Kerr Black Hole Spacetime Research Articles

Testing disformal non-circular deformation of Kerr black holes with LISA

There is strong observational evidence that almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. It is of fundamental importance to know whether such black holes are described by the standard Kerr solution in General Relativity (GR) or by another black hole solution. An interesting alternative is the so-called disformal Kerr black holes which exist within the framework of degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories of gravity. The departure from the standard Kerr black hole spacetime is parametrized by a parameter D, called disformal parameter. In the present work, we discuss the capability of LISA to detect the disformal parameter. For this purpose, we study Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals (EMRI's) around disformal Kerr black holes within the framework of the quadrupole hybrid formalism. Even when the disformal parameter is very small, its effect on the globally accumulated phase of the gravitational waveform of an EMRI can be significant due to the large number of cycles in the LISA band made by the small compact object. We show that LISA will in principle be able to detect and measure extremely small values of the disformal parameter which in turn, can be seen as an assessment of LISA's ability to detect very small deviations from the Kerr geometry.

Kerr black hole shadows from axion-photon coupling

We have investigated the motion for photons in the Kerr black hole spacetime under the axion-photon coupling. The birefringence phenomena arising from the axion-photon coupling can be negligible in the weak coupling approximation because the leading-order contributions to the equations of motion come from the square term of the coupling parameter. We find that the coupling parameter makes the size of shadows slightly increase for arbitrary spin parameter. For the rapid rotating black hole case with a larger coupling, we find that there exist a “pedicel”-like structure appeared in the left of the “D”-type like shadows. Comparing the shadow size of the Kerr black hole with the shadow size of the Sgr A* and M87* black holes, we make constraints on the parameter space for such a theoretical model of the axion-photon coupling.

Testing alternative spacetimes by high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations observed in microquasars and active galactic nuclei

In this article, we try to capture the influence of deviation from standard Kerr black hole (BH) spacetime on observed high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) signal. We explore the dynamics of test particles in the field of rotating compact objects governed by the various modifications of the standard Kerr BH spacetime and apply the model of epicyclic oscillations of Keplerian discs to the observed microquasars and active galactic nuclei high-frequency QPOs data. We present a generalized formalism for fitting two well-known high-frequency QPO models: the epicyclic resonance model and the relativistic precession model. This is done assuming stationary, axisymmetric, and asymptotically flat spacetimes. Recently, we have used the same set of stationary, axisymmetric, and asymptotically flat spacetimes, and estimated the restrictions of spacetime parameters with the help of hot-spot data of three flares observed at Sgr A* by GRAVITY instrument (Misbah Shahzadi et al 2022 Eur. Phys. J. C 82 407). The aim of this work is not to test a particular theoretical model or to determine and constrain its parameters, but to map a set of well-astrophysically motivated deviations from classical Kerr BH spacetime and demonstrate which ones provide the best fit for high-frequency QPOs data and could be fruitful for future exploration.

Lense–Thirring effect and precession of timelike geodesics in slowly rotating black hole and naked singularity spacetimes

In this paper, we investigate the properties of the Lense-Thirring precession frequency and periastron precession of the relativistic bound orbits in slowly rotating naked singularity spacetimes. We show that the precession frequencies of a stationary test gyroscope are quite unique in slowly rotating naked singularity spacetimes, and therefore, one can easily distinguish them from the slowly rotating Kerr black hole spacetime. On the other hand, we also show that in slowly rotating Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN1) naked singularity spacetime, negative precession of the timelike bound orbits is allowed which is not possible in Kerr and slowly rotating null naked singularity spacetimes.

Two-point function of a quantum scalar field in the interior region of a Kerr black hole

Quantum field effects on a classical background spacetime may be obtained from the semiclassical equations of General Relativity with the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of the quantum field as a source. This expectation value can be calculated from Hadamard's elementary two-point function, which in practice is given in terms of sums of products of field modes evaluated at two spacetime points. We derive expressions for the two-point function for a massless scalar field in the Unruh state on a Kerr black hole spacetime. Our main result in this paper is a novel expression valid when the two points lie inside the black hole; we also (re-)derive, using a new method, the known expression valid when the two points lie outside the black hole. We achieve these expressions by finding relationships between Unruh modes, defined in terms of the retarded Kruskal coordinate, and Eddington modes, defined in terms of the Eddington coordinates. While our starting expression for the two-point function is written in terms of the Unruh modes, we give our final expression in terms of the Eddington modes, which have the computational advantage that they decompose into factors that obey ordinary differential equations. In an appendix we also derive expressions for the bare mode contributions to the flux components of the stress-energy tensor for a minimally-coupled massless scalar field inside the black hole. Our results thus lay the groundwork for future calculations of quantum effects inside a Kerr black hole.

Effect of noncircularity on the dynamic behaviors of particles in a disformal rotating black-hole spacetime

A disformal rotating black-hole solution is a black-hole solution in quadratic degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor theories. It breaks the circular condition of spacetime different from the case of the usual Kerr spacetime. This study investigated the dynamic behaviors of the motion of timelike particles in such disformal black-hole spacetime with an extra deformation parameter. Results showed that the characteristics of the particle's motion depend on the sign of the deformation parameter. For the positive deformation parameter, the motion is regular and orderly. For the negative one, as the deformation parameter changes, the motion of the particles undergoes a series of transitions between the chaotic motion and the regular motion and falls into the horizon or escapes to spatial infinity. This means that the dynamic behavior of timelike particles in the disformal Kerr black-hole spacetime with noncircularity becomes richer than that in the usual Kerr black-hole case.

Hawking effect in an extremal Kerr black hole spacetime

It is well known that extremal black holes do not Hawking radiate, which is usually realized by taking an extremal limit from the nonextremal case. However, one cannot perceive the same phenomenon using the Bogoliubov transformation method starting from an extremal black hole itself, i.e., without the limiting case consideration. In that case, the Bogoliubov coefficients do not satisfy the required normalization condition. In canonical formulation, which closely mimics the Bogoliubov transformation method, one can consistently reproduce the vanishing number density of Hawking quanta for an extremal Kerr black hole. In this method, the relation between the spatial near-null coordinates, imperative in understanding the Hawking effect, was approximated into a sum of linear and inverse terms only. In the present work, we first show that one can reach the same conclusion in canonical formulation even with the complete relationship between the near-null coordinates, which contains an additional logarithmic term. It is worth mentioning that in the nonextremal case, a similar logarithmic term alone leads to the thermal Hawking radiation. Secondly, we study the case with only the inverse term in the relation (i.e., when the spatial near-null coordinates associated to the past and future observers are inversely related to each other) to understand whether it is the main contributing term in vanishing number density. Third, for a qualitative realization, we consider a simple thought experiment to understand the corresponding Hawking temperature and conclude that the inverse term indeed plays a crucial role in the vanishing number density.

Photon escape in the extremal Kerr black hole spacetime

We consider necessary and sufficient conditions for photons emitted from an arbitrary spacetime position of the extremal Kerr black hole to escape to infinity. The radial equation of motion determines the necessary conditions for photons emitted from $r=r_*$ to escape to infinity, and the polar angle equation of motion further restricts the allowed region of photon motion. From these two conditions, we provide a method to visualize a two-dimensional photon impact parameter space that allows photons to escape to infinity, i.e., the escapable region. Finally, we completely identify the escapable region for the extremal Kerr black hole spacetime. This study has generalized our previous result [K.~Ogasawara and T.~Igata, Phys. Rev. D \textbf{103}, 044029 (2021)], which focused only on light sources near the horizon, to the classification covering light sources in the entire region.

Diffeomorphism symmetries near a timelike surface in black hole spacetime

Recently symmetries of gravity and gauge fields in the asymptotic regions of spacetime have been shown to play vital role in their low energy scattering phenomena. Further, for the black hole spacetime, near horizon symmetry has been observed to play possible role in understanding the underlying degrees of freedom for thermodynamic behaviour of horizon. Following the similar idea, in this paper, we analysed the symmetry and associated algebra near a timelike surface which is situated at any arbitrary radial position and is embedded in black hole spacetime. In this paper we considered both Schwarzschild and Kerr black hole spacetimes. The families of hypersurfaces with constant radial coordinate (outside the horizon) in these spacetimes is timelike in nature and divide the space into two distinct regions. The symmetry algebra turned out to be reminiscent of Bondi–Metzner–Sach symmetry, found in the asymptotic null infinity.

Shadows and negative precession in non-Kerr spacetime

It is now known that the shadow is not only the property of a black hole, it can also be cast by other compact objects like naked singularities. However, there exist some novel features of the shadow of the naked singularities which are elaborately discussed in some recent articles. In the earlier literature, it is also shown that a naked singularity may admit negative precession of bound timelike orbits which cannot be seen in Schwarzschild and Kerr black hole spacetimes. This distinguishable behavior of timelike bound orbit in the presence of the naked singularity along with the novel features of the shadow may be useful to distinguish between a black hole and a naked singularity observationally. However, in this paper, it is shown that deformed Kerr spacetime can allow negative precession of bound timelike orbits when the central singularity of that spacetime is naked. We also show that negative precession and shadow both can exist simultaneously in deformed Kerr naked singularity spacetime. Therefore, any observational evidence of negative precession of bound orbits, along with the central shadow may indicate the presence of a deformed Kerr naked singularity.

Stationary scalar clouds supported by rapidly-rotating acoustic black holes in a photon-fluid model

It has recently been proved that, in the presence of vortex flows, the fluctuation dynamics of a rotating photon-fluid model is governed by the Klein-Gordon equation of an effective massive scalar field in a $(2+1)$-dimensional acoustic black-hole spacetime. Interestingly, it has been demonstrated numerically that the rotating acoustic black hole, like the familiar Kerr black-hole spacetime, may support spatially regular stationary density fluctuations (linearized acoustic scalar `clouds') in its exterior regions. In particular, it has been shown that the composed rotating-acoustic-black-hole-stationary-scalar-field configurations of the photon-fluid model exist in the narrow dimensionless regime $\alpha\equiv\Omega_0/m\Omega_{\text{H}}\in(1,\alpha_{\text{max}})$ with $\alpha_{\text{max}}\simeq 1.08$ [here $\Omega_{\text{H}}$ is the angular velocity of the black-hole horizon and $\{\Omega_0,m\}$ are respectively the effective proper mass and the azimuthal harmonic index of the acoustic scalar field]. In the present paper we use analytical techniques in order to explore the physical and mathematical properties of the acoustic scalar clouds of the photon-fluid model in the regime $\Omega_{\text{H}}r_{\text{H}}\gg1$ of rapidly-spinning central supporting acoustic black holes. In particular, we derive a remarkably compact analytical formula for the discrete resonance spectrum $\{\Omega_0(\Omega_{\text{H}},m;n)\}$ which characterizes the stationary bound-state acoustic scalar clouds of the photon-fluid model. Interestingly, it is proved that the critical (maximal) mass parameter $\alpha_{\text{max}}$, which determines the regime of existence of the composed acoustic-black-hole-stationary-bound-state-massive-scalar-field configurations, is given by the exact dimensionless relation $\alpha_{\text{max}}=\sqrt{{{32}\over{27}}}$.

Chaotic motion of scalar particle coupling to Chern\u2013Simons invariant in Kerr black hole spacetime

We present firstly the equation of motion for the test scalar particle coupling to the Chern–Simons invariant in Kerr black hole spacetime by the short-wave approximation. We have analyzed the dynamical behaviors of the test coupled particles by applying techniques including Poincaré sections, fast Lyapunov exponent indicator, bifurcation diagram and basins of attraction. It is shown that there exists chaotic phenomenon in the motion of scalar particle interacted with the Chern–Simons invariant in a Kerr black hole spacetime. With the increase of the coupling strength, the motion of the coupled particles for the chosen parameters first undergoes a series of transitions betweens chaotic motion and regular motion and then falls into horizon or escapes to spatial infinity. Thus, the coupling between scalar particle and Chern–Simons invariant yields the richer dynamical behavior of scalar particle in a Kerr black hole spacetime.

Casimir effect in space-times of rotating wormholes

We investigate the Casimir effect between parallel plates placed along a circular trajectory around the rotating Damour–Solodkhin (D–S) and Teo wormholes. This is made through the calculation of the renormalized quantum vacuum energy density of a massless scalar field obeying the Dirichlet boundary conditions, initially at zero temperature. We use the zero tidal approximation inside the cavity. Then, we compare our results with those ones previously obtained in the literature with respect to the Kerr black hole. We also compare the computed Casimir energy density in a static D–S wormhole spacetime with that one recently found for a static Ellis wormhole. In what follows, we investigate the effect around the rotating Teo wormhole by calculating the Casimir energy density between the plates, and compare it with the same quantities obtained previously. Finally, we investigate the phenomenon at finite temperature, obtaining some Casimir thermodynamic quantities in the rotating D–S wormhole spacetime, comparing them with the ones valid in the Kerr black hole spacetime. With this, the ways as gravito-inertial and frame dragging effects influence the vacuum quantum fluctuations inside the Casimir apparatus allows to distinct among the different types of rotating wormholes and black holes.

Complete classification of photon escape in the Kerr black hole spacetime

We consider necessary and sufficient conditions for photons emitted from the vicinity of a Kerr black hole horizon to escape to infinity. The radial equation of motion determines necessary conditions for photons to reach infinity, and the polar angle equation of motion further restricts the allowed region of photon motion. Unlike emission from the equatorial plane, the latter restrictions are crucial for photon escape when the initial polar angle of the emission point is arbitrary. We provide a visualization tool to analyze these two conditions and demonstrate a procedure for revealing photon escape. Finally, we completely identify the two-dimensional impact parameter space in which photons can escape.

Mode Stability for the Teukolsky Equation on Extremal and Subextremal Kerr Spacetimes

We prove that there are no exponentially growing modes nor modes on the real axis for the Teukolsky equation on Kerr black hole spacetimes, both in the extremal and subextremal case. We also give a quantitative refinement of mode stability. As an immediate application, we show that the transmission and reflection coefficients of the scattering problem are bounded, independently of the specific angular momentum of the black hole, in any compact set of real frequencies excluding zero frequency and the superradiant threshold. While in the subextremal setting these results were known previously, the extremal case is more involved and has remained an open problem. Ours are the first results outside axisymmetry and could serve as a preliminary step towards understanding boundedness, scattering and decay properties of general solutions to the Teukolsky equation on extremal Kerr black holes.

Polarization effects in Kerr black hole shadow due to the coupling between photon and bumblebee field

We present firstly the equation of motion for the photon coupled to a special bumblebee vector field in a Kerr black hole spacetime and find that the propagation of light depends on its polarization due to the birefringence phenomenon. The dependence of black hole shadow on the light's polarization is dominated by the rotation of black hole. In the non-rotating case, we find that the black hole shadow is independent of the polarization of light. However, the status is changed in the rotating case, in which the black hole shadow depends on the light's polarization and the coupling between bumblebee vector field and electromagnetic field. These features of black hole shadow casted by polarized lights could help us to understand the bumblebee vector field with Lorentz symmetry breaking and its interaction with electromagnetic field.

The finite-distance gravitational deflection of massive particles in stationary spacetime: a Jacobi metric approach

In this paper, we study the weak gravitational deflection of relativistic massive particles for a receiver and source at finite distance from the lens in stationary, axisymmetric and asymptotically flat spacetimes. For this purpose, we extend the generalized optical metric method to the generalized Jacobi metric method by using the Jacobi–Maupertuis Randers–Finsler metric. More specifically, we apply the Gauss–Bonnet theorem to the generalized Jacobi metric space and then obtain an expression for calculating the deflection angle, which is related to Gaussian curvature of generalized optical metric and geodesic curvature of particles orbit. In particular, the finite-distance correction to the deflection angle of signal with general velocity in the the Kerr black hole and Teo wormhole spacetimes are considered. Our results cover the previous work of the deflection angle of light, as well as the deflection angle of massive particles in the limit for the receiver and source at infinite distance from the lens object. In Kerr black hole spacetime, we compared the effects due to the black hole spin, the finite-distance of source or receiver, and the relativistic velocity in microlensings and lensing by galaxies. It is found in these cases, the effect of black hole spin is usually a few orders larger than that of the finite-distance and relativistic velocity, while the relative size of the latter two could vary according to the particle velocity, source or observer distance and other lensing parameters.

Numerical investigation of the dynamics of linear spin s fields on a Kerr background: Late-time tails of spin s=±1,±2 fields

The time evolution of linear fields of spin $s = \pm 1$ and $s = \pm 2$ on Kerr black hole spacetimes are investigated by solving the homogeneous Teukolsky equation numerically. The applied numerical setup is based on a combination of conformal compactification and the hyperbolic initial value problem. The evolved basic variables are expanded in terms of spin-weighted spherical harmonics which allows us to evaluate all the angular derivatives analytically, whereas the evolution of the expansion coefficients, in the time-radial section, is determined by applying the method of lines implemented in a fourth order accurate finite differencing stencil. Concerning the initialization, in all of our investigations single mode excitations---either static or purely dynamical type initial data---are applied. Within this setup the late time tail behavior is investigated. Due to the applied conformal compactification the asymptotic decay rates are determined at three characteristic locations---in the domain of outer communication, at the event horizon and at future null infinity---simultaneously. Recently introduced new type of `energy' and `angular momentum' balance relations are also applied in order to demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of the developed numerical schema, and also to verify the proper implementation of the underlying mathematical model.

First law of black hole thermodynamics for the Kerr black hole using foliation

This article follows a simpler approach (Siddiqui et al. 2011, Chin. Phys. Lett. 28, 050401) using foliation’s concept with virtual displacement of hyper-surfaces near the event horizon to derive the first law of black hole thermodynamics for the Kerr black hole spacetime.

Spherical photon orbits in the field of Kerr naked singularities

For the Kerr naked singularity (KNS) spacetimes, we study properties of spherical photon orbits (SPOs) confined to constant Boyer-Lindquist radius r. Some new features of the SPOs are found, having no counterparts in the Kerr black hole (KBH) spacetimes, especially stable orbits that could be pure prograde/retrograde, or with turning point in the azimuthal direction. At r>1 (r<1) the covariant photon energy mathcal{E}> 0 (mathcal{E}< 0), at r=1 there is mathcal{E}= 0. All unstable orbits must have mathcal{E}> 0. It is shown that the polar SPOs can exist only in the spacetimes with dimensionless spin a < 1.7996. Existence of closed SPOs with vanishing total change of the azimuth is demonstrated. Classification of the KNS and KBH spacetimes in dependence on their dimensionless spin a is proposed, considering the properties of the SPOs. For selected types of the KNS spacetimes, typical SPOs are constructed, including the closed paths. It is shown that the stable SPOs intersect the equatorial plane in a region of stable circular orbits of test particles, depending on the spin a. Relevance of this intersection for the Keplerian accretion discs is outlined and observational effects are estimated.