On black holes in teleparallel torsion theories of gravity

Abstract

We first present an overview of the Schwarzschild vacuum spacetime within general relativity, with particular emphasis on the role of scalar polynomial invariants and the null frame approach (and the related Cartan invariants), that justifies the conventional interpretation of the Schwarzschild geometry as a black hole spacetime admitting a horizon (at \(r=2M\) in Schwarzschild coordinates) shielding a singular point at the origin. We then consider static spherical symmetric vacuum teleparallel spacetimes in which the torsion characterizes the geometry, and the scalar invariants of interest are those constructed from the torsion and its (covariant) derivatives. We investigate the Schwarzschild-like spacetime in the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity and find that the torsion scalar invariants (and, in particular, the scalar T) diverge at the putative “Schwarzschild” horizon. In this sense the resulting spacetime is not a black hole spacetime. We then briefly consider the Kerr-like solution in the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity and obtain a similar result. Finally, we investigate static spherically symmetric vacuum spacetimes within the more general F(T) teleparallel gravity and show that if a such a geometry admits a horizon, then the torsion scalar T necessarily diverges there; consequently in this sense such a geometry also does not represent a black hole.