Mechanics of higher dimensional black holes in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes

We construct a covariant phase space for the Einstein gravity in dimensions d ≥ 4 with a negative cosmological constant, describing black holes in local equilibrium. Thus, spacetimes under consideration are asymptotically anti-de Sitter and admit an inner boundary representing an isolated horizon. This allows us to derive a first law of black hole mechanics that involves only quantities defined quasi-locally at the horizon, without having to assume that the bulk spacetime is stationary. The first law proposed by Gibbons et al for the Kerr-AdS family follows from a special case of this much more general first law.