Imaging ultracompact objects with radiatively inefficient accretion flows

Abstract

Context. Recent Event Horizon Telescope observations of M 87* and Sgr A* strongly suggest the presence of a supermassive black hole at their respective cores. We use the semi-analytic radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAF) model to investigate the resulting images of the Joshi–Malafarina–Narayan (JMN-1) naked singularity and the Schwarzschild black hole. Aims. We chose the JMN-1 naked singularity model and compared the synchrotron images with the Schwarzschild solution to search for any distinct features that can distinguish the two objects and to find an alternative to the solution with a black hole. Methods. We performed general relativistic ray-tracing and radiative transfer simulations using the Brahma code to generate synchrotron-emission images using the thermal distribution function for emissivity and absorptivity. We investigated effects in the images by varying the inclination angle, the disk width, and the frequency. Results. The shadow images simulated with the JMN-1 model closely resemble those generated by the Schwarzschild black hole. The disparities between the two images are very small. We conducted simulations using various plasma parameters, but the resulting images remained largely consistent for both scenarios. This similarity is evident in the horizontal cross-sectional brightness profiles of the two scenarios. Notably, the JMN-1 model exhibits a slightly higher intensity than the Schwarzschild black hole. Conclusions. We conclude that JMN-1 is a viable substitute for the black hole scenario. This conclusion is not solely grounded in the fact that the two scenarios are indistinguishable from their respective shadow observations, but also in the consideration that JMN-1 emerges as an end state of a continual gravitational collapse. This paradigm not only allows for constraints on spacetime, but also provides a good probe for the nature of the central compact object.