We consider nonexpanding shear-free (NE-SF) null surface geometries embeddable as extremal Killing horizons to the second order in Einstein vacuum spacetimes. A NE-SF null surface geometry consists of a degenerate metric tensor and a consistent torsion free covariant derivative. We derive the constraints implied by the existence of an embedding. The first constraint is well known as the near-horizon geometry equation. The second constraint we find is new. The constraints lead to a complete characterization of those NE-SF null geometries that are embeddable in the extremal Kerr spacetime. Our results are also valid for spacetimes with a cosmological constant.

• Received 4 July 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.104057