Kerr Black Hole Of Mass Research Articles

Extreme mass-ratio inspiral around the horizonless massive object

In this paper, we calculated the extreme mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI) waveform radiated from a binary composed of a massive horizonless object (MHO) and a compact object (CO), where CO is spiraling on a circular equatorial orbit around the MHO. Due to the absent of horizon, there exist the ingoing and outgoing waves near the reflective surface of MHO, which have significantly influence on the evolution of orbital parameters. We observe that there indeed exist the differences of EMRI trajectories between the massive Kerr black hole and MHO cases. By calculating the mismatch of gravitational wave (GW) waveforms from massive black hole (MBH) and MHO, our result indicates that the space-borne gravitational wave detector could distinguish the modified effect of reflectivities from the BH case, which allows to put an upper constraint on the reflectivity R\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\mathcal {R}}$$\\end{document} of MHO, at the level of R≳10-4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\mathcal {R}} > rsim 10^{-4}$$\\end{document}.

Geometrized effective-one-body formalism for extreme-mass-ratio limits: Generic orbits

Compact objects inspiraling into supermassive black holes, known as extreme-mass-ratio inspirals, are an important source for future space-borne gravitational-wave detectors. When constructing waveform templates, usually the adiabatic approximation is employed to treat the compact object as a test particle for a short duration, and the radiation reaction is reflected in the changes of the constants of motion. However, the mass of the compact object should have contributions to the background. In the present paper, employing the effective-one-body formalism, we analytically calculate the trajectories of a compact object around a massive Kerr black hole with generally three-dimensional orbits and express the fundamental orbital frequencies in explicit forms. In addition, by constructing an approximate "constant" similar to the Carter constant, we transfer the dynamical quantities such as energy, angular momentum, and the "Carter constant" to the semilatus rectum, eccentricity, and orbital inclination with mass-ratio corrections. The linear mass-ratio terms in the formalism may not be sufficient for accurate waveforms, but our analytical method for solving the equations of motion could be useful in various approaches to building waveform models.

Analytical effective one-body formalism for extreme-mass-ratio inspirals with eccentric orbits

Extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are among the most important sources for future spaceborne gravitational wave detectors. In this kind of system, compact objects usually orbit around central supermassive black holes on complicated trajectories. Usually, these trajectories are approximated as the geodesics of Kerr space-times, and orbital evolution is simulated with the help of the adiabatic approximation. However, this approach omits the influence of the compact object on its background. In this paper, using the effective one-body formalism, we analytically calculate the trajectory of a nonspinning compact object around a massive Kerr black hole in an equatorial eccentric orbit (omitting the orbital inclination) and express the fundamental orbital frequencies in explicit forms. Our formalism includes the first-order corrections for the mass ratio in the conservative orbital motion. Furthermore, we insert the mass-ratio-related terms into the first post-Newtonian energy fluxes. By calculating the gravitational waves using the Teukolsky equations, we quantitatively reveal the influence of the mass of the compact object on the data analysis. We find that the shrinking of geodesic motion by taking small objects as test particles may not be appropriate for the detection of EMRIs.

Rotating dirty black hole and its shadow

In this paper, we examine the effect of dark matter to a Kerr black hole of mass m. The metric is derived using the Newman-Janis algorithm, where the seed metric originates from the Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by a spherical shell of dark matter with mass M and thickness Δrs. The seed metric is also described in terms of a piecewise mass function with three different conditions. Specializing in the non-trivial case where the observer resides inside the dark matter shell, we analyzed how the effective mass of the black hole environment affects the basic black hole properties. A high concentration of dark matter near the rotating black hole is needed to have considerable deviations on the horizons, ergosphere, and photonsphere radius. The time-like geodesic, however, shows more sensitivity to deviation even at very low dark matter density. Further, the location of energy extraction via the Penrose process is also shown to remain unchanged. With how the dark matter distribution is described in the mass function, and the complexity of how the shadow radius is defined for a Kerr black hole, deriving an analytic expression for Δrs as a condition for notable dark matter effects to occur remains inconvenient.

Spin self-force

We consider the motion of charged and spinning bodies on the symmetry axis of a non-extremal Kerr-Newman black hole. If one treats the body as a test point particle of mass, $m$, charge $q$, and spin $S$, then by dropping the body into the black hole from sufficiently near the horizon, the first order area increase, $\delta A$, of the black hole can be made arbitrarily small, i.e., the process can be done in a ``reversible'' manner. At second order, there may be effects on the energy delivered to the black hole---quadratic in $q$ and $S$---resulting from (i) the finite size of the body and (ii) self-force corrections to the energy. Sorce and Wald have calculated these effects for a charged, non-spinning body on the symmetry axis of an uncharged Kerr black hole. We consider the generalization of this process for a charged and spinning body on the symmetry axis of a Kerr-Newman black hole, where the self-force effects have not been calculated. A spinning body (with negligible extent along the spin axis) must have a mass quadrupole moment $\gtrsim S^2/m$, so at quadratic order in the spin, we must take into account quadrupole effects on the motion. After taking into account all such finite size effects, we find that the condition $\delta^2 A \geq 0$ yields a nontrivial lower bound on the self-force energy, $E_{SF}$, at the horizon. In particular, for an uncharged, spinning body on the axis of a Kerr black hole of mass $M$, the net contribution of spin self-force to the energy of the body at the horizon is $E_{SF} \geq S^2/8M^3$, corresponding to an overall repulsive spin self-force. A lower bound for the self-force energy, $E_{SF}$, for a body with both charge and spin at the horizon of a Kerr-Newman black hole is given. This lower bound will be the correct formula for $E_{SF}$ if the dropping process can be done reversibly to second order.

Exciting black hole modes via misaligned coalescences. I. Inspiral, transition, and plunge trajectories using a generalized Ori-Thorne procedure

The last gravitational waves emitted in the coalescence of two black holes are quasi-normal ringing modes of the merged remnant. In general relativity, the mass and the spin of the remnant black hole uniquely determine the frequency and damping time of each radiated mode. The amplitudes of these modes are determined by the mass ratio of the system and the geometry of the coalescence. This paper is part I of an analysis that aims to compute the "excitation factors" associated with misaligned binary black hole coalescence. To simplify the analysis, we consider a large mass ratio system consisting of a non-spinning body of mass $\mu$ that inspirals on a quasi-circular trajectory into a Kerr black hole of mass $M$ and spin parameter $a$, with $\mu/M \ll 1$. Our goal is to understand how different modes are excited as a function of the black hole spin $a$ and an angle $I$ which characterizes the misalignment of the orbit with the black hole's spin axis. Though the large mass ratio limit does not describe the binaries that are being observed by gravitational-wave detectors today, this limit makes it possible to quickly and easily explore the binary parameter space, and to develop insight into how the system's late ringing waves depend on the binary's geometry. In this first analysis, we develop the worldline which the small body follows as it inspirals and then plunges into the large black hole. Our analysis generalizes earlier work by Ori and Thorne to describe how a non-equatorial circular inspiral transitions into a plunging trajectory that falls into the black hole. The worldlines which we develop here are used in part II as input to a time-domain black hole perturbation solver. This solver computes the gravitational waves generated by such inspirals and plunges, making it possible to characterize the modes which the coalescence excites.

Bound orbits of a slowly evolving black hole

Bound orbits of black holes are very well understood. Given a Kerr black hole of mass $M$ and spin $S = aM^2$, it is simple to characterize its orbits as functions of the orbit's geometry. How do the orbits change if the black hole is itself evolving? How do the orbits change if the orbiting body evolves? In this paper, we consider a process that changes a black hole's mass and spin, acting such that the spacetime is described by the Kerr solution at any moment, or that changes the orbiting body's mass. Provided this change happens slowly, the orbit's actions ($J_r, J_\theta, J_\phi$) are {\it adiabatic invariants}, and thus are constant during this process. By enforcing adiabatic invariance of the actions, we deduce how an orbit evolves due to changes in the black hole's mass and spin and in the orbiting body's mass. We demonstrate the impact of these results with several examples: how an orbit responds if accretion changes a black hole's mass and spin; how it responds if the orbiting body's mass changes due to accretion; and how the inspiral of a small body into a black hole is affected by change to the hole's mass and spin due to the gravitational radiation absorbed by the event horizon. In all cases, the effect is very small, but can be an order of magnitude or more larger than what was found in previous work which did not take into account how the orbit responds due to these effects.

Dynamics of a spinning particle in a linear in spin Hamiltonian approximation

We investigate for order and chaos the dynamical system of a spinning test particle of mass $m$ moving in the spacetime background of a Kerr black hole of mass M. This system is approximated in our investigation by the linear in spin Hamiltonian function provided in [E. Barausse, and A. Buonanno, Phys.Rev. D 81, 084024 (2010)]. We study the corresponding phase space by using 2D projections on a surface of section and the method of color and rotation on a 4D Poincar\'e section. Various topological structures coming from the non-integrability of the linear in spin Hamiltonian are found and discussed. Moreover, an interesting result is that from the value of the dimensionless spin $S/(m M)=10^{-4}$ of the particle and below, the impact of the non-integrability of the system on the motion of the particle seems to be negligible.

Gravitational self-force correction to the innermost stable circular equatorial orbit of a Kerr black hole.

For a self-gravitating particle of mass μ in orbit around a Kerr black hole of mass M ≫ μ, we compute the O(μ/M) shift in the frequency of the innermost stable circular equatorial orbit due to the conservative piece of the gravitational self-force acting on the particle. Our treatment is based on a Hamiltonian formulation of the dynamics in terms of geodesic motion in a certain locally defined effective smooth spacetime. We recover the same result using the so-called first law of binary black-hole mechanics. We give numerical results for the innermost stable circular equatorial orbit frequency shift as a function of the black hole's spin amplitude, and compare with predictions based on the post-Newtonian approximation and the effective one-body model. Our results provide an accurate strong-field benchmark for spin effects in the general-relativistic two-body problem.

Self-gravitating ring of matter in orbit around a black hole: the innermost stable circular orbit

We study analytically a black-hole-ring system which is composed of a stationary axisymmetric ring of particles in orbit around a perturbed Kerr black hole of mass $M$. In particular, we calculate the shift in the orbital frequency of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) due to the finite mass $m$ of the orbiting ring. It is shown that for thin rings of half-thickness $r\ll M$, the dominant finite-mass correction to the characteristic ISCO frequency stems from the self-gravitational potential energy of the ring (a term in the energy budget of the system which is quadratic in the mass $m$ of the ring). This dominant correction to the ISCO frequency is of order $O(\mu\ln(M/r))$, where $\mu\equiv m/M$ is the dimensionless mass of the ring. We show that the ISCO frequency increases (as compared to the ISCO frequency of an orbiting test-ring) due to the finite-mass effects of the self-gravitating ring.

Periastron advance in spinning black hole binaries: Gravitational self-force from numerical relativity

We study the general relativistic periastron advance in spinning black hole binaries on quasi-circular orbits, with spins aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum, using numerical-relativity simulations, the post-Newtonian approximation, and black hole perturbation theory. By imposing a symmetry by exchange of the bodies' labels, we devise an improved version of the perturbative result, and use it as the leading term of a new type of expansion in powers of the symmetric mass ratio. This allows us to measure, for the first time, the gravitational self-force effect on the periastron advance of a non-spinning particle orbiting a Kerr black hole of mass M and spin S = -0.5 M^2, down to separations of order 9M. Comparing the predictions of our improved perturbative expansion with the exact results from numerical simulations of equal-mass and equal-spin binaries, we find a remarkable agreement over a wide range of spins and orbital separations.

A GENERAL RELATIVISTIC MODEL OF ACCRETION DISKS WITH CORONAE SURROUNDING KERR BLACK HOLES

We calculate the structure of a standard accretion disk with corona surrounding a massive Kerr black hole in general relativistic frame, in which the corona is assumed to be heated by the reconnection of the strongly buoyant magnetic fields generated in the cold accretion disk. The emergent spectra of the accretion disk-corona systems are calculated by using the relativistic ray-tracing method. We propose a new method to calculate the emergent Comptonized spectra from the coronae. The spectra of the disk-corona systems with a modified $\alpha$-magnetic stress show that both the hard X-ray spectral index and the hard X-ray bolometric correction factor $L_{\rm bol}/L_{\rm X,2-10keV}$ increase with the dimensionless mass accretion rate, which are qualitatively consistent with the observations of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The fraction of the power dissipated in the corona decreases with increasing black hole spin parameter $a$, which leads to lower electron temperatures of the coronas for rapidly spinning black holes. The X-ray emission from the coronas surrounding rapidly spinning black holes becomes weak and soft. The ratio of the X-ray luminosity to the optical/UV luminosity increases with the viewing angle, while the spectral shape in the X-ray band is insensitive with the viewing angle. We find that the spectral index in the infrared waveband depends on the mass accretion rate and the black hole spin $a$, which deviates from $f_\nu\propto\nu^{1/3}$ expected by the standard thin disk model.

The Carter constant for inclined orbits about a massive Kerr black hole: near-circular, near-polar orbits

Abstract In an extreme mass-ratio binary black hole system, a non-equatorial orbit will list (i.e. increase its angle of inclination, i) as it evolves in Kerr spacetime. The abutment, a set of evolving, near-polar, retrograde orbits, for which the instantaneous Carter constant (Q) is at its maximum value (Q X) for given values of latus rectum (l̃) and eccentricity (e), has been introduced as a laboratory in which the consistency of dQ/dt with corresponding evolution equations for d l̃/dt and de/dt might be tested independently of a specific radiation back-reaction model. To demonstrate the use of the abutment as such a laboratory, a derivation of dQ/dt, based only on published formulae for d l̃/dt and de/dt, was performed for elliptical orbits on the abutment. The resulting expression for dQ/dt matched the published result to the second order in e. We believe the abutment is a potentially useful tool for improving the accuracy of evolution equations to higher orders of e and l̃−.

Collision of an object in the transition from adiabatic inspiral to plunge around a Kerr black hole

An inspiralling object of mass $\mu$ around a Kerr black hole of mass $M (\gg \mu)$ experiences a continuous transition near the innermost stable circular orbit from adiabatic inspiral to plunge into the horizon as gravitational radiation extracts its energy and angular momentum. We investigate the collision of such an object with a generic counterpart around a Kerr black hole. We find that the angular momentum of the object is fine-tuned through gravitational radiation and that the high-velocity collision of the object with a generic counterpart naturally occurs around a nearly maximally rotating black hole. We also find that the centre-of-mass energy can be far beyond the Planck energy for dark matter particles colliding around a stellar mass black hole and as high as $10^{58}$ erg for stellar mass compact objects colliding around a supermassive black hole, where the present transition formalism is well justified. Therefore, rapidly rotating black holes can accelerate objects inspiralling around them to energy high enough to be of great physical interest.

Accuracy of the post-Newtonian approximation. II. Optimal asymptotic expansion of the energy flux for quasicircular, extreme mass-ratio inspirals into a Kerr black hole

We study the effect of black hole spin on the accuracy of the post-Newtonian approximation. We focus on the gravitational energy flux for the quasicircular, equatorial, extreme mass-ratio inspiral of a compact object into a Kerr black hole of mass $M$ and spin $J$. For a given dimensionless spin $a\ensuremath{\equiv}J/{M}^{2}$ (in geometrical units $G=c=1$), the energy flux depends only on the orbital velocity $v$ or (equivalently) on the Boyer-Lindquist orbital radius $r$. We investigate the formal region of validity of the Taylor post-Newtonian expansion of the energy flux (which is known up to order ${v}^{8}$ beyond the quadrupole formula), generalizing previous work by two of us. The error function used to determine the region of validity of the post-Newtonian expansion can have two qualitatively different kinds of behavior, and we deal with these two cases separately. We find that, at any fixed post-Newtonian order, the edge of the region of validity (as measured by $v/{v}_{\mathrm{ISCO}}$, where ${v}_{\mathrm{ISCO}}$ is the orbital velocity at the innermost stable circular orbit) is only weakly dependent on $a$. Unlike in the nonspinning case, the lack of sufficiently high-order terms does not allow us to determine if there is a convergent to divergent transition at order ${v}^{6}$. Independent of $a$, the inclusion of angular multipoles up to and including $\ensuremath{\ell}=5$ in the numerical flux is necessary to achieve the level of accuracy of the best-known ($N=8$) post-Newtonian expansion of the energy flux.

Transition from adiabatic inspiral to plunge into a spinning black hole

A test particle of mass mu on a bound geodesic of a Kerr black hole of mass M >> mu will slowly inspiral as gravitational radiation extracts energy and angular momentum from its orbit. This inspiral can be considered adiabatic when the orbital period is much shorter than the timescale on which energy is radiated, and quasi-circular when the radial velocity is much less than the azimuthal velocity. Although the inspiral always remains adiabatic provided mu << M, the quasi-circular approximation breaks down as the particle approaches the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO). In this paper, we relax the quasi-circular approximation and solve the radial equation of motion explicitly near the ISCO. We use the requirement that the test particle's 4-velocity remain properly normalized to calculate a new contribution to the difference between its energy and angular momentum. This difference determines how a black hole's spin changes following a test-particle merger, and can be extrapolated to help predict the mass and spin of the final black hole produced in finite-mass-ratio black-hole mergers. Our new contribution is particularly important for nearly maximally spinning black holes, as it can affect whether a merger produces a naked singularity.

Phenomenological gravitational radiation from rotating stellar collapse to an intermediate mass Kerr black hole

Intermediate mass black holes may be formed through repeated coalescences of compact objects or through the direct collapse of a hypermassive star formed through runaway collisions of main sequence stars. The gravitational wave signature of these two formation scenarios will be different. Here we present an initial study of the waveform generated during the direct axisymmetric collapse of a hypermassive star in order to facilitate searches for this source. We approximate the collapse of the core as an axisymmetric Newtonian free-fall of a rotating relativistic degenerate iron core. The collapse waveform can be reasonably well modeled by an exponential growth.

A study of elliptical last stable orbits about a massive Kerr black hole

The last stable orbit (LSO) of a compact object (CO) is an important boundary condition when performing numerical analysis of orbit evolution. Although the LSO is already well understood for the case where a test particle is in an elliptical orbit around a Schwarzschild black hole (SBH) and for the case of a circular orbit about a Kerr black hole (KBH) of normalized spin, (|J|/M2, where J is the spin angular momentum of the KBH); it is worthwhile to extend our knowledge to include elliptical orbits about a KBH. This extension helps to lay the foundation for a better understanding of gravitational wave (GW) emission. The mathematical developments described in this work sprang from the use of an effective potential derived from the Kerr metric, which encapsulates the Lense–Thirring precession. This allowed us to develop a new form of analytical expression to calculate the LSO Radius for circular orbits (RLSO) of arbitrary KBH spin. We were then able to construct a numerical method to calculate the latus rectum for an elliptical LSO. Formulae for (square of normalized orbital energy) and (square of normalized orbital angular momentum) in terms of eccentricity, ε, and latus rectum, , were previously developed by others for elliptical orbits around an SBH and then extended to the KBH case; we used these results to generalize our analytical equations to elliptical orbits. LSO data calculated from our analytical equations and numerical procedures, and those previously published, are then compared and found to be in excellent agreement.

Transition from adiabatic inspiral to geodesic plunge for a compact object around a massive Kerr black hole: Generic orbits

The inspiral of a stellar mass compact object falling into a massive Kerr black hole can be broken into three different regimes: An adiabatic inspiral phase, where the inspiral time scale is much larger than the orbital period; a late-time radial infall, which can be approximated as a plunging geodesic; and a regime where the body transitions from the inspiral to plunge. In earlier work, Ori and Thorne have outlined a method to compute the trajectory during this transition for a compact object in a circular, equatorial orbit. We generalize this technique to include inclination and eccentricity.

Towards adiabatic waveforms for inspiral into Kerr black holes: A new model of the source for the time domain perturbation equation

We revisit the problem of the emission of gravitational waves from a test mass orbiting and thus perturbing a Kerr black hole. The source term of the Teukolsky perturbation equation contains a Dirac delta function which represents a point particle. We present a technique to effectively model the delta function and its derivatives using as few as four points on a numerical grid. The source term is then incorporated into a code that evolves the Teukolsky equation in the time domain as a ($2+1$) dimensional partial differential equation. The waveforms and energy fluxes are extracted far from the black hole. Our comparisons with earlier work show an order of magnitude gain in performance (speed) and numerical errors less than $1%$ for a large fraction of parameter space. As a first application of this code, we analyze the effect of finite extraction radius on the energy fluxes. This paper is the first in a series whose goal is to develop adiabatic waveforms describing the inspiral of a small compact body into a massive Kerr black hole.