Conformal Killing horizons and their thermodynamics

Abstract: Certain dynamical black hole solutions can be mapped to static spacetimes by conformal metric transformations. This mapping provides a physical link between the conformal Killing horizon of the dynamical black hole and a Killing horizon of the static spacetime. We show how this conformal relation can be used to derive thermodynamic properties for the dynamical black holes. Although these horizons are defined quasi-locally and can be located by local experiments, they are distinct from other popular notions of quasi-local horizons such as apparent horizons. Thus in the dynamical Vaidya spacetime describing constant accretion of null dust, the conformal Killing horizon, which is null by construction, is the natural horizon to describe the black hole.