Astrophysical formation of black holes and singular configurations in gravitational caloric theory

Determine which types of black holes or other singular configurations in gravitational caloric theory can form through astrophysical processes, including whether the static black holes with conical infinity constructed in the theory can arise dynamically without prescribing a conical outer boundary.

Background

The paper classifies static, spherically symmetric vacuum solutions of gravitational caloric theory using a three-dimensional autonomous dynamical system. It constructs black holes with regular horizons and conical infinity, and shows that these solutions can remain close to Schwarzschild over a substantial near-horizon and weak-field region while developing an order-unity solid-angle deficit or excess at large radius.

The static phase-space classification does not establish whether any solution is dynamically realized. The authors identify the formation problem as unresolved and state that addressing it requires linear stability analyses of the static solutions and fully relativistic simulations of gravitational collapse. They specifically propose evolving regular caloric-field initial data without ordinary matter to test whether the newly constructed black holes can emerge as late-time outcomes, potentially through a process termed spontaneous conicalization of black holes.