Are there non-spherical blackholes?

[Lino]

An amount of material I have read recently refers (specifically) to the spherical case of black holes. Are there non-spherical black holes?

Regards,

Noel.

 

[Chronos]

There are 4 known solutions to Einstein field equations for black holes. Two of the four are rotating black holes, which are not spherical - Kerr and Kerr-Newman black holes. The other two are the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom black holes, which are static and spherical. In each case, one variant carries no charge and the other has a charge.

 

[Lino]

Thanks Chronos. Can I just confirm - rotating implies non-spherical, is that correct?

Regards,

Noel.

 

[Chronos]

Correct. See http://www.madore.org/~david/math/kerr.html for further discussion.

 

[Lino]

Thanks Chronos.