Black Hole Uniqueness Theorems

I review the black hole uniqueness theorem and the no hair theorems established for physical black hole stationary states by the early 80’. This review presents the original and decisive work of Carter, Robinson, Mazur and Bunting on the problem of no bifurcation and uniqueness of physical black holes. Its original version was written only few years after my proof of the Kerr-Newman et al. black hole uniqueness theorem has appeared in print. The proof of the black hole uniqueness theorem relies heavily on the positivity properties of nonlinear sigma models on the Riemannian noncompact symmetric spaces with negative sectional curvature. It is hoped that the first hand description of the original developments leading to our current understanding of the black hole uniqueness will be found useful to all interested in the subject. This review is based on my plenary lecture at GR11 in Stockholm, July 1986. The plenary lecture was published in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, ed. M. A. H. MacCallum, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987, pp. 130-157. E-mail address: [email protected]