Are Black Holes sufficiently characterized?

[cph]

Is mass, angular momentum, and charge sufficient for black hole characterization? Or is also entropy, and hence surface area, also required? Thus is the shape for a given mass black hole also a required consideration?

 

[phinds]

From all the reading I've done, I gather that the mass and spin are the properties that matter. I haven't read of charge being much of an issue in real BHs and size seems to be mentioned only as the diameter of the event horizon.

 

[Nabeshin]

This is precisely the statement of the no-hair theorem, that mass, angular momentum, and charge are the only three numbers necessary to describe a BH. The quantities you mention, entropy and surface area, are derived from the above three.

 

[zhermes]

From all the reading I've done, I gather that the mass and spin are the properties that matter.

For real, astrophysical black-holes -- the charge can be assumed to be zero, as a black-hole will be formed from (ridiculously close to) equal numbers of protons and electrons. But all three parameters are actually needed for a complete description, as Nabeshin said---according to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_hair_theorem"