On the uniqueness of extremal vacuum black holes

We prove uniqueness theorems for asymptotically flat, stationary, extremal, vacuum black hole solutions, in four and five dimensions with one and two commuting rotational Killing fields respectively. As in the non-extremal case, these problems may be cast as boundary value problems on the two dimensional orbit space. We show that the orbit space for solutions with one extremal horizon is homeomorphic to an infinite strip, where the two boundaries correspond to the rotational axes, and the two asymptotic regions correspond to spatial infinity and the near-horizon geometry. In four dimensions this allows us to establish the uniqueness of extremal Kerr amongst asymptotically flat, stationary, rotating, vacuum black holes with a single extremal horizon. In five dimensions we show that there is at most one asymptotically flat, stationary, extremal vacuum black hole with two commuting rotational symmetries and with prescribed nearhorizon geometry, interval structure and angular momenta. [email protected] [email protected]