Non-linear Q-clouds around Kerr black holes

The present paper is a sequel to our previous work [1] in which we studied the iron Kα line expected in the reflection spectrum of Kerr black holes with scalar hair. These metrics are solutions of Einstein's gravity minimally coupled to a massive, complex scalar field. They form a continuous bridge between a subset of Kerr black holes and a family of rotating boson stars depending on one extra parameter, the dimensionless scalar hair parameter q, ranging from 0 (Kerr black holes) to 1 (boson stars). Here we study the limiting case q = 1, corresponding to rotating boson stars. For comparison, spherical boson stars are also considered. We simulate observations with XIS/Suzaku. Using the fact that current observations are well fit by the Kerr solution and thus requiring that acceptable alternative compact objects must be compatible with a Kerr fit, we find that some boson star solutions are relatively easy to rule out as potential candidates to explain astrophysical black holes, while other solutions, which are neither too dilute nor too compact are more elusive and we argue that they cannot be distinguished from Kerr black holes by the analysis of the iron line with current X-ray facilities.

We initiate the study of the information paradox of rotating Kerr black holes by employing the recently proposed island rule. It is known that the scalar field theory near the Kerr black hole horizon can be reduced to the two-dimensional effective theory. Working within the framework of the two-dimensional effective theory and assuming the small angular momentum limit, we demonstrate that the entanglement entropy of Hawking radiation from the nonextremal Kerr black hole follows the Page curve and saturates the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy at late times. In addition, we also discuss the effect of the black hole rotation on the Page time and scrambling time. For the extreme Kerr black hole, the entanglement entropy at late times also approximates the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the extreme Kerr black hole. These results imply that entanglement islands can provide a semiclassical resolution of the information paradox for rotating Kerr black holes. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

The dynamics of a binary system moving in the background of a black hole is affected by tidal forces. In this work, for the Kerr black hole, we derive the electric and magnetic tidal moments at quadrupole order, where the latter are computed for the first time in full generality. We make use of these moments in the scenario of a hierarchical triple system made of a Kerr black hole and an extreme-mass ratio binary system consisting of a Schwarzschild black hole and a test particle. We study how the secular dynamics of the test particle in the binary system is distorted by the presence of tidal forces from a much larger Kerr black hole. Our treatment includes strong gravitational effects beyond the post-Newtonian approximation both for the binary system and for the tidal forces since the binary system is allowed to be close to the event horizon of the Kerr black hole. We compute the shifts in the physical quantities for the secular dynamics of the test particle and show that they are gauge invariant. In particular, we apply our formalism to the innermost stable circular orbit for the test particle and to the case of the photon sphere. Our results are relevant for the astrophysical situation in which the binary system is in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole.

Context. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) will soon provide the first high-resolution images of the Galactic Centre supermassive black hole candidate Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), enabling us to probe gravity in the strong-field regime. In addition to studying the accretion process in extreme environments, the obtained data and reconstructed images could be used to investigate the underlying spacetime structure. In its current configuration, EHT is able to distinguish between a rotating Kerr black hole and a horizon-less object such as a boson star. Future developments can increase the ability of EHT to tell different spacetimes apart. Aims. We investigate the capability of an advanced EHT concept, including an orbiting space antenna, to image and distinguish different spacetimes around Sgr A*. Methods. We used general-relativistic magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of accreting compact objects (Kerr and dilaton black holes as well as boson stars) and computed their radiative signatures via general-relativistic radiative transfer. To facilitate a comparison with upcoming and future EHT observations, we produced realistic synthetic data including the source variability, diffractive, and refractive scattering while incorporating the observing array, including a space antenna. From the generated synthetic observations, we dynamically reconstructed black hole shadow images using regularised maximum entropy methods. We employed a genetic algorithm to optimise the orbit of the space antenna with respect to improved imaging capabilities and u − v-plane coverage of the combined array (ground array and space antenna) and developed a new method to probe the source variability in Fourier space. Results. The inclusion of an orbiting space antenna improves the capability of EHT to distinguish the spin of Kerr black holes and dilaton black holes based on reconstructed radio images and complex visibilities.

We investigate whether photon ring observations in black hole imaging are able to distinguish between the Kerr black hole in general relativity and alternative black holes that deviate from Kerr. Certain aspects of photon rings have been argued to be robust observables in very-long-baseline interferometry black hole observations which carry imprints of the underlying spacetime. The photon ring shape, as well as its Lyapunov exponent (which encodes the narrowing of successive photon subrings), are detailed probes of the underlying geometry; measurements thereof have been argued to provide a strong null test of general relativity and the Kerr metric. However, a more complicated question is whether such observations of the photon ring properties can distinguish between Kerr and alternative black holes. We provide a first answer to this question by calculating photon rings of the Johannsen, Rasheed-Larsen, and Manko-Novikov black holes. We find that large deviations from Kerr and large observer inclinations are needed to obtain measurable differences in the photon ring shape. In other words, the Kerr photon ring shape appears to be the universal shape even for deviating black holes at low inclinations. On the other hand, the Lyapunov exponent shows more marked variations for deviations from the Kerr metric. Our analysis lays out the groundwork to determine deviations from the Kerr spacetime in photon rings that are potentially detectable by future observing missions.

X-ray studies of stellar mass black holes in X-ray binaries and mass-accreting supermassive black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei have achieved a high degree of maturity and have delivered detailed information about the astrophysical sources and the physics of black hole accretion. In this article, I review recent progress made towards using the X-ray observations for testing the "Kerr hypothesis" that the background spacetimes of all astrophysical quasi-stationary black holes are described by the Kerr metric. Although the observations have indeed revealed clear evidence for relativistic effects in strong-field gravity, quantitative tests of the Kerr hypothesis still struggle with theoretical and practical difficulties. In this article, I describe several recently introduced test metrics and review the status of constraining the background spacetimes of mass accreting stellar mass and supermassive black holes with these test metrics. The main conclusion of the discussion is that astrophysical uncertainties are large compared to the rather small observational differences between the Kerr and non-Kerr metrics precluding quantitative constraints on deviations from the Kerr metric at this point in time. I conclude with discussing future progress enabled by more detailed numerical simulations and by future X-ray spectroscopy, timing, polarimetry, and interferometry missions.

The hidden Kerr/CFT proposal implies that the massless scalar wave equation in the near-region and low-frequency limit respects a hidden SL(2,R)$\times$SL(2,R) invariance in the Kerr black hole spacetime. We may use this symmetry to determine quasinormal frequencies (QNFs) of the massless scalar wave propagating around the Kerr black hole algebraically. It is shown that QNFs obtained using the hidden conformal symmetry near the horizon correspond approximately to not only those of scalar perturbation around the near-horizon region of a nearly extremal Kerr (NEK) black hole, but also those of non-equatorial scalar modes around the NEK black hole. This indicates that the hidden Kerr/CFT proposal could determine quasinormal modes and frequencies of the massless scalar wave around the NEK (rapidly rotating) black hole approximately.

We set to weigh the black holes at their event horizons in various spacetimes and obtain masses which are substantially higher than their asymptotic values. In each case, the horizon mass of a Schwarzschild, Reissner–Nordström, or Kerr black hole is found to be twice the irreducible mass observed at infinity. The irreducible mass does not contain electrostatic or rotational energy, leading to the inescapable conclusion that particles with electric charges and spins cannot exist inside a black hole. This is proposed as the External Energy Paradigm. A higher mass at the event horizon and its neighborhood is obligatory for the release of gravitational waves in binary black hole merging. We describe how these horizon mass values are obtained in the quasi-local energy approach and applied to the black holes of the first gravitational waves GW150914.

Magnetic reconnection is a process that plays a critical role inplasma astrophysics by converting magnetic energy into plasmaparticle energy. Recently, Comisso and Asenjo demonstrated thatrapid magnetic reconnection within a black hole's ergosphere canefficiently extract energy from a rotating black hole. In thispaper, by considering a Kerr black hole in the MOdified gravity(MOG) framework, we investigate the impact of the MOG parameter α on the rotational energy extraction via theComisso-Asenjo process (CAP). To model energy extraction from supermassive black holes located in the center of galaxies, we set the value of α within the range inferred from the recent observation of Sgr A* by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Ourresults indicate that the Kerr-MOG black hole is a more efficienthost for CAP-based rotational energy extraction compared to theKerr black hole, since it amplifies the power of energy extractionand efficiency of the plasma energization process. We show that,from the energy extraction viewpoint, the CAP is more efficientthan the Blandford-Znajek process (BZP). The latter is anothermagnetic field-based energy extraction model which is widelybelieved to be an engine for powering the high-energyastrophysics jets emerging from the supermassive black holes atactive galactic nuclei. In particular, we show that the ratio ofthe energy extraction power of CAP to BZP in the presence of theMOG parameter is greater than that of the Kerr black hole. Ourresults promise this phenomenological message that theMOG-induced correction on the Kerr black hole background plays animportant role in favor of energy extraction via the CAP.

The destruction of the event horizon of a nonsingular black hole, which is not prevented by the weak cosmic censorship conjecture, might provide us the possibility to access quantum regime of gravity inside black hole. We investigate the possibility of overspinning a nonsingular rotating quantum-corrected black hole by a test particle and a scalar field in this paper, and analyse the effect of the quantum parameter on the destruction of the event horizon. For the test particle injection, both extremal and near-extremal black holes cannot be overspun due to the existence of the quantum parameter. And the larger the quantum parameter the harder the black hole to be overspun. It seems that the quantum parameter acts as a protector to prevent the black hole to be destroyed. However, for the test scalar field scattering, both extremal and near-extremal black holes can be destroyed. Due to the loop quantum gravity correction, the angular velocity of the extremal black hole shifts from that of the extremal Kerr black hole. This provides a small range of wave modes to destroy the event horizon of the quantum-corrected 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.

Testing the true nature of black holes - the no-hair hypothesis - will become increasingly more precise in the next few years as new observational data is collected in both the gravitational-wave channel and the electromagnetic channel. In this paper we consider numerically generated spacetimes of Kerr black holes with synchronized scalar hair and build stationary models of magnetized thick disks (or tori) around them. Our approach assumes that the disks are not self-gravitating, they obey a polytropic equation of state, the distribution of their specific angular momentum is constant, and they are marginally stable, i.e., the disks completely fill their Roche lobe. Moreover, contrary to existing approaches in the literature, our models are thermodynamically relativist, as the specific enthalpy of the fluid can adopt values significantly larger than unity. We study the dependence of the morphology and properties of the accretion tori on the type of black hole considered, from purely Kerr black holes with varying degrees of spin parameter, namely from a Schwarzschild black hole to a nearly extremal Kerr case, to Kerr black holes with scalar hair with different Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass and horizon angular velocity. Comparisons between the disk properties for both types of black holes are presented. The sequences of magnetized, equilibrium disks around Kerr black holes with scalar hair discussed in this study are morphologically and thermodynamically different than their Kerr black hole counterparts, namely their vertical size is larger, the high-density central region is more extended, and the fluid is more relativistic. Therefore, we expect significant differences to appear when these sequences are used as initial data for numerical relativity codes to investigate their dynamical (nonlinear) stability and used in tandem with ray-tracing codes to obtain synthetic images of black holes (i.e., shadows) in astrophysically relevant situations where the light source is provided by an emitting accretion disk

The very large gravitational field of black holes causes accretion around black holes and formation of accretion disks. The accretion is mathematically expressed by the equation of mass accretion rate which describes how fast the accretion flows enter onto a black hole. The equation of relativistic mass accretion rate devoted to maximally rotaring black holes (extreme Kerr black holes) case has been formulated by assuming that the accretion disk is on the equatorial plane. The equation of mass accretion rate is derived from the Kerr black hole metric and the 4-velocity of matter. The obtained equation corresponds to the equation of mass accretion rate for slow Kerr black holes. Whilst, the value of the equation of mass accretion rate shows that the faster rotation of a Kerr black hole, the less accreted matter. However, in its extreme point, a black hole is not strong enough for accretion.

A generic black hole merger occurs through a restructuring of creases (sharp edges) on the event horizon. This process is studied for a black hole merger in the limit of infinite mass ratio, for which constructing the event horizon reduces to finding a null hypersurface that asymptotes to a Rindler horizon in the Kerr spacetime. Geometrical properties of the creases on this horizon are determined and the results are compared with the predictions of an exact local description of the event horizon in a generic merger. The crease set is shown to have finite area. A recently proposed expression for the gravitational entropy of a crease is shown to diverge at the instant of merger. Caustics on (and off) the event horizon are determined by exploiting the correspondence with the problem of gravitational lensing by a Kerr black hole. Caustics form an “astroid tube” in spacetime, two edges of which lie on the event horizon of the merger. Perturbative expressions for the location of this tube are presented, extending previous work to much higher perturbative order. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Turbulence in curved spacetimes in general, and in the vicinity of black holes (BHs) in particular, represents a poorly understood phenomenon that is often analysed employing techniques developed for flat spacetimes. We here propose a novel approach to study turbulence in strong gravitational fields that is based on the computation of structure functions on generic manifolds and is thus applicable to arbitrary curved spacetimes. In particular, we introduce, for the first time, a formalism to compute the characteristic properties of turbulence, such as the second-order structure function or the power spectral density, in terms of proper lengths and volumes and not in terms of coordinate lengths and volumes, as customarily done. By applying the new approach to the turbulent rest-mass density field from simulations of magnetised disc accretion onto a Kerr BH, we inspect in a rigorous way turbulence in regions close to the event horizon, but also in the disc, the wind, and in the jet. We demonstrate that the new approach can capture the typical behaviour of an inertial-range cascade and that differences up to 40 − 80% emerge in the vicinity of the event horizon with respect to the standard flat-spacetime approach. While these differences become smaller at larger distances, our study highlights that special care needs to be paid when analysing turbulence in strongly curved spacetimes.