We introduce the concept of a geometric horizon, which is a surface distinguished by the vanishing of certain curvature invariants which characterize its special algebraic character. We motivate its use for the detection of the event horizon of a stationary black hole by providing a set of appropriate scalar polynomial curvature invariants that vanish on this surface. We extend this result by proving that a non-expanding horizon, which generalizes a Killing horizon, coincides with the geometric horizon. Finally, we consider the imploding spherically symmetric metrics and show that the geometric horizon identifies a unique quasi-local surface corresponding to the unique spherically symmetric marginally trapped tube, implying that the spherically symmetric dynamical black holes admit a geometric horizon. Based on these results, we propose a suite of conjectures concerning the application of geometric horizons to more general dynamical black hole scenarios.

We show that it is possible to locate the event horizon of a black hole (in arbitrary dimensions) by the zeros of certain Cartan invariants. This approach accounts for the recent results on the detection of stationary horizons using scalar polynomial curvature invariants, and improves upon them since the proposed method is computationally less expensive. As an application, we produce Cartan invariants that locate the event horizons for various exact four-dimensional and five-dimensional stationary, asymptotically flat (or (anti) de Sitter), black hole solutions and compare the Cartan invariants with the corresponding scalar curvature invariants that detect the event horizon.

We discuss black hole spacetimes with a geometrically defined quasilocal horizon on which the curvature tensor is algebraically special relative to the alignment classification. Based on many examples and analytical results, we conjecture that a spacetime horizon is always more algebraically special (in all of the orders of specialization) than other regions of spacetime. Using recent results in invariant theory, such geometric black hole horizons can be identified by the alignment type II or D discriminant conditions in terms of scalar curvature invariants, which are not dependent on spacetime foliations. The above conjecture is, in fact, a suite of conjectures (isolated vs dynamical horizon; four vs higher dimensions; zeroth order invariants vs higher order differential invariants). However, we are particularly interested in applications in four dimensions and especially the location of a black hole in numerical computations.

In theories such as teleparallel gravity and its extensions, the frame basis replaces the metric tensor as the primary object of study. A choice of coordinate system, frame basis, and spin-connection must be made to obtain a solution from the field equations of a given teleparallel gravity theory. It is worthwhile to express solutions in an invariant manner in terms of torsion invariants to distinguish between different solutions. In this paper, we discuss the symmetries of teleparallel gravity theories, describe the classification of the torsion tensor and its covariant derivative, and define scalar invariants in terms of the torsion. In particular, we propose a modification of the Cartan–Karlhede algorithm for geometries with torsion (and no curvature or nonmetricity). The algorithm determines the dimension of the symmetry group for a solution and suggests an alternative frame-based approach to calculating symmetries. We prove that the only maximally symmetric solution to any theory of gravitation admitting a non-zero torsion tensor is Minkowski space. As an illustration, we apply the algorithm to six particular exact teleparallel geometries. From these examples, we notice that the symmetry group of the solutions of a teleparallel gravity theory is potentially smaller than their metric-based analogs in general relativity.

We discuss the invariant classification of vacuum Kundt waves using the Cartan-Karlhede algorithm and determine the upper bound on the number of iterations of the Karlhede algorithm to classify the vacuum Kundt waves [11,15]. By choosing a particular coordinate system we partially construct the canonical coframe used in the classification to study the functional dependence of the invariants arising at each iteration of the algorithm. We provide a new upper bound, q ≤ 4, and show that this bound is sharp by analyzing the subclass of Kundt waves with invariant count beginning with (0,1,...) to show that the class with invariant count (0, 1, 3, 4, 4) exists. This class of vacuum Kundt waves is shown to be unique as the only set of metrics requiring the fourth covariant derivatives of the curvature. We conclude with an invariant classification of the vacuum Kundt waves using a suite of invariants.