Abstract
We demonstrate that rapidly spinning black holes can display a new type of nonlinear parametric instability—which is triggered above a certain perturbation amplitude threshold—akin to the onset of turbulence, with possibly observable consequences. This instability transfers from higher temporal and azimuthal spatial frequencies to lower frequencies—a phenomenon reminiscent of the inverse cascade displayed by ()-dimensional fluids. Our finding provides evidence for the onset of transitory turbulence in astrophysical black holes and predicts observable signatures in black hole binaries with high spins. Furthermore, it gives a gravitational description of this behavior which, through the fluid-gravity duality, can potentially shed new light on the remarkable phenomena of turbulence in fluids.
- Received 17 October 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.081101
© 2015 American Physical Society