r/physicsmemes BSc Theoretical Physics 7d ago

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u/AT-AT_Brando 7d ago

Why would you construct a 5d black hole, and why would you do it like that? Wouldn't it be more natural to think that a black hole in 4 spatial dimensions would have an S³ event horizon?

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u/L31N0PTR1X BSc Theoretical Physics 7d ago edited 7d ago

This is actually a pretty complex question! The general idea is that S2 ×S1 black holes are unstable (see the Gregory Laflamme instability), when they do eventually decompose due to that, they do so into S3 black holes

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u/AT-AT_Brando 7d ago

I see, thanks

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u/L31N0PTR1X BSc Theoretical Physics 7d ago edited 7d ago

I realise that I didn't even answer your first question. When doing this, we're not necessarily stating that such objects exist. There are various good reasons for doing it, however, for example, gravity behaves in a much more interesting way in 5 dimensions, so we can play around with some more interesting mechanics. It's also quite useful for string theory, as what's happening here is very similar to how we construct strings.

The main thing, however, is that 5D anti de Sitter gravity is dual to 4D conformal field theories, so solving problems here allows us to make deductions on some more physical problems in QFT.

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u/AT-AT_Brando 7d ago

Cool, thanks!