THE RETURN OF THE MEMBRANE PARADIGM? BLACK HOLES AND STRINGS IN THE WATER TAP

Abstract

Several general arguments indicate that the event horizon behaves as a stretched membrane. We propose using this relation to understand the gravity and dynamics of black objects in higher dimensions. We provide evidence that: (i) The gravitational Gregory–Laflamme instability has a classical counterpart in the Rayleigh–Plateau instability of fluids. Each known feature of the gravitational instability can be accounted for in the fluid model. These features include threshold mode, dispersion relation, time evolution and critical dimension of certain phase transitions. Thus, we argue that black strings break in much the same way as water from a faucet breaks up into small droplets. (ii) General rotating black holes can also be understood with this analogy. In particular, instability and bifurcation diagrams for black objects can easily be inferred. This correspondence can and should be used as a guiding tool for understanding and exploring the physics of gravity in higher dimensions.