How Black Holes Grow

A summary of how black holes grow in full, non-linear general relativity is presented. Specifically, a notion of “dynamical horizons” is introduced and expressions of fluxes of energy and angular momentum carried by gravitational waves across these horizons are obtained. Fluxes are local and the energy flux is positive. Change in the horizon area is related to these fluxes. The flux formulae also give rise to balance laws analogous to the ones obtained by Bondi and Sachs at null infinity and provide generalizations of the first and second laws of black hole mechanics.