Neutral and charged matter in equilibrium with black holes

We study the conditions of a possible static equilibrium between spherically symmetric, electrically charged or neutral black holes and ambient matter. The following kinds of matter are considered: (1) neutral and charged matter with a linear equation of state pr=wρ (for neutral matter the results of our previous work are reproduced), (2) neutral and charged matter with pr∼ρm, m>1, and (3) the possible presence of a "vacuum fluid" (the cosmological constant or, more generally, anything that satisfies the equality T00=T11 at least at the horizon). We find a number of new cases of such an equilibrium, including those generalizing the well-known Majumdar-Papapetrou conditions for charged dust. It turns out, in particular, that ultraextremal black holes cannot be in equilibrium with any matter in the absence of a vacuum fluid; meanwhile, matter with w>0, if it is properly charged, can surround an extremal charged black hole. © 2011 American Physical Society.