The Black Ring is Unstable

Benson Way; Jorge E. Santos

RECORD

The Black Ring is Unstable

Jorge E. Santos, Benson Way

High Energy Physics - Theory · Submitted 2 Mar 2015

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim Together with previous results using Penrose inequalities that fat black rings are unstable, this provides numerical evidence that the entire black ring family is unstable.

how it is stated · hedged possibility 0.66 read the record →

Comment (0) Read on arXiv ↗

Cite ▾

Claim paper

The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

Open the compiled record

Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 2,902 input tokens, $0.0001 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.05 · states limitation 0.22 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.03 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.09 · compares with prior results 0.95 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v1. Results and the main claim are underlined; show every role.

We study non-axisymmetric linearised gravitational perturbations of the Emparan-Reall black ring using numerical methods. We find an unstable mode whose onset lies within the "fat" branch of the black ring and continues into the "thin" branch. Together with previous results using Penrose inequalities that fat black rings are unstable, this provides numerical evidence that the entire black ring family is unstable.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	We study non-axisymmetric linearised gravitational perturbations of the Emparan-Reall black ring using numerical methods.	contribution 0.77	0.94	0.03	asserted 0.72
s1	We find an unstable mode whose onset lies within the "fat" branch of the black ring and continues into the "thin" branch.	result 1.00	0.96	0.38	asserted 1.00
s2	Together with previous results using Penrose inequalities that fat black rings are unstable, this provides numerical evidence that the entire black ring family is unstable.	interpretation 0.99	0.56	0.83	hedged possibility 0.66

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: simulation study 1.00 · evidence from simulation or computation 1.00.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read

arXiv listing abstract v1

not examined

full text
figures and tables
references and citing sentences
relations to other papers

levels run

P abstract

not run

S sections
T body sentences
C citations
R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper

Original abstract

We study non-axisymmetric linearised gravitational perturbations of the Emparan-Reall black ring using numerical methods. We find an unstable mode whose onset lies within the "fat" branch of the black ring and continues into the "thin" branch. Together with previous results using Penrose inequalities that fat black rings are unstable, this provides numerical evidence that the entire black ring family is unstable.

Human review

How Pith checks papers → · Full audit of this paper →

References

Forward citations

Cited by 5 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

Black hole interactions at large $D$: brane blobology
gr-qc 2020-09 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

The paper derives an effective force between Gaussian blobs representing black holes in the large D limit, mediated by thin horizon necks, and checks it against deformed black string, dumbbell, and ripple phases.
Testing the Weak Gravity -- Cosmic Censorship Connection
hep-th 2017-09 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

Numerical static solutions show that a charged scalar obeying the weak gravity bound removes a proposed anti-de Sitter counterexample to cosmic censorship, with the required charge converging on the weak gravity value...
Violating weak cosmic censorship in AdS$_4$
hep-th 2017-02 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

Time-dependent Einstein-Maxwell solutions in the four-dimensional AdS Poincaré patch show curvature growing without bound on a horizon that approaches the event horizon, which the authors call a violation of weak cosm...
The Gregory-Laflamme Instability of five-dimensional Black Strings in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity
hep-th 2026-10 accept novelty 6.0 of 10

The non-linear evolution of the Gregory-Laflamme instability in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity terminates through a loss of hyperbolicity, with the type (Tricomi or Keldysh) depending on the sign of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling.
Non-linear evolution of five-dimensional black strings in effective field theory
hep-th 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

Simulations of 5D black string instability in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity find that positive Gauss-Bonnet coupling caps curvature growth inside EFT validity, unlike negative coupling.

How the literature uses it

28 arXiv papers cite this in 53 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 32 sentences without a confident label

Uses its method or tool 1 paper

The most generic such solutions are cohomogeneity-two [ref] , and hence determining the quasinormal frequencies will require solving PDE's, using methods similar to those of [ref] .

Non-spinning tops are stable · Conclusions · 0.96

Uses its data or values 1 paper

However, these numerical studies, due to lack of accuracy, have only established the existence of instabilities for $ν≥0.144$ [ref] and for $ν≥0.15$ [ref] .

Instabilities of Thin Black Rings: Closing the Gap · Introduction · 0.83

Compares with it 4 papers

The plots in Figure [ref] show that the results become much closer to numerical results [ref] by $1/n$ corrections.

Black rings at large D · $1/D$ corrections · 0.97
In fact, a qualitative comparison of the growth rates of potential Gregory-Laflamme and elastic instabilities for $D=5$ and $m=2$ found here with those numerically obtained in [ref] indeed suggest that the analysis we have carried out is not valid for $m=2$ and $D=5$.[We note, however, that this comparison is only qualitative since the results of [ref] are only valid for $ν≥0.144$.

Instabilities of Thin Black Rings: Closing the Gap · Discussion · 1.00
Results For rings with $0.3≲ν≲0.6$, we find that the evolution is dominated by a new nonaxisymmetric mode which is distinct from the GL mode identified in Ref. [ref] .

End Point of Black Ring Instabilities and the Weak Cosmic Censorship Conjecture · Introduction · 0.98

Cites it as background 5 papers

The spectral methods in such studies focused on the QNMs related to ultraspinning and bar-mode instabilities of higher-dimensional (Myers-Perry) BHs, and worked with scalar- and vector-mode perturbations separately [ref] [Spectral or pseudospectral collocation methods have also been used to study BH metric perturbations by transforming the linearized field equations into an eigenvalue problem (e.g. [ref] ).

Spectral Method for the Gravitational Perturbations of Black Holes: Schwarzschild Background Case · Introduction · 0.92
Black holes in higher dimensions can be dynamically unstable to gravitational perturbations [ref] .

Dynamical Transition from a Naked Singularity to a Black Hole · Introduction · 0.91
The same physics is found in other higher dimensional black holes, including black rings [ref] , ultraspinning black holes [ref] , and certain black holes in supergravity [ref] .

Gregory-Laflamme and Superradiance encounter Black Resonator Strings · Introduction · 0.87

What it cites · 11 sentences without a confident label

Uses the method or tool of 4 papers

Indeed, this method has been used successfully in the past [ref] .

Instability and new phases of higher-dimensional rotating black holes · Introduction · 0.94
Indeed, this method has been used successfully in the past [ref] .

An instability of higher-dimensional rotating black holes · Introduction · 0.94
As a check, we have explicitly evaluated the Geroch-Held-Penrose scalars constructed in [ref] and found non-zero values, confirming that this mode cannot be pure gauge.

Peeling of the Weyl tensor and gravitational radiation in higher dimensions · Introduction · 0.98

Cites as background 12 papers

The so-called Gregory-Laflamme instability was first found in black strings [ref] , but there are analogous instabilities for rapidly rotating Myers-Perry black holes [ref] .

Instability and new phases of higher-dimensional rotating black holes · Introduction · 0.93
The so-called Gregory-Laflamme instability was first found in black strings [ref] , but there are analogous instabilities for rapidly rotating Myers-Perry black holes [ref] .

Quasinormal modes of asymptotically flat rotating black holes · Introduction · 0.93
The so-called Gregory-Laflamme instability was first found in black strings [ref] , but there are analogous instabilities for rapidly rotating Myers-Perry black holes [ref] .

Non-Axisymmetric Instability of Rotating Black Holes in Higher Dimensions · Introduction · 0.93

Discussion

Know something about this paper? Leave a comment, or highlight any passage above to comment on it.