Extreme Kerr Black Hole Research Articles

Kerr–de Sitter and Kerr–anti–de Sitter black holes as accelerators for spinning particles

It is shown that the Kerr black hole could act as accelerators for spinning particles. In principle, it could obtain arbitrarily high energy for extremal Kerr black hole. In this paper, we extend the previous research to the Kerr-(anti-)de Sitter background and find that the cosmological constant plays an important role in the result. For the case of Kerr-anti-de Sitter black holes, like the Kerr background, only the extremal Kerr-anti-de Sitter black holes can have a divergent center-of-mass energy of collision. While, for the case of Kerr-de Sitter black holes, the collision of two spinning particles can take place on the outer horizon of the black holes and the center-of-mass energy of collision can blow up if one of the collision particle takes the critical angular momentum. Hence, non-extremal Kerr-de Sitter black holes could also act as accelerators with arbitrarily high center-of-mass energy for spinning particles.

Cosmic string and black hole limits of toroidal Vlasov bodies in general relativity

We numerically investigate limits of a two-parameter family of stationary solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov system. The solutions are toroidal and have non-vanishing angular momentum. As one tunes to more relativistic solutions (measured for example by an increasing redshift) there exists a sequence of solutions which approaches the extreme Kerr black hole family. Solutions with angular momentum larger than the square of the mass are also investigated, and in the relativistic limit the near-field geometry of such solutions is observed to become conical in the sense that there is a deficit angle. Such solutions may provide self-consistent models for rotating circular cosmic strings.

Particle acceleration of two general particles in the background of rotating Ayón-Beato-García black holes

The rotating Ay\'{o}n-Beato-Garc\'{i}a (ABG) black holes, apart from mass ($M$) and rotation parameter ($a$), has an additional charge $Q$ and encompassed the Kerr black hole as particular case when $Q=0$. We demonstrate the ergoregions of rotating ABG black holes depend on both rotation parameter $a$ and charge $Q$, and the area of the ergoregions increases with increase in the values of $Q$, when compared with the Kerr black hole and the extremal regular black hole changes with the value of $Q$. Ban{\~a}dos, Silk and West (BSW) demonstrated that an extremal Kerr black hole can act as a particle accelerator with arbitrarily high center-of-mass energy ($E_{CM}$) when the collision takes place at any point in the ergoregion and thus in turn provides a suitable framework for Plank-scale physics. We study the collision of two general particles with different masses falling freely from rest in the equatorial plane of a rotating ABG black hole near the event horizon and find that the $E_{CM}$ of two colliding particles is arbitrarily high when one of the particles take a critical value of angular momentum in the extremal case, whereas for nonextremal case $E_{CM}$ for a pair of colliding particles is generically divergent at the inner horizon, and explicitly studying the effect of charge $Q$ on the $E_{CM}$ for ABG black hole. In particular, our results in the limit $Q\rightarrow 0$ reduce exactly to \emph{vis-$\grave{a}$-vis} those of the Kerr black hole.

Bubbling the NHEK

We build the first family of smooth bubbling microstate geometries that are asymptotic to the near-horizon region of extremal five-dimensional Kerr black holes (NHEK). These black holes arise as extremal non-supersymmetric highly-rotating D1-D5- P solutions in type IIB string theory on T4×S1. Our solutions are asymptotically NHEK in the UV and end in the IR with a smooth cap. In the context of the Kerr/CFT correspondence, these bubbling geometries are dual to pure states of the 1+1 dimensional chiral conformal field theory dual to NHEK. Since our solutions have a bubbling structure in the IR, they correspond to an IR phase of broken conformal symmetry, and their existence supports the possibility that all the pure states whose counting gives the Kerr black hole entropy correspond to horizonless bulk configurations.

Near Horizon Extreme Kerr Geometry

The conjectured Kerr/CFT correspondence states that the quantum theory of gravity in the near horizon of the Near Horizon Extreme Kerr (NHEK) black holes, is holographic dual to a two-dimensional chiral conformal field theory. To obtain NHEK geometry, we take the extreme limit a = M of the Kerr metric and continue by transforming the coordinates. Consequently, we can obtain the new Ernst potentials for that geometry by using the same coordinates transformation. Finally, we can find the central charge as a function of the Papapetrou-Ernst potentials from stretched horizon formalism.

Extreme binary black holes in a physical representation

Stationary axisymmetric binary systems of unequal co and counter-rotating extreme Kerr black holes apart by a conical singularity are studied. Both solutions are well identified as two $3$-parametric subfamilies of the Kinnersley-Chitre metric, and fully depicted by Komar parameters: the two masses $M_{1}$ and $M_{2}$, and a coordinate distance $R$, where the angular momenta $J_{1}$ and $J_{2}$ are functions of these parameters. Our physical representation allows us to identify some limits and novel physical properties.

Maximal efficiency of the collisional Penrose process with spinning particles

We analyze collisional Penrose process of spinning test particles in an extreme Kerr black hole. We consider that two particles plunge into the black hole from infinity and collide near the black hole. For the collision of two massive particles, if the spins of particles are $s_1 \approx 0.01379\mu M$ and $s_2 \approx -0.2709\mu M$, we obtain the maximal efficiency is about $\eta_{max} = (\text{extracted energy})=(\text{input energy}) \approx 15.01$, which is more than twice as large as the case of the collision of non-spinning particles ($\eta_{max} \approx 6.32$). We also evaluate the collision of a massless particle without spin and a massive particle with spin (Compton scattering), in which we find the maximal efficiency is $\eta_{max} \approx 26.85$ when $s_2 \approx -0.2709\mu M$, which should be compared with $\eta_{max} \approx 13.93$ for the nonspinning case.

CFT duals on extremal rotating NUT black holes

We investigate the Kerr–Newman–NUT black hole solution obtained from Plebański–Demiański solutions with several assumptions. The origin of the microscopic entropy of this black hole is investigated using the conjectured Kerr/CFT correspondence which is originally proposed for extremal Kerr black holes. The isometry of the near-horizon extremal Kerr–Newman–NUT black hole shows that the asymptotic symmetry group may be implemented to compute the central charge of the Virasoro algebra. Furthermore, by assuming the Frolov–Thorne vacuum, the conformal temperatures can be obtained. Then by using the Cardy formula, the microscopic entropy is gained which matches the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy. We also employ the Cardy prescription to find the logarithmic correction of the entropy. Then at limit [Formula: see text], the extremal Reissner–Nordström–NUT solution is recovered and by enhancing with the fibered coordinate we find the five-dimensional (5D) solution. The second dual CFT is applied to this black hole to gain the entropy. Finally, the microscopic entropy is still in agreement with the area law of 5D black hole solution. Hence, the extremal Reissner–Nordström–NUT solution is holographically dual to the CFT.

Extreme Kerr black hole microstates with horizon fluff

We present a one-function family of solutions to 4D vacuum Einstein equations. While all diffeomorphic to the same extremal Kerr black hole, they are labeled by well-defined conserved charges and are hence distinct geometries. We show that this family of solutions forms a phase space the symplectic structure of which is invariant under a $U(1)$ Kac-Moody algebra generated by currents $\mathbb{J}_n$ and Virasoro generators $\mathbb{L}_n$ with central charge six times angular momentum of the black hole. This symmetry algebra is well-defined everywhere in the spacetime, near the horizon or in the asymptotic flat region. Out of the appropriate combination of $\mathbb{J}_n$ charges, we construct another Virasoro algebra at the same central charge. Requiring that these two Virasoro algebras should describe the same system leads us to a proposal for identifying extreme Kerr black hole microstates, dubbed as extreme Kerr fluff. Counting these microstates, we not only correctly reproduce the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of extreme Kerr black hole, but also its expected logarithmic corrections.

Hidden conformal symmetry for the accelerating Kerr black holes

According to the Kerr/CFT correspondence, some aspects of extremal and non-extremal Kerr black holes could be explained by using a 2D CFT. This paper is devoted to show how Kerr/CFT correspondence can work for the slowly accelerating Kerr black holes, in both extremal and non-extremal cases. The equation of motion for low frequency scalar probes in the near region possesses the ‘hidden’ conformal symmetry, similar to that of the non-accelerating version. Assuming a particular value of associated central charge, Cardy formula in 2D CFT can recover the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy for the black hole under consideration. Moreover, agreements in the scattering process between gravitational and 2D CFT dual suggest the existence of slowly accelerating Kerr/CFT duality.

The Growth of Stellar Mass Black Hole Binaries Trapped in the Accretion Disks of Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract Among the four black hole (BH) binary merger events detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), six progenitor BHs have masses greater than 20 M ⊙. The existence of such massive BHs suggests that extreme metal-poor stars are the progenitors. An alternative possibility, that a pair of stellar mass BHs each with mass ∼7 M ⊙ increases to >20 M ⊙ via accretion from a disk surrounding a supermassive BH (SMBH) in an active galactic nucleus (AGN), is considered. The growth of mass of the binary and the transfer of orbital angular momentum to the disk accelerates the merger. Based on the recent numerical work of Tang et al., it is found that, in the disk of a low-mass AGN with mass ∼106 M ⊙ and Eddington ratio >0.01, the mass of an individual BH in the binary can grow to >20 M ⊙ before coalescence, provided that accretion takes place at a rate more than 10 times the Eddington value. This mechanism predicts a new class of gravitational wave (GW) sources involving the merger of two extreme Kerr black holes associated with AGNs and a possible electromagnetic wave counterpart.

Gravitational waves from plunges into Gargantua

We analytically compute time domain gravitational waveforms produced in the final stages of extreme mass ratio inspirals of non-spinning compact objects into supermassive nearly extremal Kerr black holes. Conformal symmetry relates all corotating equatorial orbits in the geodesic approximation to circular orbits through complex conformal transformations. We use this to obtain the time domain Teukolsky perturbations for generic equatorial corotating plunges in closed form. The resulting gravitational waveforms consist of an intermediate polynomial ringdown phase in which the decay rate depends on the impact parameters, followed by an exponential quasi-normal mode decay. The waveform amplitude exhibits critical behavior when the orbital angular momentum tends to a minimal value determined by the innermost stable circular orbit. We show that either near-critical or large angular momentum leads to a significant extension of the LISA observable volume of gravitational wave sources of this kind.

Can the relativistic light-bending model explain X-ray spectral variations of Seyfert galaxies?

Abstract Many Seyfert galaxies are known to exhibit Fe-K broad emission line features in their X-ray energy spectra. The observed lines have three distinct features: (1) the line profiles are skewed and show significant low-energy tails, (2) the Fe-K band has low variability, which produces a broad and deep dip in the root-mean-square (rms) spectra, and (3) photons in this band have time lags behind those in the adjacent energy bands with amplitudes of several Rg/c, where Rg is the gravitational radius. The “relativistic light-bending model” is proposed to explain these observed features, where a compact X-ray source (“lamp post”) above an extreme Kerr black hole illuminates the innermost area of the accretion disc. In this paper, we critically examine the relativistic light-bending model by computing the rms spectra and the lag features using a ray-tracing technique, when a lamp post moves vertically on the black hole spin axis. As a result, we found that the observed deep rms dip requires that the iron is extremely overabundant (≳10 solar), whereas the observed lag amplitude is consistent with the normal iron abundance. Furthermore, disappearance of the lag in the high-flux state requires a source height as high as ∼40 Rg, which contradicts the relativistically broad emission line feature. Our simulations agree with the data that the reverberation feature moves to lower frequencies with larger source height; however, if this scenario is correct, the simulations predict the detection of a clear Fe-K lag at low frequencies, which is not constrained in the data. Therefore, we conclude that the relativistic light-bending model may not explain the characteristic Fe-K spectral variations in Seyfert galaxies.

Energy extraction of a spinning particle via the super Penrose process from an extremal Kerr black hole

Energy extraction of a spinning particle via the super Penrose process from an extremal Kerr black hole

Critical exponents of extremal Kerr perturbations

We show that scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational perturbations of extremal Kerr black holes are asymptotically self-similar under the near-horizon, late-time scaling symmetry of the background metric. This accounts for the Aretakis instability (growth of transverse derivatives) as a critical phenomenon associated with the emergent symmetry. We compute the critical exponent of each mode, which is equivalent to its decay rate. It follows from symmetry arguments that, despite the growth of transverse derivatives, all generally covariant scalar quantities decay to zero.

Can test fields destroy the event horizon in the Kerr–Taub–NUT spacetime?

In this work we investigate if the interaction of the Kerr–Taub–NUT spacetime with test scalar and neutrino fields can lead to the destruction of the event horizon. It turns out that both extremal and nearly extremal black holes can be destroyed by scalar and neutrino fields if the initial angular momentum of the spacetime is sufficiently large relative to its mass and NUT charge. This is the first example in which a classical field satisfying the null energy condition can actually destroy an extremal black hole. For scalar fields, the modes that can lead to the destruction of the horizon are restricted to a narrow range due to superradiance. Since superradiance does not occur for neutrino fields, the destruction of the horizon by neutrino fields is generic, and it cannot be fixed by backreaction effects. We also show that the extremal black holes that can be destroyed by scalar fields correspond to naked singularities in the Kerr limit, in accord with the previous results which imply that extremal Kerr black holes cannot be destroyed by scalar test fields.

Kerr-Sen black hole as accelerator for spinning particles

It has been proved that arbitrarily high-energy collision between two particles can occur near the horizon of an extremal Kerr black hole as long as the energy $E$ and angular momentum $L$ of one particle satisfies a critical relation, which is called the BSW mechanism. Previous researchers mainly concentrate on geodesic motion of particles. In this paper, we will take spinning particle which won't move along a timelike geodesic into our consideration, hence, another parameter $s$ describing the particle's spin angular momentum was introduced. By employing the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon equation describing the movement of spinning particle, we will explore whether a Kerr-Sen black hole which is slightly different from Kerr black hole can be used to accelerate a spinning particle to arbitrarily high energy. We found that when one of the two colliding particles satisfies a critical relation between the energy $E$ and the total angular momentum $J$, or has a critical spinning angular momentum $s_c$, a divergence of the center-of-mass energy $E_{cm}$ will be obtained.

Linear Waves in the Interior of Extremal Black Holes II

We consider solutions to the linear wave equation in the interior region of extremal Kerr black holes. We show that axisymmetric solutions can be extended continuously beyond the Cauchy horizon and, moreover, that if we assume suitably fast polynomial decay in time along the event horizon, their local energy is finite. We also extend these results to non-axisymmetric solutions on slowly rotating extremal Kerr–Newman black holes. These results are the analogues of results obtained in Gajic (Commun Math Phys 353(2), 717–770, 2017) for extremal Reissner–Nordström and stand in stark contrast to previously established results for the subextremal case, where the local energy was shown to generically blow up at the Cauchy horizon.

The power of the jets accelerated by the coronal magnetic field

It was suggested that the large scale magnetic field can be dragged inwards efficiently by the corona above the disc, i.e., the so called "coronal mechanism" (Beckwith, Hawley, \& Krolik 2009), which provides a way to solve the difficulty of field advection in a geometrically thin accretion disc. In this case, the magnetic pressure should be lower than the gas pressure in the corona. We estimate the maximal power of the jets accelerated by the magnetic field advected by the corona. The Blandford-Payne (BP) jet power is found always to be higher than the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) jet power, except for a rapidly spinning black hole with a>0.8. The maximal jet power is always low, less than 0.05 Eddington luminosity, even for an extreme Kerr black hole, which is insufficient for the observed strong jets in some blazars with jet power $\sim 0.1-1$ Eddington luminosity (or even higher). It implies that these powerful jets cannot be accelerated by the coronal field. We suggest that, the magnetic field dragged inward by the accretion disc with magnetically outflows may accelerate the jets (at least for the most powerful jets, if not all) in the blazars.

Synchronous frequencies of extremal Kerr black holes: Resonances, scattering, and stability

The characteristic damping times of the natural oscillations of a Kerr black hole become arbitrarily large as the extremal limit is approached. This behavior is associated with the so-called zero damped modes (ZDMs), and suggests that extremal black holes are characterized by quasinormal modes whose frequencies are purely real. Since these frequencies correspond to oscillations whose angular phase velocity matches the horizon angular velocity of the black hole, they are sometimes called "synchronous frequencies". Several authors have studied the ZDMs for near-extremal black holes. Recently, their correspondence to branch points of the Green's function of the wave equation was linked to the Aretakis instability of extremal black holes. Here we investigate the existence of ZDMs for extremal black holes, showing that these real-axis resonances of the field are unphysical as natural black hole oscillations: the corresponding frequency is always associated with a scattering mode. By analyzing the behavior of these modes near the event horizon we obtain new insight into the transition to extremality, including a simple way to understand the Aretakis instability.