The Young Modulus of Black Strings and the Fine Structure of Blackfolds

Abstract: We explore corrections in the blackfold approach, which is a worldvolume theory capturing the dynamics of thin black branes. The corrections probe the fine structure of the branes, going beyond the approximation in which they are infinitely thin, and account for the dipole moment of worldvolume stress-energy as well as the internal spin degrees of freedom. We show that the dipole correction is induced elastically by bending a black brane. We argue that the long-wavelength linear response coefficient capturing this effect is a relativistic generalization of the Young modulus of elastic materials and we compute it analytically. Using this we draw predictions for black rings in dimensions greater than six. Furthermore, we employ our corrected blackfold equations to various multi-spinning black hole configurations in the blackfold limit, finding perfect agreement with known analytic solutions.