Strong Gravity Research Articles

Evidence for Returning Disk Radiation in the Black Hole X-Ray Binary XTE J1550–564

Abstract We explore the accretion properties of the black hole X-ray binary XTE J1550−564 during its outbursts in 1998/99 and 2000. We model the disk, corona, and reflection components of X-ray spectra taken with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, using the relxill suite of reflection models. The key result of our modeling is that the reflection spectrum in the very soft state is best explained by disk self-irradiation, i.e., photons from the inner disk are bent by the strong gravity of the black hole and reflected off the disk surface. This is the first known detection of thermal disk radiation reflecting off the inner disk. There is also an apparent absorption line at ∼6.9 keV, which may be evidence of an ionized disk wind. The coronal electron temperature (kT e) is, as expected, lower in the brighter outburst of 1998/99, explained qualitatively by more efficient coronal cooling due to irradiating disk photons. The disk inner radius is consistent with being within a few times the innermost stable circular orbit throughout the bright-hard-to-soft states (10 s of r g in gravitational units). The disk inclination is low during the hard state, disagreeing with the binary inclination value, and very close to 90° in the soft state, recovering to a lower value when adopting a blackbody spectrum as the irradiating continuum.

Quantum Black Holes in the Sky

Black Holes are possibly the most enigmatic objects in our universe. From their detection in gravitational waves upon their mergers, to their snapshot eating at the centres of galaxies, black hole astrophysics has undergone an observational renaissance in the past four years. Nevertheless, they remain active playgrounds for strong gravity and quantum effects, where novel aspects of the elusive theory of quantum gravity may be hard at work. In this review article, we provide an overview of the strong motivations for why “Quantum Black Holes” may be radically different from their classical counterparts in Einstein’s General Relativity. We then discuss the observational signatures of quantum black holes, focusing on gravitational wave echoes as smoking guns for quantum horizons (or exotic compact objects), which have led to significant recent excitement and activity. We review the theoretical underpinning of gravitational wave echoes and critically examine the seemingly contradictory observational claims regarding their (non-)existence. Finally, we discuss the future theoretical and observational landscape for unraveling the “Quantum Black Holes in the Sky”.

Second order causal hydrodynamics in Eckart frame: using gradient expansion scheme

In the present work, we develop a causal theory of relativistic non-ideal fluids up to the second order in the Eckart frame using gradient expansion scheme. Keeping the spirit of Mueller–Israel–Stewart formalism, the general forms of bulk viscosity, shear viscosity tensor and the heat flow vector are presented. Since each of the flux quantities explicitly carry curvature terms, we show that our formalism finds application in astrophysics in particular in the strong gravity regime. We elucidate two such applications namely in viscous thick accretion disks also known as Polish doughnuts and in addressing non-rotating equilibrium configuration, like neutron stars.

Towards a complete description of spectra and polarization of black hole accretion discs: albedo profiles and returning radiation

ABSTRACT Accretion discs around stellarmass black holes (BHs) emit radiation peaking in the soft X-rays when the source is in the thermal state. The emerging photons are polarized and, for symmetry reasons, the polarization integrated over the source is expected to be either parallel or perpendicular to the (projected) disc symmetry axis, because of electron scattering in the disc. However, due to general relativity effects photon polarization vectors will rotate with respect to their original orientation, by an amount depending on both the BH spin and the observer’s inclination. Hence, X-ray polarization measurements may provide important information about strong gravity effects around these sources. Along with the spectral and polarization properties of radiation which reaches directly the observer once emitted from the disc, in this paper we also include the contribution of returning radiation, i.e. photons that are bent by the strong BH gravity to return again on the disc, where they scatter until eventually escaping to infinity. A comparison between our results and those obtained in previous works by different authors shows an overall good agreement, despite the use of different code architectures. We finally consider the effects of absorption in the disc material by including more realistic albedo profiles for the disc surface. Our findings in this respect show that considering also the ionization state of the disc may deeply modify the behaviour of polarization observables.

Black hole shadow as a standard ruler in cosmology

Advancements in the black hole shadow observations may allow us not only to investigate physics in the strong gravity regime, but also to use them in cosmological studies. In this paper, we propose to use the shadow of supermassive black holes as a standard ruler for cosmological applications assuming the black hole mass can be determined independently. First, observations at low redshift distances can be used to constrain the Hubble constant independently. Secondly, the angular size of shadows of high redshift black holes is increased due to cosmic expansion and may also be reachable with future observations. This would allow us to probe the cosmic expansion history for the redshift range elusive to other distance measurements. Additionally, shadow can be used to estimate the mass of black holes at high redshift, assuming that cosmology is known.

An asymptotic-numerical comparative study for axisymmetric free surface liquid jet near and far from exit at high Reynolds number

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine theoretically the axisymmetric flow of a steady free-surface jet emerging from a tube for high inertia flow and moderate surface tension effect. Design/methodology/approach The method of matched asymptotic expansion is used to explore the rich dynamics near the exit where a stress singularity occurs. A boundary layer approach is also proposed to capture the flow further downstream where the free surface layer has grown significantly. Findings The jet is found to always contract near the tube exit. In contrast to existing numerical studies, the author explores the strength of upstream influence and the flow in the wall layer, resulting from jet contraction. This influence becomes particularly evident from the nonlinear pressure dependence on the upstream distance, as well as the pressure undershoot and overshoot at the exit for weak and strong gravity levels, respectively. The approach is validated against existing experimental and numerical data for the jet profile and centerline velocity where good agreement is obtained. Far from the exit, the author shows how the solution in the diffusive region can be matched to the inviscid far solution, providing the desired appropriate initial condition for the inviscid far flow solution. The location, at which the velocity becomes uniform across the jet, depends strongly on the gravity level and exhibits a non-monotonic behavior with respect to gravity and applied pressure gradient. The author finds that under weak gravity, surface tension has little influence on the final jet radius. The work is a crucial supplement to the existing numerical literature. Originality/value Given the presence of the stress singularity at the exit, the work constitutes a superior alternative to a computational approach where the singularity is typically and inaccurately smoothed over. In contrast, in the present study, the singularity is entirely circumvented. Moreover, the flow details are better elucidated, and the various scales involved in different regions are better identified.

Silhouette of M87*: A new window to peek into the world of hidden dimensions

The recent observation of the shadow of the supermassive black hole M87*, located at the centre of the M87 galaxy, by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has opened up a new window to probe the strong gravity regime. In this letter, we explicitly demonstrate the consequences of this observation on brane world black holes, characterized by existence of a negative tidal charge. Our results based on three observables associated with the shadow, namely, angular diameter, deviation from circularity and axis ratio reveal that the existence of a negative tidal charge is more favoured, possibly marking a deviation from general relativity.

Transversely trapping surfaces: Dynamical version

Abstract We propose new concepts, a dynamically transversely trapping surface (DTTS) and a marginally DTTS, as indicators for a strong gravity region. A DTTS is defined as a two-dimensional closed surface on a spacelike hypersurface such that photons emitted from arbitrary points on it in transverse directions are acceleratedly contracted in time, and a marginally DTTS is reduced to the photon sphere in spherically symmetric cases. (Marginally) DTTSs have a close analogy with (marginally) trapped surfaces in many aspects. After preparing the method of solving for a marginally DTTS in the time-symmetric initial data and the momentarily stationary axisymmetric initial data, some examples of marginally DTTSs are numerically constructed for systems of two black holes in the Brill–Lindquist initial data and in the Majumdar–Papapetrou spacetimes. Furthermore, the area of a DTTS is proved to satisfy the Penrose-like inequality $A_0\le 4\pi (3GM)^2$, under some assumptions. Differences and connections between a DTTS and the other two concepts proposed by us previously, a loosely trapped surface [Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2017, 033E01 (2017)] and a static/stationary transversely trapping surface [Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2017, 063E01 (2017)], are also discussed. A (marginally) DTTS provides us with a theoretical tool to significantly advance our understanding of strong gravity fields. Also, since DTTSs are located outside the event horizon, they could possibly be related with future observations of strong gravity regions in dynamical evolutions.

Do solar system experiments constrain scalar\u2013tensor gravity?

It is now established that, contrary to common belief, (electro-)vacuum Brans–Dicke gravity does not reduce to general relativity (GR) for large values of the Brans–Dicke coupling omega . Since the essence of experimental tests of scalar–tensor gravity consists of providing lower bounds on omega , in light of the misguided assumption of the equivalence between the limit omega rightarrow infty and the GR limit of Brans–Dicke gravity, the parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism on which these tests are based could be in jeopardy. We show that, in the linearized approximation used by the PPN formalism, the anomaly in the limit to general relativity disappears. However, it survives to second (and higher) order and in strong gravity. In other words, while the weak gravity regime cannot tell apart GR and omega rightarrow infty Brans–Dicke gravity, when higher order terms in the PPN analysis of Brans–Dicke gravity are included, the latter never reduces to the one of GR in this limit. This fact is relevant for experiments aiming to test second order light deflection and Shapiro time delay.

Quasi-periodic oscillations around Kerr-MOG black holes

The study of the quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) of X-ray flux observed in the stellar-mass black hole (BH) binaries can provide a powerful tool for testing the phenomena occurring in strong gravity regime. We thus present and apply to three known microquasars the model of epicyclic oscillations of Keplerian discs orbiting rotating BHs governed by the modified theory of gravity (MOG). We show that the standard geodesic models of QPOs can explain the observationally fixed data from the three microquasars, GRO 1655-40, XTE 1550-564, and GRS 1915+105. We perform a successful fitting of the high frequency (HF) QPOs observed in these microquasars, under assumption of MOG BHs, for epicyclic resonance and its variants, relativistic precession and its variants, tidal disruption, as well as warped disc models and discuss the corresponding constraints of parameters of the model, which are the mass and spin and parameter alpha of the BH.

Fredholm approach to characterize gravitational wave echoes

Gravitational waves are a sensitive probe into the structure of compact astronomical objects and the nature of gravity in the strong regime. Modifications of near-horizon physics can imprint on the late time ringdown waveform, leaving behind a train of echoes, from which useful information about new physics in the strong gravity regime can be extracted. We propose a novel approach to compute the ringdown waveform and characterize individual echoes perturbatively using the Fredholm determinants, which can be intuitively represented via a diagrammatical scheme. Direct non-perturbative treatments can also be easily implemented for some cases. Numerically, the method is also effective and accurate even for relatively low resources.

The spectral evolution of disc dominated tidal disruption events

ABSTRACT We perform a detailed numerical and analytical study of the properties of observed light curves from relativistic thin discs, focussing on observational bands most appropriate for comparison with tidal disruption events (TDEs). We make use of asymptotic expansion techniques applied to the spectral emission integral, using time-dependent disc temperature profiles appropriate for solutions of the relativistic thin disc equation. Rather than a power law associated with bolometric disc emission L ∼ t−n, the observed X-ray flux from disc-dominated TDEs will typically have the form of a power law multiplied by an exponential (see equation 91). While precise details are somewhat dependent on the nature of the ISCO stress and disc-observer orientational angle, the general form of the time-dependent flux is robust and insensitive to the exact disc temperature profile. We present numerical fits to the UV and X-ray light curves of ASASSN-14li, a particularly well observed TDE. This modelling incorporates strong gravity optics. The full 900 d of ASASSN-14li X-ray observations are very well fit by a simple relativistic disc model, significantly improving upon previous work. The same underlying model also fits the final 1000 d of ASASSN-14li observations in three different UV bandpasses. Finally, we demonstrate that the analytic formulae reproduce the properties of full numerical modelling at both UV and X-ray wavelengths with great fidelity.

Various paths to the spontaneous growth ofp-form fields

We show that $p$-form fields can go through spontaneous growth due to various couplings in gravity theories, forming a new example of spontaneous tensorization. Generalizing the spontaneous scalarization theory of Damour and Esposito-Farèse where the original idea has been applied to different fields from vectors to spinors has received high levels of interest in recent years. We first review this existing literature on spontaneous growth in gravity, and then apply the known mechanisms to $p$-forms. We show that one can induce spontaneous growth in $p$-forms for each of the regularized instability mechanisms, which was not the case for other types of fields. We obtain theories with the common property that they lead to large deviations from general relativity in strong gravity as is usual in spontaneous tensorization. This is especially interesting for gravitational wave observations, a direct probe of this regime.

Anatomy of a thermal black hole mimicker

We are entering a new era to test the strong gravity regime around astrophysical black holes. The possibility that they are actually horizonless ultracompact objects and then free from the information loss paradox can be examined more closely with observational data. In this paper, we systematically develop a thermal gas model of the 2-2-hole in quadratic gravity, as one step further to look for more tractable models of black hole mimickers. Concrete predictions for departures from black holes are made all the way down to the high curvature interior. The simple form of matter further enables an explicit study of the relation between geometry and thermodynamics. Within this unified framework, we identify notably different behaviors at two limits. On one side is the astrophysically large 2-2-hole, as characterized by a minuscule deviation outside the would-be horizon and a highly squeezed interior along the radial direction. Anomalous features of black hole thermodynamics emerge from the ordinary gas. On the other side is the minimal 2-2-hole with an isotropic and shrinking interior, which behaves more like a normal thermodynamic system. This brings a new perspective to the related theoretical questions as well as phenomenological implications.

Affect of Waste Tyre Rubber Recycle Properties of Concrete by Partial Replacement of Coarse Aggregate with Rubber

Rubber tires are produced excessively worldwide every year. It is not easy to remove rubber waste from environment because it causes environmental pollution and its decomposing takes long -time. The reuse of rubber is better than disposal. The waste rubber can be reuse as a coarse aggregate in concrete. This rubber concrete has elastic properties and strong gravity they can also be used has light weight bricks because rubber is in light weight hence it can be replaced coarse aggregate in percentages the weight of concrete reduced. The rubber replaced concrete can be study by conducting experiments on rubber replaced concrete cubes the experimental testes want to conduct on concrete are compressing test, split tensile test and flexible test. The number of unused tires from different types of vehicles increasing rapidly his one of the main environmental problems today. About 1 billion garbage tires thrown away every year, and it is estimated that about 1.2 billion will pass each year. In this study mechanical properties of rubber we came to know that the rubber aggregate using in concrete have an equal strength of ordinary concrete by adding rubber aggregates the weight of the concrete decreases and it can also use as low weight bricks.

Generalized disformal coupling leads to spontaneous tensorization

We show that gravity theories involving disformally transformed metrics in their matter coupling lead to spontaneous growth of various fields in a similar fashion to the spontaneous scalarization scenario in scalar-tensor theories. Scalar-dependent disformal transformations have been investigated in this context, and our focus is understanding the transformations that depend on more general fields. We show that vector-dependent disformal couplings can be obtained in various different ways, each leading to spontaneous vectorization as indicated by the instabilities in linearized equations of motion. However, we also show that spontaneous growth is not evident beyond vectors. For example, we could not identify a spontaneous growth mechanism for a spinor field through disformal transformations, even though there is a known example for conformal transformations. This invites further work on the fundamental differences between the two types of metric transformations. We argue that our results are relevant for observations in strong gravity such as gravitational wave detections due to their promise of large deviations from general relativity in this regime.

Global simulations of Tayler instability in stellar interiors: the stabilizing effect of gravity

ABSTRACT Unveiling the evolution of toroidal field instability, known as Tayler instability, is essential to understand the strength and topology of the magnetic fields observed in early-type stars, in the core of the red giants, or in any stellar radiative zone. We want to study the non-linear evolution of the instability of a toroidal field stored in a stably stratified layer, in spherical symmetry and in the absence of rotation. In particular, we intend to quantify the suppression of the instability as a function of the Brunt–Väisäla (ωBV) and the Alfvén (ωA) frequencies. We use the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations as implemented in the anelastic approximation in the eulag–mhd code and perform a large series of numerical simulations of the instability exploring the parameter space for the ωBV and ωA. We show that beyond a critical value gravity strongly suppress the instability, in agreement with the linear analysis. The intensity of the initial field also plays an important role: weaker fields show much slower growth rates. Moreover, in the case of very low gravity, the fastest growing modes have a large characteristic radial scale, at variance with the case of strong gravity, where the instability is characterized by horizontal displacements. Our results illustrate that the anelastic approximation can efficiently describe the evolution of toroidal field instability in stellar interiors. The suppression of the instability as a consequence of increasing values of ωBV might play a role to explain the magnetic desert in Ap/Bp stars, since weak fields are only marginally unstable in the case of strong gravity.

Strong gravity signatures in the polarization of gravitational waves

General Relativity is a hugely successful description of gravitation. However, both theory and observations suggest that General Relativity might have significant classical and quantum corrections in the Strong Gravity regime. Testing the strong field limit of gravity is one of the main objectives of the future gravitational wave detectors. One way to detect strong gravity is through the polarization of gravitational waves. For quasi-normal modes of black-holes in General Relativity, the two polarization states of gravitational waves have the same amplitude and frequency spectrum. Using the principle of energy conservation, we show that the polarizations differ for modified gravity theories. We obtain a diagnostic parameter for polarization mismatch that provides a unique way to distinguish General Relativity and modified gravity theories in gravitational wave detectors.

On echo intervals in gravitational wave echo analysis

Gravitational wave echoes, if they exist, could encode important information of new physics from the strong gravity regime. Current echo searches usually assume constant interval echoes (CIEs) a priori, although unequal interval echoes (UIEs) are also possible. Despite of its simplicity, the using of CIE templates need to be properly justified, especially given the high sensitivity of future gravitational wave detectors. In this paper, we assess the necessity of UIE templates in echo searches. By reconstructing injected UIE signals with both CIE and UIE templates, we show that the CIE template may significantly misinterpret the echo signals if the variation of the interval is greater than the statistical errors of the interval, which is further confirmed by a Bayesian analysis on model stelection. We also forecast the constraints on the echo intervals given by future GW detectors such as Advanced LIGO and Einstein Telescope.

Decoding signatures of extra dimensions and estimating spin of quasars from the continuum spectrum

Continuum spectrum emitted by the accretion disk around quasars hold a wealth of information regarding the strong gravitational field produced by the massive central object. Such strong gravity regime is often expected to exhibit deviations from general relativity (GR) which may manifest through the presence of extra dimensions. Higher dimensions, which serve as the corner stone for string theory and M-theory can act as promising alternatives to dark matter and dark energy with interesting implications in inflationary cosmology, gravitational waves and collider physics. Therefore it is instructive to investigate the effect of more than four spacetime dimensions on the black hole continuum spectrum which provide an effective astrophysical probe to the strong gravity regime. To explore such a scenario, we compute the optical luminosity emitted by a thin accretion disk around a rotating supermassive black hole albeit in the presence of extra dimensions. The background metric resembles the Kerr-Newman spacetime in GR where the tidal charge parameter inherited from extra dimensions can also assume negative signature. The theoretical luminosity computed in such a background is contrasted with optical observations of eighty quasars. The difference between the theoretical and observed luminosity for these quasars is used to infer the most favoured choice of the rotation parameter for each quasar and the tidal charge parameter. This has been achieved by minimizing/maximizing several error estimators, e.g., chi-squared, Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, index of agreement etc. Intriguingly, all of them favour a negative value for the tidal charge parameter, a characteristic signature of extra dimensions. Thus accretion disk does provide a significant possibility of exploring the existence of extra dimensions through its close correspondence with the strong gravity regime.