Complexity factor for black holes in the framework of the Newman-Penrose formalism

Abstract: In this work, we introduce the {\it complexity factor} in the context of self--gravitating fluid distributions for the case of black holes by employing the Newman-Penrose formalism. In particular, by working with spherically symmetric and static AdS black holes, we show that the complexity factor can be interpreted in a natural way at the event horizon. Specifically, a thermodynamic interpretation for the aforementioned complexity factor in terms of a pressure partially supporting a Van der Waals-like equation of state is given.