We investigate spin-induced scalarization of Kerr black holes in an Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet (EsGB) model that does not admit a linear tachyonic instability of the scalar-free solution. The scalarization mechanism is therefore genuinely nonlinear. We first analyze the decoupled scalar dynamics on fixed Kerr backgrounds and show that sufficiently rapid rotation modifies the Gauss-Bonnet invariant such that a negative near-horizon region develops near the poles. This region provides a geometric trapping mechanism for nonlinear scalar growth, which becomes effective above a threshold spin $\chi =0.5$. We then construct stationary scalarized black hole solutions with full backreaction and determine their domain of existence. We find that the solutions occupy a finite low-mass high-spin wedge in the spin-mass plane. This is in contrast to spin-induced spontaneous scalarization, where the scalarized solutions form a narrow band. In this wedge, toward the high-spin end, the scalar hair becomes stronger, and the solutions approach a near-extremal regime, while toward the low-spin boundary, the scalar field is strongly suppressed and approaches a weak-hair limit as $\chi \to 0.5$.

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• Alternative gravity theories
• Classical black holes