Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld Theory Of Gravity Research Articles

Shadows and photon rings of regular black holes and geonic horizonless compact objects

Abstract The optical appearance of a body compact enough to feature an unstable bound orbit, when surrounded by an accretion disk, is expected to be dominated by a luminous ring of radiation enclosing a central brightness depression typically known as the shadow. Despite observational limitations, the rough details of this picture have been now confirmed by the results of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration on the imaging of the M87 and Milky Way supermassive central objects. However, the precise characterization of both features—ring and shadow—depends on the interaction between the background geometry and the accretion disk, thus being a fertile playground to test our theories on the nature of compact objects and the gravitational field itself in the strong-field regime. In this work we use both features in order to test a continuous family of solutions interpolating between regular black holes and horizonless compact objects, which arise within the Eddington-inspired Born–Infeld theory of gravity, a viable extension of Einstein’s general relativity (GR). To this end we consider seven distinctive classes of such configurations (five black holes and two traversable wormholes) and study their optical appearances under illumination by a geometrically and optically thin accretion disk, emitting monochromatically with three analytic intensity profiles previously suggested in the literature. We build such images and consider the sub-ring structure created by light rays crossing the disk more than once and existing on top of the main ring of radiation. We discuss in detail the modifications as compared to their GR counterparts, the Lyapunov exponents of unstable nearly-bound orbits, as well as the differences between black hole and traversable wormholes for the three intensity profiles. In addition we use the claim by the EHT Collaboration on the radius of the bright ring acting (under proper calibrations) as a proxy for the radius of the shadow itself to explore the parameter space of our solutions compatible with such a result.

2.6 M⊙ compact object and neutron stars in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity

In the context of whether a massive compact object recently observed in the GW190814 event is a neutron star (NS) or not, we have studied the role of the parameters $\kappa$ and $\Lambda_c$ of the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) gravity theory on the NS mass-radius relation, moment of inertia, and tidal deformability. The results are compared to recent observation constraints extracted from the analysis of NS observation data. The NS core equation of state (EoS) is calculated using the relativistic mean-field model with the G3 parameter set. In the hyperon sector, the SU(3) and hyperon potential depths are used to determine the hyperon coupling constants. For the inner and outer crusts, we use the crust EoS from Miyatsu et al. (2013). We also maintain the sound speed to not exceed $c$/$\sqrt{3}$ at high densities. We have found that, in general, the NS mass significantly depends on the value of $\kappa$, and the radius $R$ is sensitive to the value of $\Lambda_c$. Moreover, as $\Lambda_c$ is equal to zero or less than the accepted bound of the cosmological constant, the NS within the EiBI theory is compatible with observation constraints, including $2.0 M_\odot$ mass, canonical radius $R_{1.4 M_{\odot}}$, moment of inertia, and tidal deformation. Our investigation also reveals that the $2.6 M_\odot$ mass compact object and current observational constraint of canonical radius $R_{1.4 M_{\odot}}$ can simultaneously be satisfied only when the $\Lambda_c$ value is unphysically too large and negative. Therefore, within the spesific EoS employed in this work, we conclude that the secondary object with $2.6 M_\odot$ observed in the GW190814 event is not likely a static (or a slow-rotating) NS within the EiBI gravity theory.

Gravitational collapse in ( 2+1 )-dimensional Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity

We study here the gravitational collapse of dust in $(2+1)$-dimensional spacetimes for the formation of black holes (BH) and naked singularities (NS) as final states in a modified theory of gravity, with vanishing cosmological constant. From the perspective of cosmic censorship, we investigate the collapse of a dust cloud in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity (EiBI) and compare the results with those of general relativity (GR). It turns out that, as opposed to the general relativistic situation, where the outcome of dust collapse in $(2+1)$ dimensions is always a naked singularity, the EiBI theory has a certain range of parameter values that avoid the naked singularity. This indicates that a $(3+1)$-dimensional generalization of these results could be useful and worth examining. Finally, using the results here, we show that the singularity avoidance through homogeneous bounce in cosmology in this modified gravity is not stable.

Gravitational field of global monopole within the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity

Within the framework of the recent Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) theory we study gravitational field around an SO(3) global monopole. The solution also suffers from the deficit solid angle as in the Barriola-Vilenkin metric but shows a distinct feature that cannot be transformed away unless in the vanishing EiBI coupling constant, kappa . When seen as a black hole eating up a global monopole, the corresponding Schwarzschild horizon is shrunk by kappa . The deficit solid angle makes the space is globally not Euclidean, and to first order in kappa (weak-field limit) the deflection angle of light is smaller than its Barriola-Vilenkin counterpart.

Hyperons in neutron stars within an Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity

We investigate the mass-radius relation of neutron star (NS) with hyperons inside its core by using the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) theory of gravity. The equation of state of the star is calculated by using the relativistic mean field model under which the standard SU(6) prescription and hyperons potential depths are used to determine the hyperon coupling constants. We found that, for $4\times 10^{6}~\rm{m^2}~\lesssim~\kappa \lesssim~6\times 10^{6}~\rm{m^2}$, the corresponding NS mass and radius predicted by the EiBI theory of gravity is compatible with observational constraints of maximum NS mass and radius. The corresponding $\kappa$ value is also compatible with the $\kappa$ range predicted by the astrophysical-cosmological constraints. We also found that the parameter $\kappa$ could control the size and the compactness of a neutron star.

Geonic black holes and remnants in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity.

We show that electrically charged solutions within the Eddington-inspired Born–Infeld theory of gravity replace the central singularity by a wormhole supported by the electric field. As a result, the total energy associated with the electric field is finite and similar to that found in the Born–Infeld electromagnetic theory. When a certain charge-to-mass ratio is satisfied, in the lowest part of the mass and charge spectrum the event horizon disappears, yielding stable remnants. We argue that quantum effects in the matter sector can lower the mass of these remnants from the Planck scale down to the TeV scale.

A fully general relativistic numerical simulation code for spherically symmetric matter

We present a fully general relativistic open-source code that can be used for simulating a system of spherically symmetric perfect fluid matter. It is based on the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner 3+1 formalism with maximal slicing and isotropic spatial coordinates. For hydrodynamic matter High Resolution Shock Capturing (HRSC) schemes with a monotonized central-difference limiter and approximated Riemann solvers are used in the Eulerian viewpoint. The accuracy and the convergence of our numerical code are verified by performing several test problems. These include a relativistic blast wave, relativistic spherical accretion of matter into a black hole, Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) stars and Oppenheimer-Snyder (OS) dust collapses. In particular, a dynamical code test is done for the OS collapse by explicitly performing numerical coordinate transformations between our coordinate 8system and the one used for the analytic solution. Finally, some TOV star solutions are presented for the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity theory.

Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity: nuclear physics constraints and the validity of the continuous fluid approximation

In this paper we investigate the classical non-relativistic limit of the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity. We show that strong bounds on the value of the only additional parameter of the theory κ, with respect to general relativity, may be obtained by requiring that gravity plays a subdominant role compared to electromagnetic interactions inside atomic nuclei. We also discuss the validity of the continuous fluid approximation used in this and other astrophysical and cosmological studies. We argue that although the continuous fluid approximation is expected to be valid in the case of sufficiently smooth density distributions, its use should eventually be validated at a quantum level.

Bouncing Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld cosmologies: An alternative to inflation?

We study the dynamics of a homogeneous and isotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe in the context of the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity. We generalize earlier results, obtained in the context of a radiation dominated universe, to account for the evolution of a universe permeated by a perfect fluid with an arbitrary equation of state parameter $w$. We show that a bounce may occur for $\kappa >0$, if $w$ is time-dependent, and we demonstrate that it is free from tensor singularities. We argue that Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld cosmologies may be a viable alternative to the inflationary paradigm as a solution to fundamental problems of the standard cosmological model.

Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity: Astrophysical and cosmological constraints

In this letter we compute stringent astrophysical and cosmological constraints on a recently proposed Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity. We find, using a generalized version of the Zel'dovich approximation, that in this theory a pressureless cold dark matter fluid has a non-zero effective sound speed. We compute the corresponding effective Jeans length and show that it is approximately equal to the fundamental length of the theory $R_*=\kappa^{1/2} G^{-1/2}$, where $\kappa$ is the only additional parameter of theory with respect to general relativity and $G$ is the gravitational constant. This scale determines the minimum size of compact objects which are held together by gravity. We also estimate the critical mass above which pressureless compact objects are unstable to colapse into a black hole, showing that it is approximately equal to the fundamental mass $M_* = \kappa^{1/2} c^2 G^{-3/2}$, and we show that the maximum density attainable inside stable compact stars is roughly equal to the fundamental density $\rho_*=\kappa^{-1} c^2$, where $c$ is the speed of light in vacuum. We find that the mere existence of astrophysical objects of size $R$ which are held together by their own gravity leads to the constraint $\kappa < G R^2$. In the case of neutron stars this implies that $\kappa < 10^{-2} \, {\rm m^5 \, kg^{-1} \, s^{-2}}$, a limit which is stronger by about 10 orders of magnitude than big bang nucleosynthesis constraints and by more than 7 orders of magnitude than solar constraints.

Tensor instability in the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity

In this paper, we consider an extension to Eddington's proposal for the gravitational action. We study tensor perturbations of a homogeneous and isotropic space-time in the Eddington regime, where modifications to Einstein gravity are strong. We find that the tensor mode is linearly unstable deep in the Eddington regime and discuss its cosmological implications.