Are astrophysical “black” holes leaky?

Abstract

We continue a study by Adler and Ramazanoǧlu (AR) of “black” holes as modified by a scale invariant dark energy action. For the spherically symmetric Schwarzschild-like case, AR found that there is no event horizon; hence spacetime is not divided by the “black” hole into causally disconnected regions. We review the formalism for locating trapped surfaces and apparent horizons, and show that the modified “black” hole has no trapped surfaces. Thus, one suspects that it is “leaky,” and that there will be a “black hole wind” of particles streaming out from the location of the nominal horizon. This will have astrophysical consequences, for example, the wind may feed and stabilize star formation in the vicinity of the “black” hole. We initiate a study of the stationary axially-symmetric rotating “black” hole as modified by a scale invariant dark energy action, i.e. one that is Kerr-like. To set-up the axial case, we note that the conserving completion of the dark energy stress-energy tensor can be calculated algebraically by solving a [Formula: see text] matrix equation. Using Mathematica we calculate and simplify the modified system of Einstein equations for the axial case in quasi-isotropic coordinates, and give appropriate boundary conditions. Solution of these equations, which may require developing a special purpose numerical program, is rendered tricky by a residual general coordinate invariance of quasi-isotropic coordinates. This leads to the interesting mathematical question of representing a positive planar function as the gradient squared of a harmonic function.