons, whereas a general evolving event horizon need not have any Killing symmetry. The condition alone is insufficient: the null vector must also be normal to a null hypersurface.
The Schwarzschild spacetime illustrates several of these notions. In units , let . Its metric is , and is the future event horizon of the black-hole region in the appropriate extension. The apparent coordinate singularity disappears in ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates, , :
At this metric is regular and the normal is null. Future outgoing radial rays satisfy ; inside the horizon their areal radius decreases even on the outgoing family. The stationary Killing vector field generates the horizon with when normalized at infinity. The Kretschmann scalar is , finite at the horizon and divergent at . Thus the event horizon is not the curvature singularity. The photon sphere at , which supports circular null orbits, is also not the horizon.
Quasi-local horizon notions use null expansions. For a closed spacelike two-surface, choose future outgoing and ingoing null normals , with in signature . Each expansion is the logarithmic rate of its positive area element along the corresponding null normal. A future trapped surface has and : both future light fronts initially shrink. A marginally outer trapped surface has ; for the future black-hole type also require . On a chosen spacelike slice, the outer boundary of the future trapped region is an apparent horizon, ordinarily an outermost marginally outer trapped surface when regularity permits this characterization. It depends on the slice, and a slicing need not display an apparent horizon even when the global spacetime contains an event horizon.
For the Schwarzschild metric in ingoing coordinates choose and . The spherical null expansion in ingoing coordinates gives
The round spheres inside are future trapped, while is marginal. On standard horizon-penetrating slices its sections give the apparent horizon, coinciding with the stationary event and Killing horizon. This coincidence in a symmetric stationary example does not identify the notions in a general spacetime.
A trapping horizon is a hypersurface foliated by marginal surfaces. Its future outer type obeys , and . Unlike an event horizon, this can be diagnosed from local expansion data and their variation. The null energy condition explains its causal character. At a marginal surface, the Null Raychaudhuri equation, with the present curvature sign and vanishing null twist, gives
in units . A possible nonaffinity term vanishes here because it is proportional to the zero expansion. Write a horizon evolution vector as . Preserving gives . Hence : the future outer horizon is spacelike or null. Its area expansion is . These conclusions use the outer condition and the energy condition, not merely marginality.
For the global event horizon, the future-complete horizon focusing proof of the area theorem uses the same Null Raychaudhuri equation. Under the null energy condition, a negative generator expansion forces a future caustic in finite affine parameter. Future completeness and the usual regularity or predictability assumptions exclude such a caustic on the future event-horizon boundary. Its generator expansion is therefore nonnegative and its classical area cannot decrease. These assumptions matter: this is not an unconditional result for every null surface or every matter model.
Rotating and charged solutions provide further distinctions. A nonextremal Kerr black hole has , with . Its outer Killing horizon is generated by , where , rather than by time translation alone. The ergosphere begins at the stationary-limit surface , whose radius is . Away from the axis this lies outside the event horizon: it forbids static observers but does not forbid escape to infinity. In Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime, the nonextremal radii are . The outer surface is an event horizon, whereas the inner surface is a Cauchy horizon in the exact analytic extension.
A Cauchy horizon concerns predictability from initial data. The future domain of dependence of a partial Cauchy surface consists of events for which every past-inextendible causal curve intersects . Its future Cauchy horizon is
Beyond it, causal influences can arrive without meeting the specified initial surface; data on that surface no longer determine the solution there. This is distinct from the inability to send signals to infinity. The inner horizon of the exact charged black hole supplies an example, and the definition necessarily specifies which initial surface is being used.
Flat spacetime itself has acceleration horizons. In the right Rindler wedge, set and , with . The Minkowski spacetime metric becomes . The null boundaries and are Rindler horizons of the boost Killing flow. A uniformly accelerated observer cannot receive signals from one side of its future horizon, even though the curvature vanishes and inertial observers encounter no such boundary. These are observer and Killing horizons, not a black-hole event horizon defined using the full Minkowski null infinity.
In a spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric with noncompact spatial sections, radial light rays have . The particle horizon measures how far signals could have travelled since the initial cosmic time; the cosmological event horizon measures how far signals emitted now could ever travel toward a comoving observer. Their comoving and proper radii are
The respective horizon is present only if its integral is finite. The event-horizon integral uses the actual future endpoint, often , so it is global and observer-dependent. For on , a finite particle horizon exists for , while a finite event horizon exists for . Neither integral is finite for . In the expanding flat patch of de Sitter spacetime, and the proper event-horizon radius is . The static form identifies it as a cosmological Killing horizon; its surface-gravity magnitude is with the central static time normalization.
Finally, the Hubble radius must not automatically be called an event horizon. For a flat expanding cosmology, the two future radial null expansions of a sphere of proper radius are . At the ingoing expansion vanishes, while outside it both expansions are positive: this is the cosmological marginal, past-trapped type rather than a future black-hole trapped surface. A dust universe with has such a Hubble sphere but no future event horizon. Global causal boundaries, slice-dependent trapped-surface boundaries, symmetry horizons and initial-data boundaries must therefore be distinguished, even when several coincide in a special example.
Let . A positive-radius horizon requires a root of , giving
For the usual asymptotically flat Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime, the black-hole conditions are
The strict inequality gives a nonextremal outer event horizon at ; equality gives an extremal black hole. If with , there is no horizon and the central curvature singularity is naked. Nonpositive cannot supply a positive-radius black-hole horizon; is Minkowski spacetime. For , the zero root is the singularity, not an additional regular horizon.
In the static coordinates the vector has constant components and every metric component is independent of . Its Lie derivative therefore satisfies
For the torsion-free Levi-Civita connection, , proving the Killing equation directly. This also normalizes the Killing vector field to unit time translation at infinity.
At , . Use the regular advanced chart with , in which
On the horizon, . Thus the Killing vector field is both null and normal to the horizon, and its orbits generate that Killing horizon. The normal lines of a null hypersurface are null geodesics, possibly with nonaffine parameter. To see this without assuming a separate geodesic property, the Killing equation gives
Restriction to the future horizon therefore gives
The acceleration is proportional to the tangent, which is exactly the geodesic equation with a nonaffine parameter. An affinely parametrized tangent can be obtained by rescaling along each generator; that rescaled vector need not itself extend to a spacetime Killing vector field. At a nonextremal bifurcation surface, vanishes, so a nonzero generator tangent must be described in a regular affine parametrization there.
On the past branch, use the retarded chart with radial-time cross term . Now at the horizon, so the same calculation yields the opposite signed nonaffinity. Since is constant and the spacetime is spherically symmetric, is constant over the future horizon. This gives the two signs in the horizon relation without assuming their value beforehand.
Factor . Its derivative at the outer horizon gives the Reissner-Nordstrom horizon surface gravity
It is positive for , and at reduces to the Schwarzschild surface gravity . For , the root is double and . Thus the horizon remains present when its surface gravity vanishes: it is a degenerate Killing horizon, and itself has affine parametrization along its nonzero horizon generators. The strictly positive-constant description applies only to the nonextremal case; the zero value is the legitimate extremal limit.
Use geometrized units and assume , , so the Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime contains a black hole. Its outer event horizon is . The classical absorption cross-section is obtained in geometrical optics, by counting incident null geodesics captured from infinity. Spherical symmetry lets us use the equatorial plane. Write , and let a dot denote differentiation with respect to an affine parameter. The conserved Killing energy and angular momentum are and . Null normalization gives
where the impact parameter is and . An incoming ray turns around if the angular-momentum barrier reaches before the ray reaches the event horizon. The limiting captured ray approaches the exterior unstable circular null geodesic, at the maximum of .
The stationary-point equation is
The outer root is the photon sphere radius
It lies outside : for it ranges from down to , whereas ranges from down to . More precisely except in the extremal case, and ; even at extremality . At this root,
so the circular null geodesic is unstable. The smaller stationary root lies at or inside the outer horizon and does not set capture from infinity. For , the radial equation has no exterior turning point and the ray enters the event horizon; for , it turns around. The critical impact parameter is therefore
The stationary-point equation gives , hence . Since a parallel incident beam is captured over a disk of radius , the photon capture cross-section of a Reissner-Nordstrom black hole is
The equality case approaches the unstable orbit indefinitely, but it is a measure-zero boundary of the captured disk and does not change the cross-section.
For the suggested parameterization, choose with and . Then , so the same cross-section is
The black-hole range has , hence . For , , , and , giving
the classical Schwarzschild black hole light-capture result. As an additional limit check, gives , , and . These are geometric capture areas, larger than the corresponding horizon areas; the relevant barrier is the photon sphere, not the horizon's apparent disk. The result applies to light in the short-wavelength limit, while a finite-frequency wave absorption cross-section depends on the greybody factors.
The future domain of dependence consists of points through which every past-inextendible causal curve meets the partial Cauchy hypersurface . Data on determine evolution there for suitable hyperbolic equations. Its future boundary is the Cauchy horizon ; one precise definition is .
For a nonextremal Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime, , the metric function is , with . The outer event horizon lies at . The future trapped region leads toward the inner null surface , a future Cauchy horizon for bridge data on the illustrated . Beyond it some past causal curves arrive from other analytic blocks or timelike singularities without meeting . The CP diagram repeats these analytic blocks; is a timelike curvature singularity.
Figure 1.
Reissner-Nordstrom conformal block with bridge data and future Cauchy horizons
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Near the inner horizon, arbitrarily late exterior radiation is compressed into finite infaller proper time. Its frequency is exponentially blueshifted, with scale , so even a decaying flux can have diverging measured stress. Generic ingoing and outgoing perturbations produce mass inflation, growing internal mass and curvature. The smooth RN Cauchy horizon is expected to be unstable to back-reaction. This is a generic instability argument, not a universal theorem from every specially tuned test trajectory; the approximation of a harmless test particle becomes inconsistent.
One standard form of the Penrose singularity theorem assumes a time-oriented globally hyperbolic spacetime with a noncompact Cauchy hypersurface, the null convergence condition for every null vector , and a closed future trapped surface. It concludes future null geodesic incompleteness: some future-inextendible null geodesic has a finite upper endpoint of its affine parameter.
The focusing mechanism is the Null Raychaudhuri equation. The normal generators have zero null twist, so
An initial therefore gives a conjugate point to a spacelike surface within affine distance at most , assuming the generator can be continued that far. Such a generator ceases to lie on the achronal boundary after its first focal point. Compactness of the trapped surface supplies a uniform bound for all normalized initial null normals. Future completeness would consequently make its future boundary compact. Projection along timelike curves to a connected Cauchy hypersurface is injective on the achronal boundary and has open image. Compactness makes the image closed as well; the nonempty image must therefore be the entire hypersurface, contradicting its noncompactness. This explains why the global assumptions supplement local focusing.
For Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime, the Maxwell stress-energy tensor satisfies the null energy condition; the Einstein field equations imply the required null convergence condition. The spheres in the band just found are closed and trapped. Apply the theorem to a maximal Cauchy development with a noncompact Cauchy hypersurface and containing one such sphere. That globally hyperbolic spacetime must be future null-geodesically incomplete.
The Penrose theorem at a Cauchy horizon needs care: the full maximal analytic Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime has inner Cauchy horizons and is not globally hyperbolic. It does not satisfy every hypothesis of the displayed theorem. In the exact solution some incomplete geodesics of the globally hyperbolic development reach a smoothly extendible Cauchy horizon in finite affine parameter. The theorem asserts incompleteness of the development, not that every such endpoint is a curvature singularity. The separate curvature singularity at does not justify silently dropping the theorem's global hypothesis.
The inner horizon in the nonextreme Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime diagram is a Cauchy horizon. Radiation from exterior perturbations can approach it at arbitrarily late advanced time and undergo unbounded blueshift. Here its positive blueshift scale is . The inner-horizon blueshift coordinate behaves as , so
Even a decaying power-law tail can therefore generate divergent local flux. With counterstreaming radiation, backreaction produces mass inflation and curvature growth, rather than the smooth inner horizon of the exact solution.
This supports the strong cosmic censorship conjecture: a generically perturbed maximal Cauchy development is expected to lose the smooth extension across its Cauchy horizon, restoring predictability in the appropriate regularity class. The exact smooth inner horizon is unstable, not a robust failure of deterministic evolution. Curvature divergence supports an obstruction to a metric extension; it does not by itself exclude every continuous metric extension. The regularity class is part of the conjecture, and the blueshift argument is evidence, not a general theorem proving it.
Use the subextremal four-dimensional Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime, with . Its static radial function is
Take the time-symmetric two-ended bridge through the outer bifurcation surface. Its initial data have and
on each end. The bridge is smooth: in proper radial distance , . Each asymptotically flat end is an infinite Riemannian distance away. Hence the spatial Riemannian manifold is complete and admits no proper same-dimensional smooth isometric extension as a connected spatial manifold.
Its maximal Cauchy development includes the two exteriors and the adjacent future and past regions between and . It ends at inner Cauchy horizons, not at a curvature singularity. Since the simple root at is removable in horizon-penetrating coordinates and all curvature invariants are finite there, the exact solution extends across these Cauchy horizons. The extension is no longer globally determined by the given initial data.
Figure 1.
The maximal Cauchy development of a complete Reissner-Nordstrom bridge ends at extendible inner Cauchy horizons
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The shaded region is the maximal Cauchy development; dashed upper and lower null edges are inner Cauchy horizons. The displayed neighboring diamonds illustrate smooth continuation, rather than the entire infinite extension.
The strong cosmic censorship conjecture concerns generic admissible initial data, in a specified extension regularity. Exact charged spherical data are exceptional. Perturbations can produce mass inflation at the inner Cauchy horizon, obstructing suitably regular extensions; the precise conjecture depends on the matter model and whether extensions are required to be , , or another regularity. Thus this exact extendible example does not refute a generic strong cosmic censorship conjecture.
For an Einstein-Maxwell example the gravitational triple must be accompanied by electromagnetic initial data. One may take zero magnetic field and the smooth radial electric flux through the bridge. The charges at the two ends have opposite signs when measured with outward normals. This is an example in the electrovacuum theory, not vacuum initial data.
The globally hyperbolic maximal Cauchy development of appropriate Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime data obeys the Penrose singularity theorem when it contains a closed trapped surface. Its resulting null geodesic incompleteness can include generators reaching a smoothly extendible inner Cauchy horizon in finite affine parameter. The full analytic extension is not globally hyperbolic and cannot be substituted into that version of the theorem. Incompleteness alone does not establish curvature blowup at every endpoint.
Reissner-Nordstrom trapped spheres Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
In ingoing Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime, orient to the future and normalize the other radial null vector to . The spherical null expansion in ingoing coordinates gives and . Hence the strictly future trapped surfaces among the round spheres occur exactly between the distinct horizons. At either horizon the outgoing null expansion vanishes. Inside the inner horizon the same round spheres are not future trapped.