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A supersymmetric black ring

High Energy Physics - Theory · Submitted 9 Jul 2004 · 13 references

Pith's verdict: A genuine new exact solution — the first asymptotically flat BPS black hole with S1×S2 horizon — with the checks that matter actually present in the paper.

T0 · AI review

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  1. T0 AI review An AI read the paper and answered a fixed list of questions.
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  3. T2 Compute The paper's code or calculations re-run with the same results.
  4. T3 Formal statement The claims written out in a formal math language a computer can read.
  5. T4 Proof Those claims proved, and the proof checked by computer.

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arXiv IDhep-th/0407065 (version 2)
Pith IDWWOUF3XB, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review
CitationDavid Mateos, Harvey S. Reall, Henriette Elvang, Roberto Emparan. "A supersymmetric black ring." arXiv:hep-th/0407065 (2004). https://pith.science/paper/WWOUF3XB
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Referee report
The paper

The paper claims

Five-dimensional supergravity admits a supersymmetric black hole whose horizon is shaped like a ring — a circle times a sphere — rather than a sphere, and the authors write the solution down explicitly.

The reading

The paper asks whether the only supersymmetric black hole in five dimensions is the known spherical one, the BMPV solution, and answers no by exhibiting an explicit counterexample. The authors give a metric, a one-form and a Maxwell potential on flat four-dimensional space in ring coordinates, verify that they solve the equations of five-dimensional minimal supergravity, and show that the resulting spacetime is asymptotically flat, saturates the BPS bound $M=(3^{1/2}/2)Q$, and has an event horizon of topology $S^1 times S^2$. The solution carries electric charge and two independent angular momenta, so supersymmetry constrains the mass against the charge but leaves the two spins free — unlike BMPV, which has equal spins and a spherical horizon. What makes it worth attention is that the horizon is a regular, finite-area surface with vanishing surface gravity, sitting at the bottom of an infinite throat whose near-horizon geometry is $AdS_3 times S^2$; the authors note that the ring's conserved charges can approach those of the spherical black hole arbitrarily closely but never coincide with them, because the ring shrinks to BMPV only in the degenerate limit where the circle radius goes to zero.

What carries the argument

The load-bearing device is the general form of any supersymmetric solution of five-dimensional minimal supergravity in a region where the supersymmetric Killing vector $V=partial/partial t$ is timelike: $ds^2 = -f^2(dt+omega)^2 + f^{-1} ds^2(M_4)$, with $M_4$ hyper-Kähler, subject to $dG^+ = 0$ and $Delta f^{-1} = (4/9)(G^+)^2$ where $G^+ = frac{1}{2} f(domega + star domega)$. Taking $M_4$ to be flat $R^4$ in the ring coordinates of Eq. (3), the authors supply $f^{-1}$ and the two components of $omega$ and check the pair of equations, with the Maxwell field then fixed by $f$ and $omega$. The second device is the near-horizon analysis: a coordinate change $dt = dv - B(r)dr$, $dphi = dphi' - C(r)dr$, $dpsi = dpsi' - C(r)dr$ with $B$ and $C$ chosen order by order in $r$ removes the divergences and leaves a metric analytic at $r=0$, which is what upgrades a coordinate pathology at $y=-infty$ into a genuine Killing horizon. The third is the closed-timelike-curve check: positivity of $g_{psi psi}$ as $y to -infty$, together with positivity of the determinant of the $(phi,psi)$ block, is shown to hold throughout the exterior when $R < (Q-q^2)/(2q)$.

Extended reading notes

Core claim

The central claim is that the fields in Eqs. (4)–(6) — a scalar $f$, a one-form $omega$ and a gauge potential $A$ built on flat $R^4$ written in ring coordinates — constitute a supersymmetric, asymptotically flat solution of five-dimensional minimal supergravity whose event horizon has topology $S^1 times S^2$. This is stated as the first example of a supersymmetric, asymptotically flat black hole of non-spherical topology, and it sits exactly in case (ii) of the earlier classification of allowed supersymmetric horizon geometries. The authors compute the charges: $M = 3pi Q/(4G)$, $J_phi = pi q(3Q-q^2)/(8G)$ and $J_psi = pi q(6R^2+3Q-q^2)/(8G)$, so the BPS inequality is saturated while the two angular momenta remain independent. They show the horizon is regular by exhibiting a coordinate transformation with explicitly chosen constants that makes the metric analytic at $r=0$, with $V=partial/partial v$ null and normal there; the spatial cross-section is $S^1 times S^2$ with circle radius $L$ and sphere radius $q/2$, and the area is $A = 2pi^2 L q^2$. The authors acknowledge that if $L=0$ the same construction produces a null orbifold singularity rather than a horizon, so regularity of the ring requires $L>0$, which the no-closed-timelike-curves bound $R < (Q-q^2)/(2q)$ guarantees. Setting $R=0$ collapses the ring to the BMPV black hole, which is why the ring's charges can approach but never equal those of the spherical solution.

Load-bearing premise

The load-bearing premise is that the coordinate change with the quoted finite-part constants really does make the metric analytic at $r=0$, so that the surface is a regular Killing horizon rather than a null orbifold singularity; the paper asserts this rather than deriving the constants, and it notes that when $L=0$ the same construction gives a singularity instead of a horizon.

Editorial extensions

If this is right

  • Supersymmetric black holes in five dimensions are not unique to spherical topology: for fixed electric charge there is a two-parameter family of BPS black rings spanning a region of the $J_phi$–$J_psi$ plane, bounded by $L to 0$, by $q to 0$, and by $R to 0$.
  • The near-horizon geometry is locally $AdS_3 times S^2$ with $AdS_3$ radius $q$ and sphere radius $q/2$, matching the expectation that supersymmetric horizons of this topology factorize this way.
  • The entropy is discontinuous across $R=0$: the ring entropy approaches a limit that is strictly below the BMPV entropy at the same charges, in analogy with coincident sources in multi-centre extremal Reissner–Nordström solutions.
  • The infinite-radius limit $R to infty$ with fixed charge density reproduces the previously conjectured black-string solution of Bena, giving that solution a finite-radius parent with two independent angular momenta.
  • Because the solution is supersymmetric and has a regular finite-area horizon, its entropy is a candidate target for a statistical-mechanical counting, which the authors leave for future work.

Reading between the lines

Editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • If the ring is stable as the authors expect from supersymmetry, then the space of BPS states at fixed charge contains at least two disconnected horizon topologies, so any entropy formula that depends only on conserved charges cannot distinguish them — a sharp test for microscopic counting.
  • The discontinuity of entropy at $R to 0$ suggests a first-order-like transition between ring and sphere phases at fixed charge; it would be worth checking whether a non-extremal five-parameter family interpolates between them and where the ring actually dominates.
  • The quantization remark — that $q$ counts Kaluza–Klein monopoles wrapping the ring circle and should be quantized in units of the compactification radius — implies the allowed ring charges form a discrete lattice inside the continuous $J_phi$–$J_psi$ region, which is checkable once the six-dimensional uplift is fixed.
  • Since the two angular momenta are unconstrained by supersymmetry, the same construction should extend to a three-charge, three-dipole family whose conserved charges no longer determine the solution; the equal-charge case presented here would then be a measure-zero slice with unusually simple uniqueness properties.
Original abstract

A new supersymmetric black hole solution of five-dimensional supergravity is presented. It has an event horizon of topology S1xS2. This is the first example of a supersymmetric, asymptotically flat black hole of non-spherical topology. The solution is uniquely specified by its electric charge and two independent angular momenta. These conserved charges can be arbitrarily close, but not exactly equal, to those of a supersymmetric black hole of spherical topology.

The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged, kept beside the review and separate from it. 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.

Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 4,130 input tokens, $0.0002 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.97 · states limitation 0.78 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.06 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.30 · compares with prior results 0.82 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v2. Results and the main claim are underlined; .

A new supersymmetric black hole solution of five-dimensional supergravity is presented. It has an event horizon of topology S1xS2. This is the first example of a supersymmetric, asymptotically flat black hole of non-spherical topology. The solution is uniquely specified by its electric charge and two independent angular momenta. These conserved charges can be arbitrarily close, but not exactly equal, to those of a supersymmetric black hole of spherical topology.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#sentencerolethe authors' own workstates the main conclusionstrength
s0 A new supersymmetric black hole solution of five-dimensional supergravity is presented. contribution 0.98 0.93 0.58 asserted 1.00
s1 It has an event horizon of topology S1xS2. result 0.78 0.87 0.15 asserted 1.00
s2 This is the first example of a supersymmetric, asymptotically flat black hole of non-spherical topology. contribution 0.46 0.85 0.60 asserted 1.00
s3 The solution is uniquely specified by its electric charge and two independent angular momenta. result 0.96 0.84 0.13 asserted 1.00
s4 These conserved charges can be arbitrarily close, but not exactly equal, to those of a supersymmetric black hole of spherical topology. result 0.88 0.81 0.11 asserted 0.99

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: theoretical result 1.00 · evidence from proof or derivation 1.00.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read
  • arXiv listing abstract v2
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

Figures
Figure 1. FIG. 1. Plot of the dimensionless horizon area

Figures reproduced from arXiv:hep-th/0407065 by the authors.

References
How later papers used it

110 later papers cite it

Evidence: substantial. 100 of the citing papers share no author with it, and 21 of those carry a confident label from Pith's citation classifier.

Pith read 29 of the 191 citing sentences, choosing only those whose citation markers point at this paper alone, and wrote the paraphrases from them. The summary, the counts, the evidence level, the links and the quotes come from code; the summary counts the papers listed below. A later paper is listed under a label when Pith's citation classifier gives one of its sentences that label at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), Pith's reading finds that the citing paper itself did it, and a second check confirms the paraphrase against the sentence. This section lists uses only. It does not list criticism or disagreement, so their absence here says nothing about how the paper has been received. Papers that share an author with this one are listed apart, under "By the same authors". A quote is the citing authors' own sentence, shown when their paper's licence is CC BY, CC BY-SA or CC0. JSON

Uses its method or tool 1 of 3 papers with this label
Compares with it 1 of 16 papers with this label
How the literature uses it

101 arXiv papers cite this in 181 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 · 110 sentences without a confident label

Builds on it 1 paper
Uses its method or tool 3 papers
  • One can then express $Z_fake$ in the $x$-$y$ coordinate system used to find the black ring in $^4$ [ref] , solve the corresponding equations[Equations (46) and (47) in [ref] .] for $k_1$ and $k_2$, and express the $^4$ solution as a solution of the almost BPS equations to read off $μ_5 V$ and $ω⃗_5$.

    Non-BPS Black Rings and Black Holes in Taub-NUT · Solving the equations · 0.92

  • Now we can find the near horizon geometry with explicit $AdS_2$ symmetry as in [ref] , by re-defining

    Charges from Attractors · Non-equal Angular Momenta: Supersymmetric Black Holes · 0.90

  • We use the canonical coordinates that are adapted to the symmetries of the black ring in the flat metric of the $ℝ^4$ base [ref] :

    Supertubes in Bubbling Backgrounds: Born-Infeld Meets Supergravity · The black-ring solution · 0.80

Uses its data or values 1 paper
  • The Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the black ring is given by [ref] [equation] which is real and positive if we demand $R<(Q-q^2)/(2q)$.

    Black hole solutions in string theory · Timelike family · 0.81

Compares with it 16 papers
  • Thus, using the algebra of conserved charges, we computer the conserved charges of supersymmetric black rings in minimal $𝒩=1$ supergravity and obtain the result consistent with [ref] .

    Supersymmetric black rings and non-linear sigma models · Conserved charges · 0.99

  • These agree precisely with the corresponding asymptotic angular momenta of [ref] .

    Charges from Attractors · Non-equal Angular Momenta: Supersymmetric Black Holes · 0.93

  • This black ring solution, derived through the Ehlers-Harrison transformations, encompasses both well-known and unfamiliar physically significant solutions: In the neutral limit, the solution coincides with the vacuum doubly spinning black ring solution, referred to as the Pomeransky-Sen'kov solution [ref] ; in the BPS limit, it yields the restrictive supersymmetric black ring [ref] , in the sense that the electric charge (mass) and the dipole charge are not independent; in an extremal limit, distinct from the BPS limit, it becomes the charged doubly spinning black ring with two nonzero angular velocities, including the extremal Pomeransky-Sen'kov black ring.

    New black ring with all independent conserved charges in five-dimensional minimal supergravity · Summary · 0.89

Cites it as support 2 papers
Cites it as background 39 papers
  • On the one hand, the macroscopic limit of this cosmic string becomes the EEMR/BW/GG black ring [ref] ; on the other hand, the low energy limit of the M5 brane worldvolume theory is the Maldacena-Strominger-Witten (MSW) CFT [ref] .

    Blackhole/blackring transition · Black ring microstates with unit M5 charge · 0.87

  • In more than four dimensions supersymmetric black holes and the possible non-extremal rotating black hole saddles exhibit much richer dynamics [ref] .

    The gravitational index of a small black ring · Introduction · 0.93

  • Remarkably, the discovery of a supersymmetric black ring solution of five-dimensional minimal supergravity was introduced in [ref] .

    Supersymmetric black rings and non-linear sigma models · Introduction · 0.93

Discussion

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