Test fields and naked singularities: is the second law the cosmic censor?

It has been claimed that a Kerr-Newman black hole can generically be overspun by neutral test fields, and it has been argued that even when backreactions are taken into account, the black hole can still be destroyed. In this paper, we revisit the weak cosmic censorship conjecture for a Kerr-Newman black hole with a test scalar field and a neutrino field, and point out that the assumption in previous work regarding the energy and angular momentum of the test fields absorbed by the black hole violates the second law of black hole thermodynamics. By solving the test scalar field and neutrino field near the event horizon explicitly, we demonstrate that an extremal Kerr-Newman black hole cannot be overspun by a test scalar field but can be destroyed by a neutrino field. Our results indicate that the condition required to overspin an extremal Kerr-Newman black hole coincides with the condition needed to violate the second law of black hole thermodynamics. Furthermore, we observe that such a violation of the second law might inevitably result in a breakdown of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Physics Letters B
Published
2025-08-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2025.139803
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
5.61
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Test fields and naked singularities: is the second law the cosmic censor?

Si-Jiang Yang, Yu-Xiao Liu, Shao-Wen Wei, Zheng-Quan Cui
3 citations
Physics Letters B
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
5.61
article

Test fields and naked singularities: is the second law the cosmic censor?

Si-Jiang Yang, Yu-Xiao Liu, Shao-Wen Wei, Zheng-Quan Cui
article en
3 citations

Abstract

It has been claimed that a Kerr-Newman black hole can generically be overspun by neutral test fields, and it has been argued that even when backreactions are taken into account, the black hole can still be destroyed. In this paper, we revisit the weak cosmic censorship conjecture for a Kerr-Newman black hole with a test scalar field and a neutrino field, and point out that the assumption in previous work regarding the energy and angular momentum of the test fields absorbed by the black hole violates the second law of black hole thermodynamics. By solving the test scalar field and neutrino field near the event horizon explicitly, we demonstrate that an extremal Kerr-Newman black hole cannot be overspun by a test scalar field but can be destroyed by a neutrino field. Our results indicate that the condition required to overspin an extremal Kerr-Newman black hole coincides with the condition needed to violate the second law of black hole thermodynamics. Furthermore, we observe that such a violation of the second law might inevitably result in a breakdown of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture.

Physics Letters BVol. 868
Sun Yat-sen University (CN), Lanzhou University of Technology (CN), Center for Theoretical Physics (PL), Lanzhou University (CN)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
5.61
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.