The return of the membrane paradigm? Black holes and strings in the water tap

Understand

Several general arguments indicate that the event horizon behaves as a stretched membrane.

• We propose using this relation to understand gravity and dynamics of black objects in higher dimensions.
• We provide evidence that (i) the gravitational Gregory-Laflamme instability has a classical counterpart in the Rayleigh-Plateau instability of fluids.
• Each known feature of the gravitational instability can be accounted for in the fluid model.