Photon regions, shadow observables, and constraints from M87* of a charged rotating black hole

Abstract

Inspired by the observations of supermassive black hole M87* in \emph{Event Horizon Telescope }(EHT) experiment, a remarkable surge in black hole physics is to use the black hole shadow's observables to distinguish general relativity (GR) and modified theories of gravity (MoG), which could also help to disclose the astrophysical nature of the center black hole in EHT observation. In this paper, we shall extensively carry out the study of a charged rotating black hole in conformal gravity, in which the term related with the charge has different falloffs from the usual Kerr-Newman (KN) black hole. We investigate the spacetime properties including the horizons, ergospheres and the photon regions; afterward, we show the boundary of black hole shadow and investigate its characterized observables. The features closely depend on the spin and charge parameters, which are compared with those in Kerr and KN black holes. Then presupposing the M87* a charged rotating black hole in conformal gravity, we also constrain the black hole parameters via the observation constraints from EHT experiment. We find that the constraints on the inferred circularity deviation, $\Delta C \lesssim 0.1$, and on the shadow axial ratio, $1< D_x \lesssim 4/3$, for the M87* black hole are satisfied for the entire parameter space of the charged rotating black hole in conformal gravity. However, the shadow angular diameter $\theta_d = 42 \pm 3 \mu as$ will give upper bound on the parameter space. Our findings indicate that the current charged rotating black hole in conformal gravity could be a candidate for astrophysical black holes. Moreover, the EHT observation on the axial ratio $D_x$ may help us to distinguish Kerr black hole and the current charged rotating black hole in conformal gravity in some parameter space.