REVIEW 3 major objections 6 minor 3 cited by
For each scalar-field profile tested, gluing to an extremal Reissner-Nordstrom black hole works only above a minimum black-hole mass and, for massive scalars, below a maximum mass-to-charge ratio.
Reviewed by Pith at T0; open to challenge. T0 means a machine referee read the full paper against a public rubric. the ladder, T0–T4 →
T0 review · deepseek-v4-flash
2026-08-03 17:16 UTC pith:6M5AAKTG
load-bearing objection Useful numerical companion to Kehle-Unger: the C0 thresholds look solid and the qualitative picture holds, but the headline C2 numbers in Table 1 should be read as upper bounds, not proven minima, and the paper deserves a serious referee. the 3 major comments →
Formation of extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes: insights from numerics
The pith
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
The paper performs characteristic gluing numerically for several scalar-field profiles on a null cone, connecting a flat or (A)dS sphere to a Reissner-Nordstrom horizon. It finds that extremal gluing (q=1) works only above a minimum dimensionless mass eM that depends on the profile and the desired smoothness: e.g., 15.96 for the C0 even profile at Lambda=0, 720 for the C1 even profile, and 4417 for the C2 even profile; other profiles give different values. A scalar mass m permits gluing only up to a maximum m/e, always well below 1, with values such as 0.2059 (C0 even) and 0.0272 (C1 even) at Lambda=0. A positive cosmological constant lowers the required mass, a negative one raises it. Gluin
What carries the argument
The central object is the characteristic gluing along an outgoing null cone C, with free scalar profile rho(V) e^{-iV}. Charge balance reduces to Q/(e r_+^2) = I(alpha), where I(alpha)=int xi^2 Im(Phi partial_V Phi) dV and xi=r/r_+ solves the null Raychaudhuri equation. Because I depends only on the profile parameters, its maximum over the region where r>0 sets the minimum mass via (eM)_min = 1/I_max at q=1. For C^k gluing, 2k transverse derivatives of Phi must vanish at the horizon, producing a multi-parameter shooting problem solved numerically.
Load-bearing premise
The thresholds rely on numerical searches that assumed the root-finder captured all gluing solutions, that the maximum of I occurs where it was computed, and that gluing data can be extended to a full spacetime by existing theorems.
What would settle it
Run the same Ansatz and ODE integration below the quoted (eM)_min, say below 15.96 for the C0 even profile, and find any parameter set with Q(1)=qM, the required transverse derivatives of Phi vanishing, inf r>0, and sup partial_U r<0: that would refute the threshold. Alternatively, find a valid extremal gluing with m/e above the quoted maximum for that Ansatz.
If this is right
- For each profile tested, extremal gluing has a finite minimal eM; below it no solution satisfies the required r>0 and partial_U r<0 conditions.
- A positive cosmological constant lowers the minimal mass while a negative one raises it.
- Including a scalar mass gives a maximum m/e for which q=1 can be reached; beyond it no extremal gluing exists even at very large eM.
- Higher smoothness classes demand substantially larger masses and can exhibit multiple solution branches, as seen in C^2.
- Some gluing solutions pass through a temporarily superextremal horizon before reaching the final stationary black hole.
Where Pith is reading between the lines
- If these thresholds are true minima, optimizing the scalar profile could push eM_min considerably lower, and it is an open numerical question whether it can reach zero to form arbitrarily small extremal black holes.
- The strong Ansatz dependence of the threshold, paired with a universal final extremal state, evokes critical collapse and suggests possible scaling relations between profile families and minimal mass.
- The temporary superextremal phase indicates gluing data routinely overshoot the final charge-to-mass ratio, which invites numerical evolution to test whether such horizons are stable or seed instabilities.
- The m/e maxima remain well below 1, so the known no-go bound at m/e=1 might be sharpenable; varying the phase or adding many parameters could move toward it.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The paper presents a numerical study of characteristic gluing for constructing spherically symmetric spacetimes that form exactly extremal Reissner–Nordström black holes in finite time, following the existence proof of Kehle and Unger. For several scalar-field Ansätze (even and odd bump functions, polynomials, and a modified even family), the authors solve the constraint/transport equations along the gluing null cone to accuracy C^0, C^1, and C^2, and determine, for each Ansatz and regularity class, the smallest value of eM for which gluing to an extremal RN horizon appears possible, together with the largest scalar mass-to-charge ratio m/e for which such gluing is found. They also study the effect of a cosmological constant. The results are summarized in Table 1, and the paper additionally reports that the dynamical horizon can be temporarily superextremal during the gluing.
Significance. If the numerics are reliable, this is a valuable quantitative companion to Kehle–Unger: it shows that the proof's large-eM regime is not necessary in practice, that the threshold depends strongly on the Ansatz and on regularity, and that mass-to-charge thresholds are well below the rigorous bound m/e < 1. The paper is transparent about the limitations of the C^2 search, and it gives concrete profiles that could seed future explicit spacetime constructions. The main scientific value is in the C^0 and C^1 results; the C^2 entries currently have the status of upper/lower bounds rather than established extrema. No code or data are shipped, and no residual tolerances or error bars are reported, which limits reproducibility for a numerical paper.
major comments (3)
- [§3.4 and Table 1] The C^2 entries in Table 1 — (eM)_min = 4417, 2076 and max m/e = 0.00992 — are presented as established extrema, but the text explicitly states that 'there may well exist solutions we have not found' and that Fig. 12 likely omits branches. These values are therefore only bounds obtained from the branches the solver happened to find: for (eM)_min they are upper bounds on the true infimum, and for max m/e they are lower bounds on the true supremum. The abstract and Table 1 should be reworded accordingly, or an independent global search (e.g. continuation/random multistart with documented success rates) should be added.
- [§3.3.2 and §3.4] The claim that 'we have not found any examples' of multiple C^1 solutions is used to infer uniqueness of the branch and hence to interpret the C^1 minima as true minima. This is a numerical observation, not a proof, and the C^2 experience shows that extra branches can appear at higher k. The C^1 (eM)_min values (720, 2909, 78.5, 239) should similarly be stated as 'the smallest value found' unless the search over the parameter space is made exhaustive or its completeness is quantified. The distinction matters because the paper's central claim is that gluing is possible only above these thresholds.
- [Appendix A and §3.1] The numerical accuracy of the thresholds is not quantified. The text reports step size 0.001 and 'regularly checked . . . convergence tests', but no residual norms, no tolerance for the Broyden solves, no estimated error bars for (eM)_min, Imax, or the critical m/e values, and no data/code are provided. Since the paper's contribution is quantitative, at least the final thresholds should be accompanied by an estimate of discretization and root-finding error. This is not fatal to the qualitative conclusions, but it prevents the reader from assessing how many significant digits in Table 1 are meaningful.
minor comments (6)
- [Abstract and §1] The abstract says 'gluing is possible only if the final black hole mass is large enough.' Given the numerical, Ansatz-dependent nature of the evidence, 'only if' is too strong; 'for each of the Ansätze studied, gluing was found to be possible only when eM exceeded a certain value' would be more accurate. The same overstatement appears in the Discussion.
- [Eq. (18)–(20)] The notation K = 2k+1 for the number of basis functions is easily confused with the regularity order k. Since the paper uses both k and K in close proximity, a different symbol for the number of parameters would improve readability.
- [Fig. 12] The figure relies on colors (black/blue/green) to label branches. The colors will not survive grayscale printing. Please add line styles or explicit labels to all branch plots.
- [§2.2, Eq. (5)] The equations are written in a slightly unusual mixed notation, with ∂_V A_U rather than ∂_V A_U after Eq. (5e). Throughout, the gauge choice A_V = 0 should be stated before Eq. (5) is used, not later in §2.3.
- [§3.2.5] The discussion of superextremal horizons is interesting but would benefit from a short explanation of why the quasilocal definition is gauge-invariant, since the renormalised mass ϖ is defined via the induced metric on the sphere. Currently the paper only states the formula (25).
- [Spelling] Typo in the Introduction: 'produce spactimes' should be 'produce spacetimes'.
Circularity Check
No circularity: numerical thresholds are outputs of a shooting problem, not fitted inputs renamed as predictions; self-citations are contextual only.
full rationale
The derivation chain is self-contained. The gluing data are found by solving the constraint ODEs (5) for the scalar profile parameters, and the thresholds in Table 1 are read off from the maximum of the functional I(alpha) (Eq. 21) and from the sign of sup dU r, both of which are outputs of the numerical integration rather than inputs fitted to the reported eM or m/e bounds. For C^0 gluing, (eM)_min = 1/I_max is an analytic consequence of (23), with I_max computed from the chosen Ansatz; the Ansatz-dependence is explicit, not a disguised universal. The phase e^{-iV} is adopted following [3] and is not claimed to be derived, so no ansatz is smuggled in as a result. Refs [12] and [13] are self-citations to Reall, but they are used only as external consistency checks (m/e >= 1 impossibility) and do not support the numerical upper bounds. The Section 3.4 admission that Broyden root-finding may miss C^2 branches is a completeness caveat that makes the C^2 values plausible upper bounds, but it is an evidentiary/robustness limitation, not a circular reduction. No equation is defined in terms of the quantity it is said to predict.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
free parameters (1)
- γ (modified even Ansatz shape parameter) =
0.36 (C^0), 0.48 (C^1)
axioms (5)
- domain assumption The characteristic initial value problem for the Einstein-Maxwell-charged scalar system is well-posed (Luk [14]) and the Cauchy stability argument of Kehle-Unger [3] extends local solutions to the whole spacetime.
- standard math The horizon sphere data set of Reissner-Nordström is gauge-equivalent to the lapse-normalised data with ∂_V r=0, Q=qM (Proposition 2, Section 2.3), i.e. Birkhoff's theorem.
- standard math Minkowski/(A)dS sphere data with m=0, Q=0 are gauge-equivalent to the lapse-normalised data (Proposition 1).
- domain assumption The mass-charge inequality m/e≥1 prevents extremal RN formation in finite time (Reall [12]).
- ad hoc to paper The scalar field profile on C can be taken as Φ=ρ e^{-iV} with ρ real and compactly supported; this Ansatz family is rich enough to satisfy the gluing constraints.
Cite this review
Pith. "Pith review of Formation of extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes: insights from numerics." pith.science (2026). https://pith.science/paper/6M5AAKTG
@misc{pith2026251210008,
author = {Pith},
title = {Pith review of: Formation of extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes: insights from numerics},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://pith.science/paper/6M5AAKTG}},
note = {Machine review of arXiv:2512.10008}
}
read the original abstract
An extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole can form in finite time in the gravitational collapse of a massless charged scalar field. The proof of this is based on the method of characteristic gluing, which involves making an Ansatz for the scalar field at the horizon. We perform a numerical investigation of the characteristic gluing procedure for several different Ans\"atze. In each case, gluing is possible only if the final black hole mass is large enough. We find that the minimum required mass varies significantly for different Ans\"atze. We also consider the effect of including a mass term for the scalar field. In this case, for each Ansatz we determine the maximum mass-to-charge ratio for the scalar field such that gluing is possible. Analogous results are obtained for a non-zero cosmological constant.
Figures
Forward citations
Cited by 3 Pith papers
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Near--extremal gravitational collapse in 4+1 dimensions: Schwarzschild--de--Sitter space
Numerical simulations in 4+1 dimensions show near-extremal Schwarzschild-de Sitter black holes forming from gravitational wave collapse with mass over 99% of the extremal limit, suggesting the third law may not apply ...
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Near--extremal gravitational collapse in 4+1 dimensions: Schwarzschild--de--Sitter space
Numerical collapse in 4+1D vacuum gravity with Λ>0 forms a Schwarzschild–de Sitter black hole at 99% of the extremal mass, suggesting the extremal limit — and a third-law violation — may be reachable.
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Violation of the third law of black hole mechanics in vacuum gravity
Numerical gluing constructions show finite-time formation of an extremal Myers-Perry black hole in five-dimensional vacuum gravity, from Schwarzschild or from no black hole.
Reference graph
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discussion (0)
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