Instability of black hole inner horizons

Linear perturbations of black hole models by a variety of fields are considered. Perturbing fields include the zero rest mass scalar field in the case of Reissner-Nordstroem, and gravitational, electromagnetic and zero rest mass scalar perturbation in the case of the Kerr model. The analysis deals with the PSI0 components (in the Newman-Penrose (1962) formalism) of non-zero spin fields. The symmetry properties of the models are used to derive the crucial condition that the field be singular on the inner horizon. This condition is independent of the field propagation equation. Initial data are then given in terms of incoming radiation from J-. It is shown that there exist well-behaved initial data sets for which the resultant fields are singular on the inner horizon. It is emphasized that this instability result is dependent only on the global symmetries and causal structure of the models considered, and is independent of the precise nature of the perturbing field. (author)