Black Holes In General Relativity Research Articles

Precessing and periodic timelike orbits and their potential applications in Einsteinian cubic gravity

Einsteinian cubic gravity (ECG) is the most general theory up to cubic order in curvature, which has the same graviton spectrum as the Einstein theory. In this paper, we investigate the geodesic motions of timelike particles around the four dimensional asymptotically flat black holes in ECG, and discuss their potential applications when connecting them with recent observational results. We first explore the effects of the cubic couplings on the marginally bound orbits (MBO), innermost stable circular orbits (ISCO) and on the periodic orbits around the Einsteinian cubic black hole. We find that comparing to Schwarzschild black hole in general relativity, the cubic coupling enhances the energy as well as the angular momentum for all the bound orbits of the particles. Then, we derive the relativistic periastron precessions of the particles and give a preliminary bound on the cubic coupling employing the observational result of the S2 star’s pericenter precession in SgrA*. Finally, after calculating the periodic orbits’ configurations, we preliminarily evaluate the gravitational waveform radiated from several periodic orbits in one complete period of a test object which orbits a supermassive Einsteinian cubic black hole. Our studies could be helpful for us to better understand the gravitational structure of the theory with high curvatures.

Infinitely degenerate slowly rotating solutions in f(R) gravity

Abstract This work tests the no-hair conjecture in f(R) gravity models. No-hair conjecture asserts that all black holes in General Relativity coupled to any matter must be Kerr–Newman type. However, the conjecture fails in some cases with non-linear matter sources. Here, we address this by explicitly constructing multiple slow-rotating black hole solutions, up to second order in rotational parameter, for a class of f(R) models ( f(R) =(\alpha_{0} + \alpha_{1}\,R)^{p}, p > 1). Such an f(R) includes all higher-powers of R. We analytically show that multiple vacuum solutions satisfy the field equations up to the second order in the rotational parameter. In other words, we show that the multiple vacuum solutions depend on arbitrary constants, which depend on the coupling parameters of the model. Hence, our results indicate that the no-hair theorem for modified gravity theories merits extending to include the coupling constants. The uniqueness of our result stems from the fact that these are obtained directly from metric formalism without conformal transformation. We discuss the kinematical properties of these black hole solutions and compare them with slow-rotating Kerr. Specifically, we show that the circular orbits for the black holes in f(R) are smaller than that of Kerr. This implies that the inner-most stable circular orbit for black holes in f(R) is smaller than Kerr's; hence, the shadow radius might also be smaller. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for future observations.

Vanishing of nonlinear tidal Love numbers of Schwarzschild black holes

It is well known that asymptotically flat Schwarzschild black holes in general relativity in four spacetime dimensions have vanishing induced linear tidal response. We extend this result beyond linear order for the polar sector, by solving the static nonlinear Einstein equations for the perturbations of the Schwarzschild metric and computing the quadratic corrections to the electric-type tidal Love numbers. After explicitly performing the matching with the point-particle effective theory at leading order in the derivative expansion, we show that the Love number couplings remain zero at higher order in perturbation theory.

Probing black hole in Starobinsky-Bel-Robinson gravity with thermodynamical analysis, effective force and gravitational weak lensing

In this work, we investigate the effects of plasma and the coupling parameter β>0, on the thermodynamic properties and weak gravitational lensing by the Schwarzschild-like black hole in the Starobinsky-Bel-Robinson gravity (SBRG). We observe that the horizon radius and the corrected entropy of the Schwarzschild-like black hole in the SBRG are not much sensitive to the parameter β. On contrary the energy emission rate of the Schwarzschild-like black hole in the SBRG is sensitive to the parameter β and decreases with increase in the values of the parameter β. We see that the Schwarzschild-like black hoe in the SBRG is stable as the thermodynamicl temperature is positive for different values of the parameter β. Moreover we observe that the deflection angle of photon beam by the black hole in uniform plasma, nonuniform self-interacting scalar plasma and non-singular isothermal gas sphere reduces with the parameter β, against the impact parameter b. We see that the deflection angle enhances with increase in the concentration of the plasma fields for all the three types of plasma media. Further we find that the magnification of the image due to lensing increases in a higher concentration of plasma field. It is interesting to notice that the image magnification in uniform plasma is much higher as compared to the one in nonuniform plasma field. We compare our results with those for the Schwarzschild black hole of General Relativity. Further, effective force is also calculated for the Schwarzschild-like black hole in the SBRG.

Love numbers and Love symmetries for p-form and gravitational perturbations of higher-dimensional spherically symmetric black holes

The static Love numbers of four-dimensional asymptotically flat, isolated, general-relativistic black holes are known to be identically vanishing. The Love symmetry proposal suggests that such vanishings are addressed by selection rules following from the emergence of an enhanced \\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathrm{SL }\\left(2,{\\mathbb{R}}\\right)$$\\end{document} (“Love”) symmetry in the near-zone region; more specifically, it is the fact that the black hole perturbations belong to a highest-weight representation of this near-zone \\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathrm{SL }\\left(2,{\\mathbb{R}}\\right)$$\\end{document} symmetry, rather than the existence of the Love symmetry itself, that outputs the vanishings of the corresponding Love numbers. In higher spacetime dimensions, some towers of magic zeroes with regards to the black hole response problem have also been reported for scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations of the Schwarzschild-Tangherlini black hole. Here, we extend these results by supplementing with p-form perturbations of the Schwarzschild-Tangherlini black hole. We furthermore analytically extract the static Love numbers and the leading order dissipation numbers associated with spin-0 scalar and spin-2 tensor-type tidal perturbations of the higher-dimensional Reissner-Nordström black hole. We find that Love symmetries exist and that the vanishings of the static Love numbers are captured by representation theory arguments even for these higher spin perturbations of the higher-dimensional spherically symmetric black holes of General Relativity. Interestingly, these near-zone \\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathrm{SL }\\left(2,{\\mathbb{R}}\\right)$$\\end{document} structures acquire extensions to Witt algebras. Our setup allows to also study the p-form response problem of a static spherically symmetric black hole in a generic theory of gravity. We perform explicit computations for some black holes in the presence of string-theoretic corrections and investigate under what geometric conditions Love symmetries emerge in the near-zone.

Shadow of novel rotating black hole in GR coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics and constraints from EHT results

We study the optical properties of spacetime around a novel black hole in general relativity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics, which is asymptotically flat. First, we study the angular velocity and Lyapunov exponent in unstable photon circular orbits in the novel spherically symmetric black hole spacetime. Later, we obtain the rotating black hole solution using the Newman–Janis algorithm and determine the event horizon properties of the black hole. We analyze the effective potential for the circular motion of photons in the spacetime of the novel rotating black hole. Also, we analyze the photon sphere around the novel black hole and its shadow using celestial coordinates. We obtain that an increase of the black hole spin and charge as well as nonlinear electrodynamics field nonlinearity parameters causes an increase in the distortion parameter of the black hole shadow, while, the area of the shadow and its oblateness decrease. Moreover, we also obtain the constraint values for the black hole charge and the nonlinearity parameters using Event Horizon Telescope data from shadow sizes of supermassive black holes Sgr A* and M87*. Finally, the emission rate of black hole evaporation through Hawking radiation is also studied.

Bifurcation diagrams for spacetime singularities and black holes

We reexamine the focusing effect crucial to the theorems that predict the emergence of spacetime singularities and various results in the general theory of black holes in general relativity. Our investigation incorporates the fully nonlinear and dispersive nature of the underlying equations. We introduce and thoroughly explore the concept of versal unfolding (topological normal form) within the framework of the Newman–Penrose–Raychaudhuri system, the convergence-vorticity equations (notably the first and third Sachs optical equations), and the Oppenheimer–Snyder equation governing exactly spherical collapse. The findings lead to a novel dynamical depiction of spacetime singularities and black holes, exposing their continuous transformations into new topological configurations guided by the bifurcation diagrams associated with these problems.

Gravitational lensing effects of black hole with conformally coupled scalar hair

In this paper, we investigate the gravitational lensing effects in the weak and strong field limits of a static black hole with conformally coupled scalar field. In the weak field limit, with the use of Gauss–Bonnet theorem we calculate the deflection angle of the light. It is found that comparing to Schwarzschild and Reissner–Nordstro¨\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\ddot{\ ext {o}}$$\\end{document}m (RN) black holes in general relativity, the weak deflection angle can be enhanced/suppressed by the scalar hair. In the strong field limit, we first compute the light deflection angle via calculating the lensing coefficients, all of which increase as the values of electric and scalar charges increase. Then we evaluate the lensing observables in strong field regime by supposing the hairy black hole as the candidate of M87* and SgrA* supermassive black holes, respectively. We find that the scalar hair has significant influences on various observables. In particular, the lensing observables of the charged black hole with positive scalar hair and RN black hole have degeneracy, which will be broken by the case with negative scalar hair. Our theoretical findings imply that it is feasible to employ the gravitational lensing effects as a probe of Einstein–Maxwell theory with negative scalar field differentiating from general relativity, once the future astrophysical observation is precise enough.

Dynamics and kinetics of phase transition for regular AdS black holes in general relativity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics

We study the stochastic dynamics and kinetics of the phase transition of the regular black holes in Anti-de Sitter spacetime by employing the free energy landscape. Our investigation focuses on two important classes of regular black hole solutions, namely the Hayward and Bardeen, which can be obtained from coupling of non-linear electrodynamics. The dynamics of the phase transition is described by the Fokker–Planck equation, using which, we investigate the probabilistic evolution of regular AdS black holes. We solve this equation numerically by imposing both reflecting and absorbing boundary conditions and appropriate initial conditions. In this context, the on-shell Gibbs free energy is treated as a function of the event horizon radius, where the difference of the event horizon radii in different phases serves as the order parameter for the phase transition. The study allows us to probe the dynamic process of transitioning between coexisting small and large black hole phases due to thermal fluctuations, as quantified by the calculation of the first passage time. Furthermore, we explore the influence of temperature on this dynamic process. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the microstructures of regular AdS black holes.

Toward General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics Simulations in Stationary Nonvacuum Spacetimes

Accretion of magnetized gas on compact astrophysical objects such as black holes (BHs) has been successfully modeled using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations. These simulations have largely been performed in the Kerr metric, which describes the spacetime of a vacuum and stationary spinning BH in general relativity (GR). The simulations have revealed important clues to the physics of accretion flows and jets near the BH event horizon and have been used to interpret recent Event Horizon Telescope images of the supermassive BHs M87* and Sgr A*. The GRMHD simulations require the spacetime metric to be given in horizon-penetrating coordinates such that all metric coefficients are regular at the event horizon. Only a few metrics, notably the Kerr metric and its electrically charged spinning analog, the Kerr–Newman metric, are currently available in such coordinates. We report here horizon-penetrating forms of a large class of stationary, axisymmetric, spinning metrics. These can be used to carry out GRMHD simulations of accretion on spinning, nonvacuum BHs and non-BHs within GR, as well as accretion on spinning objects described by non-GR metric theories of gravity.

Effects of gravitational lensing by Kaluza-Klein black holes on neutrino oscillations

We study gravitational lensing of neutrinos in a Kaluza-Klein black hole spacetime and compare the oscillation probabilities of neutrinos with the case of lensing by black holes in General Relativity. We show that measuring neutrino oscillations in curved spacetimes may allow us to distinguish the two kinds of black holes even in the weak-field limit, as opposed to what happens for the weak lensing of photons. This promises to become an useful tool for future measurements of the properties of black hole candidates and possibly help to constrain the validity of alternative theories of gravity.

Spectral method for the gravitational perturbations of black holes: Schwarzschild background case

We develop a novel technique through spectral decompositions to study the gravitational perturbations of a black hole, without needing to decouple the linearized field equations into master equations and separate their radial and angular dependence. We first spectrally decompose the metric perturbation in a Legendre and Chebyshev basis for the angular and radial sectors respectively, using input from the asymptotic behavior of the perturbation at spatial infinity and at the black hole event horizon. This spectral decomposition allows us to then transform the linearized Einstein equations (a coupled set of partial differential equations) into a linear matrix equation. By solving the linear matrix equation for its generalized eigenvalues, we can estimate the complex quasinormal frequencies of the fundamental mode and various overtones of the gravitational perturbations simultaneously and to high accuracy. We apply this technique to perturbations of a nonspinning, Schwarzschild black hole in general relativity and find the complex quasinormal frequencies of two fundamental modes and their first two overtones. We demonstrate that the technique is robust and accurate, in the Schwarzschild case leading to relative fractional errors of $\leq 10^{-10} - 10^{-8}$ for the fundamental modes, $\leq 10^{-7} - 10^{-6}$ for their first overtones, $\leq 10^{-7} - 10^{-4}$ for their second overtones. This method can be applied to any black hole spacetime, irrespective of its Petrov type, making the numerical technique extremely powerful in the study of black hole ringdown in and outside general relativity.

Black hole photon rings beyond general relativity

We investigate whether photon ring observations in black hole imaging are able to distinguish between the Kerr black hole in general relativity and alternative black holes that deviate from Kerr. Certain aspects of photon rings have been argued to be robust observables in very-long-baseline interferometry black hole observations which carry imprints of the underlying spacetime. The photon ring shape, as well as its Lyapunov exponent (which encodes the narrowing of successive photon subrings), are detailed probes of the underlying geometry; measurements thereof have been argued to provide a strong null test of general relativity and the Kerr metric. However, a more complicated question is whether such observations of the photon ring properties can distinguish between Kerr and alternative black holes. We provide a first answer to this question by calculating photon rings of the Johannsen, Rasheed-Larsen, and Manko-Novikov black holes. We find that large deviations from Kerr and large observer inclinations are needed to obtain measurable differences in the photon ring shape. In other words, the Kerr photon ring shape appears to be the universal shape even for deviating black holes at low inclinations. On the other hand, the Lyapunov exponent shows more marked variations for deviations from the Kerr metric. Our analysis lays out the groundwork to determine deviations from the Kerr spacetime in photon rings that are potentially detectable by future observing missions.

Vanishing Love numbers of black holes in general relativity: From spacetime conformal symmetry of a two-dimensional reduced geometry

We study the underlying structure of the vanishing of the Love numbers of both Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes in terms of spacetime conformal symmetry in a unified manner for the static spin-$s$ fields. The perturbations can be reduced with the harmonic decomposition to a set of infinite static scalar fields in a two-dimensional anti--de Sitter spacetime $({\text{AdS}}_{2})$. In the reduced system, each scalar field is paired with another, implying that all multipole modes of the perturbation can be regarded as symmetric partners, which can be understood from the property of the supersymmetry algebra. The generator of the supersymmetric structure is constructed from a closed conformal Killing vector field of ${\text{AdS}}_{2}$. The associated conserved quantity allows one to show no static response, i.e., vanishing of the Love and dissipation numbers. We also discuss the vanishing Love numbers of the Kerr black hole with the nonzero dissipation numbers for the nonaxisymmetric perturbations in terms of a radial constant found in a parallel manner as the axisymmetric field case even though the interpretation for the structure is controversial. The symmetric structure corresponds to the ``ladder'' symmetry in [Hui et al., J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 01 (2022) 032] although the geometrical origin is different. Our ladder operator includes the generators of hidden symmetries in previous works.

Corrigendum to “Stable black holes: In vacuum and beyond”

This note is a corrigendum to the paper by Elena Giorgi [Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 60 (2023), no. 1, 1–27] pointing out a misrepresentaton of the “Collapse conjecture”, which was proved by Christodoulou [The formation of black holes in general relativity, EMS Monographs in Mathematics, European Mathematical Society (EMS), Zürich, 2009].

Self-interacting gravitational atoms in the strong-gravity regime

We numerically investigate free and self-interacting ultralight scalar fields around black holes in General Relativity. We focus on complex scalar fields Φ whose self-interactions are described by the quartic potential V ∝ λ |Φ|4, and ignore the black hole spin in order to disentangle the effects of self interactions on the boson cloud. Using the spectral solver Kadath, we compute quasi-equilibrium configurations of the dominant eigenstates, including their backreaction on the spacetime metric. For scenarios with -10-2 ≲ λ ≲ 10-2 we find the mass of the self-interacting scalar cloud to be up to ∼ 70% larger than that of a free scalar cloud, though the additional backreaction effect on the spacetime metric is only up to ∼ 1% due to the low-density nature of the bosonic configurations. In this region of parameter space we observe approximate quadratic scalings between the mass of the cloud with λ, the scalar field amplitude, and the couplings between these two parameters. For systems with λ beyond this range, the eigenfrequencies differ sufficiently from the known free-test-field values used as inputs in our numerical setupto make the results, though convergent, physically unreliable.This bounds the range of λ in which the free scalar field solution remains a good approximation to self-interacting scalar field configurations. Our work is among the first nonperturbative explorations of self-interacting bosonic clouds around black holes, yielding detailed new insights into such systems in the nonlinear regime, while also overcoming technical challenges and quantifying limitations. Additionally, our results provide useful inputsfor fully dynamical numerical relativity simulations and for future explorations of spinning black holes and real scalar fields.

Extreme gravitational interactions in the problem of three black holes in general relativity

We study the three-body problem going from Newtonian mechanics to general relativity. In the classical case, we model the interactions in a typical chaotic configuration, identifying extreme gravitational interactions (EGIs), namely transients in which the system manifests complex, highly-energetic dynamics. We then concentrate on the main part of the work, by selecting these EGIs as initial data for the general relativistic case, and performing a campaign of numerical relativity simulations. To provide a comprehensive menu of cases, we investigate different global configurations. By comparing with the more ‘quiet’ two-body inspiral, we observe strong nonlinear emission of gravitational waves. The multi-body signals have been inspected by employing both Fourier and wavelet analyses, showing net differences among the global configurations. The wavelet analysis reveals the reminiscence of the EGIs in the three black holes problem. Such a survey of simulations might be a guide for future observations.

Joule‐Thomson Expansion and Optical Behaviour of Reissner‐Nordström‐Anti‐de Sitter Black Holes in Rastall Gravity Surrounded by a Quintessence Field

AbstractThis paper deals with the thermodynamics, Joule‐Thomson expansion and optical behaviour of a Reissner‐Nordström‐anti‐de Sitter black hole in Rastall gravity surrounded by a quintessence field. The black hole solution obtained in this framework is different from a corresponding black hole in General Relativity. The black hole metric function, as well as the Hawking temperature, is affected by the presence of energy‐momentum conservation violation. The presence of energy‐momentum conservation violation also affects the isenthalpic and inversion temperature curves, and with an increase in the Rastall parameter, the inversion temperature rises slowly. The impacts of other parameters, such as charge, structural constant etc., are investigated and compared. The black hole shadow, as well as the energy emission rate of the black hole, decreases with an increase in the Rastall parameter. Hence, the black holes evaporate slowly in presence of energy‐momentum conservation violation.

Determining parameters of a spherical black hole with a thin accretion disk by observing its shadow

We revisit the classic system of a spherically symmetric black hole in general relativity (i.e., a Schwarzschild black hole) surrounded by a geometrically thin accretion disk. Our purpose is to examine whether one can determine three parameters of this system (i.e., black hole mass $M$, distance between the black hole and an observer $r_o$, inclination angle $i$) solely by observing the accretion disk and the black hole shadow. A point in our analysis is to allow $r_o$ to be finite, which is set to be infinite in most relevant studies. First, it is shown that one can determine the values of $(r_o/M, i)$, where $M/r_o$ is the so-called angular gravitational radius, from the size and shape of shadow. Then, it is shown that if one additionally knows the accretion rate $\dot{M}$ (respectively, mass $M$) by any independent theoretical or observational approach, one can determine the values of $(M, r_o, i)$ [respectively, $(\dot{M}, r_o, i)$] without degeneracy, in principle, from the value of flux at any point on the accretion disk.

Echoes from backreacting exotic compact objects

The possible detection of echoes in late gravitational-wave signals is the most promising way to test horizonless alternatives to general relativistic black holes, and probe the physics of these hypothetical ultra-compact objects. While there is currently no evidence for the presence of such signatures, better accuracy is expected with the growing wealth of data from gravitational waves observatories. So far, several searches for these specific signals have been performed considering equidistant intervals between consecutive echoes, i.e. quasi-periodic wave-forms, and ignoring possible backreaction effects of the incoming waves. Here we study scalar perturbations in exotic compact object scenarios that account for possible backreaction phenomena. In particular, we find that if one considers the increase of the central object mass due to the partial absorption of the energy carried by the perturbation, the echo signal can be quite different and non-periodic. Apart from this simple scenario, we also consider the case in which, in order to preserve its compactness above the black hole limit, the compact object absorption shuts down in a finite amount of time or leads to an expansion. In both these cases we find interesting new features that should be taken into account in future searches.