We prove an inequality between horizon area and angular momentum for a class of axially symmetric black holes. This class includes initial conditions with an isometry which leaves fixed a two-surface. These initial conditions have been extensively used in the numerical evolution of rotating black holes. They can describe highly distorted black holes, not necessarily near equilibrium. We also prove the inequality on extreme throat initial data, extending previous results.

We construct exact hairy planar black holes in D-dimensional AdS gravity. These solutions are regular except at the singularity and have stress-energy that satisfies the null energy condition. We present a detailed analysis of their thermodynamical properties and show that the first law is satisfied. We also discuss these solutions in the context of AdS/CFT duality and construct the associated c-function.

The construction of the cylinder at spatial infinity for stationary spacetimes is considered. Using a specific conformal gauge and frame, it is shown that the tensorial fields associated to the conformal Einstein field equations admit expansions in a neighbourhood of the cylinder at spatial infinity which are analytic with respect to some suitable time, radial and angular coordinates. It is then shown that the essentials of the construction are independent of the choice of conformal gauge. As a consequence, one finds that the construction of the cylinder at spatial infinity and the regular finite initial value problem for stationary initial data sets are, in a precise sense, as regular as they could be. *

We construct a general class of exact regular black hole solutions with toroidal horizon topology in 5-dimensional Anti-deSitter gravity with a self-interacting scalar field. With these boundary conditions and due to the non-trivial backreaction of the scalar field, the no-hair theorems can be evaded so that an event horizon can be formed. The scalar field is regular everywhere outside the curvature singularity and it vanishes at the boundary where the potential is finite. We study the properties of these black holes in the context of AdS/CFT duality and comment on the dual operators, which saturate the unitarity bound. We present exact expressions for the beta-function and construct a c-function that characterizes the RG flow.