Angular Momentum Of Black Hole Research Articles

Lense–Thirring precession around supermassive black holes during tidal disruption events

A tidal disruption event (TDE) occurs when a star wanders close enough to a black hole to be disrupted by its tidal force. The debris of a tidally disrupted star are expected to form an accretion disc around the supermassive black hole. The light curves of these events sometimes show a quasi-periodic modulation of the flux that can be associated with the precession of the accretion disc due to the Lense-Thirring ("frame-dragging") effect. Since the initial star orbit is in general inclined with respect to the black hole spin, this misalignment combined with the Lense-Thirring effect leads to a warp in the disc. In this paper we provide a simple model of the system composed by a thick and narrow accretion disc surrounding a spinning supermassive black hole, with the aim to: (a) compute the expected precession period as a function of the system parameters, (b) discuss the conditions that have to be satisfied in order to have rigid precession, (c) investigate the alignment process, highlighting how different mechanisms play a role leading the disc and the black hole angular momenta into alignment.

Dragging of inertial frames in the composed black-hole–ring system

A well-established phenomenon in general relativity is the dragging of inertial frames by a spinning object. In particular, due to the dragging of inertial frames by a ring orbiting a central black hole, the angular-velocity of the black-hole horizon in the composed black-hole-ring system is no longer related to the black-hole angular-momentum by the simple Kerr-like (vacuum) relation $\Omega^{\text{Kerr}}_{\text{H}}(J_{\text{H}})=J_{\text{H}}/2M^2R_{\text{H}}$. Will has performed a perturbative treatment of the composed black-hole-ring system in the regime of slowly rotating black holes and found the explicit relation $\Omega^{\text{BH-ring}}_{\text{H}}(J_{\text{H}}=0,J_{\text{R}},R)=2J_{\text{R}}/R^3$ for the angular-velocity of a central black hole with zero angular-momentum. Analyzing a sequence of black-hole-ring configurations with adiabatically varying (decreasing) circumferential radii, we show that the expression found by Will implies a smooth transition of the central black-hole angular-velocity from its asymptotic near-horizon value $\Omega^{\text{BH-ring}}_{\text{H}}(J_{\text{H}}=0,J_{\text{R}},R\to R^{+}_{\text{H}})$ to its final Kerr (vacuum) value $\Omega^{\text{Kerr}}_{\text{H}}(J^{\text{new}}_{\text{H}})$. We use this important observation in order to generalize the result of Will to the regime of black-hole-ring configurations in which the central black holes possess non-zero angular momenta. Remarkably, we find the simple universal relation $\Delta\Omega_{\text{H}}\equiv\Omega^{\text{BH-ring}}_{\text{H}}(J_{\text{H}},J_{\text{R}},R\to R^{+}_{\text{H}})-\Omega^{\text{Kerr}}_{\text{H}}(J_{\text{H}})={{J_{\text{R}}}/{4M^3}}$ for the asymptotic deviation of the black-hole angular-velocity in the composed black-hole-ring system from the corresponding angular-velocity of the unperturbed (vacuum) Kerr black hole with the same angular-momentum.

Extremal Kerr–Newman black holes with extremely short charged scalar hair

The recently proved ‘no short hair’ theorem asserts that, if a spherically-symmetric static black hole has hair, then this hair (the external fields) must extend beyond the null circular geodesic (the “photonsphere”) of the corresponding black-hole spacetime: rfield>rnull. In this paper we provide compelling evidence that the bound can be violated by non-spherically symmetric hairy black-hole configurations. To that end, we analytically explore the physical properties of cloudy Kerr–Newman black-hole spacetimes – charged rotating black holes which support linearized stationary charged scalar configurations in their exterior regions. In particular, for given parameters {M,Q,J} of the central black hole, we find the dimensionless ratio q/μ of the field parameters which minimizes the effective lengths (radii) of the exterior stationary charged scalar configurations (here {M,Q,J} are respectively the mass, charge, and angular momentum of the black hole, and {μ,q} are respectively the mass and charge coupling constant of the linearized scalar field). This allows us to prove explicitly that (non-spherically symmetric non-static) composed Kerr–Newman-charged-scalar-field configurations can violate the no-short-hair lower bound. In particular, it is shown that extremely compact stationary charged scalar ‘clouds’, made of linearized charged massive scalar fields with the property rfield→rH, can be supported in the exterior spacetime regions of extremal Kerr–Newman black holes (here rfield is the peak location of the stationary scalar configuration and rH is the black-hole horizon radius). Furthermore, we prove that these remarkably compact stationary field configurations exist in the entire range s≡J/M2∈(0,1) of the dimensionless black-hole angular momentum. In particular, in the large-mass limit they are characterized by the simple dimensionless ratio q/μ=(1−2s2)/(1−s2).

The quantum emission spectra of rapidly-rotating Kerr black holes: Discrete or continuous?

Bekenstein and Mukhanov (BM) have suggested that, in a quantum theory of gravity, black holes may have discrete emission spectra. Using the time-energy uncertainty principle they have also shown that, for a (non-rotating) Schwarzschild black hole, the natural broadening δω of the black-hole emission lines is expected to be small on the scale set by the characteristic frequency spacing Δω of the spectral lines: ζSch≡δω/Δω≪1. BM have therefore concluded that the expected discrete emission lines of the quantized Schwarzschild black hole are unlikely to overlap. In this paper we calculate the characteristic dimensionless ratio ζ(a¯)≡δω/Δω for the predicted BM emission spectra of rapidly-rotating Kerr black holes (here a¯≡J/M2 is the dimensionless angular momentum of the black hole). It is shown that ζ(a¯) is an increasing function of the black-hole angular momentum. In particular, we find that the quantum emission lines of Kerr black holes in the regime a¯≳0.9 are characterized by the dimensionless ratio ζ(a¯)≳1 and are therefore effectively blended together. Our results thus suggest that, even if the underlying mass (energy) spectrum of these rapidly-rotating Kerr black holes is fundamentally discrete as suggested by Bekenstein and Mukhanov, the natural broadening phenomenon (associated with the time-energy uncertainty principle) is expected to smear the black-hole radiation spectrum into a continuum.

Distorted stationary rotating black holes

We study the interior of distorted stationary rotating black holes on the example of a Kerr black hole distorted by external static and axisymmetric mass distribution. We show that there is a duality transformation between the outer and inner horizons of the black hole, which is different from that of an electrically charged static distorted black hole. The duality transformation is directly related to the discrete symmetry of the space-time. The black hole horizon areas, surface gravity, and angular momentum satisfy the Smarr formula constructed for both the horizons. We formulate the zeroth, the first, and the second laws of black hole thermodynamics for both the horizons of the black hole and show the correspondence between the local and the global forms of the first law. The Smarr formula and the laws of thermodynamics formulated for both the horizons are related by the duality transformation. The distortion is illustrated on the example of a quadrupole and octupole fields. The distortion fields noticeably affect the proper time of a free fall from the outer to the inner horizon of the black hole along the symmetry semiaxes. There is some minimal nonzero value of the quadrupole and octupole moments when the time becomes minimal. The minimal proper time indicates the closest approach of the horizons due to the distortion.

QUASI-PERIODIC VARIATIONS IN X-RAY EMISSION AND LONG-TERM RADIO OBSERVATIONS: EVIDENCE FOR A TWO-COMPONENT JET IN Sw J1644+57

The continued observations of Sw J1644+57 in X-ray and radio bands accumulated a rich data set to study the relativistic jet launched in this tidal disruption event. The X-ray light curve of Sw J1644+57 from 5-30 days presents two kinds of quasi-periodic variations: a 200 second quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) and a 2.7-day quasi-periodic variation. The latter has been interpreted by a precessing jet launched near the Bardeen-Petterson radius of a warped disk. Here we suggest that the $\sim$ 200s QPO could be associated with a second, narrower jet sweeping the observer line-of-sight periodically, which is launched from a spinning black hole in the misaligned direction with respect to the black hole's angular momentum. In addition, we show that this two-component jet model can interpret the radio light curve of the event, especially the re-brightening feature starting $\sim 100$ days after the trigger. From the data we infer that inner jet may have a Lorentz factor of $\Gamma_{\rm j} \sim 5.5$ and a kinetic energy of $E_{\rm k,iso} \sim 3.0 \times 10^{52} {\rm erg}$, while the outer jet may have a Lorentz factor of $\Gamma_{\rm j} \sim 2.5$ and a kinetic energy of $E_{\rm k,iso} \sim 3.0 \times 10^{53} {\rm erg}$.

A third-order approximation for time delay of light propagation in the equatorial plane of Kerr black hole

The rotation effect of the gravitational source such as Kerr black hole on the time delay of light propagation has been studied in detail. Although it belongs to the second order, the magnitude of rotation effect may be smaller than that of the third-order effect of mass. In this paper, we calculate the time delay of the propagation of light in the equatorial plane of a Kerr black hole to the third order analytically. It is found that the third-order effect of mass is larger than the rotation effect when the magnitude of impact factor \(|b| < \frac{120-5\pi }{16}\frac{M^3}{J}+M\), with \(M\) and \(J\) being the mass and angular momentum of black hole. The total third-order effects on the time delay are also examined.

Geometric inequalities for black holes

It is well known that the three parameters that characterize the Kerr black hole (mass, angular momentum and horizon area) satisfy several important inequalities. Remarkably, some of these inequalities remain valid also for dynamical black holes. This kind of inequalities play an important role in the characterization of the gravitational collapse. They are closed related with the cosmic censorship conjecture. In this article recent results in this subject are reviewed.

Investigating the effect of precession on searches for neutron-star–black-hole binaries with Advanced LIGO

The first direct detection of neutron-star-black-hole binaries will likely be made with gravitational-wave observatories. Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo will be able to observe neutron-star-black-hole mergers at a maximum distance of 900Mpc. To acheive this sensitivity, gravitational-wave searches will rely on using a bank of filter waveforms that accurately model the expected gravitational-wave signal. The angular momentum of the black hole is expected to be comparable to the orbital angular momentum. This angular momentum will affect the dynamics of the inspiralling system and alter the phase evolution of the emitted gravitational-wave signal. In addition, if the black hole's angular momentum is not aligned with the orbital angular momentum it will cause the orbital plane of the system to precess. In this work we demonstrate that if the effect of the black hole's angular momentum is neglected in the waveform models used in gravitational-wave searches, the detection rate of $(10+1.4)M_{\odot}$ neutron-star--black-hole systems would be reduced by $33 - 37%$. The error in this measurement is due to uncertainty in the Post-Newtonian approximations that are used to model the gravitational-wave signal of neutron-star-black-hole inspiralling binaries. We describe a new method for creating a bank of filter waveforms where the black hole has non-zero angular momentum, but is aligned with the orbital angular momentum. With this bank we find that the detection rate of $(10+1.4)M_{\odot}$ neutron-star-black-hole systems would be reduced by $26-33%$. Systems that will not be detected are ones where the precession of the orbital plane causes the gravitational-wave signal to match poorly with non-precessing filter waveforms. We identify the regions of parameter space where such systems occur and suggest methods for searching for highly precessing neutron-star-black-hole binaries.

Star formation and accretion in the circumnuclear disks of active galaxies

We explore the evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBH) centered in a circumnuclear disk (CND) as a function of the mass supply from the host galaxy and considering different star formation laws, which may give rise to a self-regulation via the injection of supernova-driven turbulence. A system of equations describing star formation, black hole accretion and angular momentum transport was solved for an axisymmetric disk in which the gravitational potential includes contributions from the black hole, the disk and the hosting galaxy. Our model extends the framework provided by Kawakatu et al. (2008) by separately considering the inner and outer part of the disk, and by introducing a potentially non-linear dependence of the star formation rate on the gas surface density and the turbulent velocity. The star formation recipes are calibrated using observational data for NGC 1097, while the accretion model is based on turbulent viscosity as a source of angular momentum transport in a thin viscous accretion disk. We find that current data provide no strong constraint on the star formation recipe, and can in particular not distinguish between models entirely regulated by the surface density, and models including a dependence on the turbulent velocity. The evolution of the black hole mass, on the other hand, strongly depends on the applied star formation law, as well as the mass supply from the host galaxy. We suggest to explore the star formation process in local AGN with high-resolution ALMA observations to break the degeneracy between different star formation models.

Superradiance and statistical entropy of a hairy black hole in three dimensions

We calculate the statistical entropy of a rotating hairy black hole by taking into account superradiant modes in the brick wall method. The UV cutoff is independent of the gravitational hair, which gives the well-defined area law of the entropy. It can be shown that the angular momentum and the energy of matter field depend on the gravitational hair. For the vanishing gravitational hair, it turns out that the energy for matter is related to both the black hole mass and the black hole angular momentum whereas the angular momentum for matter field is directly proportional to the angular momentum of the black hole.

Lower bounds for the area of black holes in terms of mass, charge, and angular momentum

The most general formulation of Penrose's inequality yields a lower bound for ADM mass in terms of the area, charge, and angular momentum of black holes. This inequality is in turn equivalent to an upper and lower bound for the area in terms of the remaining quantities. In this note, we establish the lower bound for a single black hole in the setting of axisymmetric maximal initial data sets for the Einstein-Maxwell equations, when the non-electromagnetic matter fields are not charged and satisfy the dominant energy condition. It is shown that the inequality is saturated if and only if the initial data arise from the extreme Kerr-Newman spacetime. Further refinements are given when either charge or angular momentum vanish. Lastly, we discuss the validity of the lower bound in the presence of multiple black holes.

Tilted black hole accretion disc models of Sagittarius A*: time-variable millimetre to near-infrared emission

High-resolution, multi-wavelength, and time-domain observations of the Galactic centre black hole candidate, Sgr A*, allow for a direct test of contemporary accretion theory. To date, all models have assumed alignment between the accretion disc and black hole angular momentum axes, but this is unjustified for geometrically thick accretion flows like that onto Sgr A*. Instead, we calculate images and spectra from a set of simulations of accretion flows misaligned ('tilted') by 15 degrees from the black hole spin axis and compare them with millimetre (mm) to near-infrared (NIR) observations. Non-axisymmetric standing shocks from eccentric fluid orbits dominate the emission, leading to a wide range of possible image morphologies. These effects invalidate previous parameter estimates from model fitting, including estimates of the dimensionless black hole spin, except possibly at low values of spin or tilt. At 1.3mm, the images have crescent morphologies, and the black hole shadow may still be accessible to future mm-VLBI observations. Shock heating leads to high energy electrons (T > 10^12 K), which can naturally produce the observed NIR flux, spectral index, and rapid variability ('flaring'). This NIR emission is uncorrelated with that in the mm, which also agrees with observations. These are the first models to self-consistently explain the time-variable mm to NIR emission of Sgr A*. Predictions of the model include significant structural changes observable with mm-VLBI on both the dynamical (hour) and Lense-Thirring precession (day-year) timescales; and ~30-50 microarcsecond changes in centroid position from extreme gravitational lensing events during NIR flares, detectable with the future VLT instrument GRAVITY. If the observed NIR emission is caused by shock heating in a tilted accretion disc, then the Galactic centre black hole has a positive, non-zero spin parameter (a > 0).

WHEN CAN GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE OBSERVATIONS DISTINGUISH BETWEEN BLACK HOLES AND NEUTRON STARS?

Gravitational-wave observations of compact binaries have the potential to uncover the distribution of masses and angular momenta of black holes and neutron stars in the universe. The binary components' physical parameters can be inferred from their effect on the phasing of the gravitational-wave signal, but a partial degeneracy between the components' mass ratio and their angular momenta limits our ability to measure the individual component masses. At the typical signal amplitudes expected by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (signal-to-noise ratios between 10 and 20), we show that it will in many cases be difficult to distinguish whether the components are neutron stars or black holes. We identify when the masses of the binary components could be unambiguously measured outside the range of current observations: a system with a chirp mass $\mathcal{M} \le 0.871 $ M$_\odot$ would unambiguously contain the smallest-mass neutron star observed, and a system with $\mathcal{M} \ge 2.786 \Msun$ must contain a black hole. However, additional information would be needed to distinguish between a binary containing two 1.35 M$_\odot$ neutron stars and an exotic neutron-star--black-hole binary. We also identify those configurations that could be unambiguously identified as black-hole binaries, and show how the observation of an electromagnetic counterpart to a neutron-star--black-hole binary could be used to constrain the black-hole spin.

The Brown-York mass of black holes in Warped Anti-de Sitter space

We give a direct computation of the mass of black holes in Warped Anti-de Sitter space (WAdS) in terms of the Brown-York stress-tensor at the boundary. This permits to explore to what extent the holographic renormalization techniques can be applied to such type of deformation of AdS. We show that, despite some components of the boundary stress-tensor diverge and resist to be regularized by the introduction of local counterterms, the precise combination that gives the quasilocal energy density yields a finite integral. The result turns out to be in agreement with previous computations of the black hole mass obtained with different approaches. This is seen to happen both in the case of Topologically Massive Gravity and of the so-called New Massive Gravity. Here, we focus our attention on the latter. We observe that, despite other conserved charges diverge in the near boundary limit, the finite part in the large radius expansion captures the physically relevant contribution. We compute the black hole angular momentum in this way and we obtain a result that is in perfect agreement with previous calculations.

Shadow of Kerr-Taub-NUT black hole

The shadow of a rotating black hole with nonvanishing gravitomagnetic charge has been studied. It was shown that in addition to the angular momentum of black hole the gravitomagnetic charge term deforms the shape of the black hole shadow. From the numerical results we have obtained that for a given value of the rotation parameter, the presence of a gravitomagnetic charge enlarges the shadow and reduces its deformation with respect to the spacetime without gravitomagnetic charge. Finally we have studied the capture cross section for massive particles by black hole with the nonvanishing gravitomagnetic charge.

On the nature of black holes in loop quantum gravity

A genuine notion of black holes can only be obtained in the fundamental framework of quantum gravity resolving the curvature singularities and giving an account of the statistical mechanical, microscopic degrees of freedom able to explain the black hole thermodynamical properties. As for all quantum systems, a quantum realization of black holes requires an operator algebra of the fundamental observables of the theory which is introduced in this study based on aspects of loop quantum gravity. From the eigenvalue spectra of the quantum operators for the black hole area, charge and angular momentum, it is demonstrated that a strict bound on the extensive parameters, different from the relation arising in classical general relativity, holds, implying that the extremal black hole state can neither be measured nor can its existence be proven. This is, as turns out, a result of the specific form of the chosen angular momentum operator and the corresponding eigenvalue spectrum, or rather the quantum measurement process of angular momentum. Quantum-mechanical considerations and the lowest, non-zero eigenvalue of the loop quantum gravity black hole mass spectrum indicate, on the one hand, a physical Planck scale cutoff of the Hawking temperature law and, on the other hand, give upper and lower bounds on the numerical value of the Immirzi parameter. This analysis provides an approximative description of the behavior and the nature of quantum black holes.

Geodesic flows in rotating black hole backgrounds

We study the kinematics of timelike geodesic congruences, in the spacetime geometry of rotating black holes in three (the BTZ) and four (the Kerr) dimensions. The evolution (Raychaudhuri) equations for the expansion, shear and rotation along geodesic flows in such spacetimes are obtained. For the BTZ case, the equations are solved analytically. The effect of the negative cosmological constant on the evolution of the expansion ($\theta$), for congruences with and without an initial rotation ($\omega_0$) is noted. Subsequently, the evolution equations, in the case of a Kerr black hole in four dimensions are written and solved numerically, for some specific geodesics flows. It turns out that, for the Kerr black hole, there exists a critical value of the initial expansion below (above) which we have focusing (defocusing). We delineate the dependencies of the expansion, on the black hole angular momentum parameter, $a$, as well as on $\omega_0$. Further, the role of $a$ and $\omega_0$ on the time (affine parameter) of approach to a singularity (defocusing/focusing) is studied. While the role of $\omega_0$ on this time of approach is as expected, the effect of $a$ leads to an interesting new result.

Accretion of new variable modified Chaplygin gas and generalized cosmic Chaplygin gas onto Schwarzschild and Kerr–Newman black holes

In this work, we have studied accretion of the dark energies in new variable modified Chaplygin gas (NVMCG) and generalized cosmic Chaplygin gas (GCCG) models onto Schwarzschild and Kerr–Newman black holes. We find the expression of the critical four velocity component which gradually decreases for the fluid flow towards the Schwarzschild as well as the Kerr–Newman black hole. We also find the expression for the change of mass of the black hole in both cases. For the Kerr–Newman black hole, which is rotating and charged, we calculate the specific angular momentum and total angular momentum. We showed that in both cases, due to accretion of dark energy, the mass of the black hole increases and angular momentum increases in the case of a Kerr–Newman black hole.

Twofold hidden conformal symmetry of Kerr Bolt black holes

Previously we have shown that a four-dimensional Kerr—Bolt black hole in non-extremal and also in extremal cases could be described by a holographic two-dimensional (2D) conformal field theory (CFT) [Ghezelbash A M, Kamali V and Setare M R 2010 Phys. Rev. D 82 124051; Setare M R and Kamali V 2010 JHEP 10 074]. Motivated by recent work [Chen C M, Huang Y M, Sun J R, Wu M F and Zou S J 2010 Phys. Rev. D 82 066004], we show that there is another holographic description for these black holes. The first description is called the J-picture, whose construction is based on the black hole angular momentum. The new description is called the Q-picture, whose constructions originate from the nut charge of the black hole. Similar to the previous cases [Ghezelbash A M, Kamali V and Setare M R 2010 Phys. Rev. D 82 124051; Setare M R and Kamali V 2010 JHEP 10 074], we show that this new picture for a low frequency limit of the wave equation of a massless charged scalar field in the background of a Kerr—Bolt black hole can be written as the Casimir of SL(2, R) symmetry. Our result shows that the entropy of the black hole is reproduced by the Cardy formula. In addition, the absorption cross section is consistent with the finite temperature absorption cross section for a two-dimensional CFT.