We review the toroidal, cylindrical and planar black hole solutions in anti-de Sitter spacetimes and present their properties.
IntroductionBlack holes have been objects of astrophysical interest after it was shown that they are the inevitable outcome of complete gravitational collapse of a massive star or a cluster of stars. They are likely to power the spectacular phenomena seen in x-ray emitting star accretion disks, in active galactic nuclei and quasars, and should also inhabit, in a quiescent state, the center of normal galaxies, such as our own.Black holes appear naturally as exact solutions in general relativity. Their theoretical properties, such as their stability, the no hair theorems (stating they are characterized by three parameters only, the mass, the angular momentum and the electric charge), and the physics of matter around them, have been established. These black holes live in an asymptotically flat spacetime.Black holes became important, not only to astrophysics, but also to physics, after the discovery that, due to quantum processes, they can emit radiation with a specific temperature, the Hawking temperature. It was also shown that they have a well defined entropy. Thus, black holes turned to be objects subject to the laws of thermodynamics.Once they have entered the domain of physics it also became clear that one should study them not only in asymptotically flat spacetimes, but also in spacetimes with a positive cosmological constant Λ > 0, i.e., asymptotically de Sitter spacetimes, and spacetimes with a negative cosmological constant Λ < 0, i.e., asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes. From recent astronomical observations, it seems now that we live in a world with Λ > 0. However, a spacetime with Λ < 0 is also worth of investigation, since it allows a consistent a in Astronomy and Astrophysics: Recent Developments,