Nonlinear instability of scalar fields on extremal black holes

Abstract: We prove a new type of finite time blow-up for a class of semilinear wave equations on extremal black holes. The initial data can be taken to be arbitrarily close to the trivial data. The first singularity occurs along the (degenerate) future event horizon. No analogue of this instability occurs for subextremal black holes or the Minkowski spacetime.