Although the Kerr solution is common to many gravity theories, its perturbations are different in different theories. Hence, perturbed Kerr black holes can probe deviations from General Relativity.
We study in some detail the "extended Kerr-Schild" formulation of general relativity, which decomposes the gauge-independent degrees of freedom of a generic metric into two arbitrary functions and the choice of a flat background tetrad. We recast Einstein's equations and spacetime curvatures in the extended Kerr-Schild form and discuss their properties, illustrated with simple examples.
We revisit the Kerr metric in Boyer-Lindquist coordinates and construct the corresponding class of nonstandard solutions of Einstein's equations. These solutions can be used to describe the outer part of spiral galaxies without assuming dark matter.
Considerable attention has recently focused on gravity theories obtained by extending general relativity with additional scalar, vector, or tensor degrees of freedom. In this paper, we show that the black-hole solutions of these theories are essentially indistinguishable from those of general relativity. Thus, we conclude that a potential observational verification of the Kerr metric around an astrophysical black hole cannot, in and of itself, be used to distinguish between these theories. On the other hand, it remains true that detection of deviations from the Kerr metric will signify the nee…
In the present work, the spin-coefficient formalism of Newman and Penrose is used to formulate geometric constraints for the existence of Kerr-Schild groups, i.e. continuous groups of generalized Kerr-Schild transformations. In addition, by characterizing the geometric structure of the deformed Einstein tensor of the generalized Kerr-Schild class, restrictions are imposed on the existence of apparent conservation laws in generic spacetimes, which are defined via considering special Kerr-Schild currents whose associated Kerr-Schild vector fields coincide with timelike Killing vector fields of p…
The motion of binary star systems is re-examined in the presence of perturbations from the theory of general relativity. The Kepler problem is regularized and linearized with quaternions. In this way first order perturbation results are derived.
A general Hamiltonian approach to black hole thermodynamics is used to study entropy and conserved charges for Kerr-AdS solutions in general relativity. These thermodynamic variables are first consistently defined by choosing suitable boundary conditions, and then, they are shown to satisfy the first law of black hole dynamics
Black hole thermodynamics of the Kerr-AdS spacetime in three-dimensional general relativity is analyzed using a Hamiltonian approach. The values of the conserved charges and entropy, obtained by a proper treatment of the AdS asymptotic conditions, are shown to satisfy the first law of black hole dynamics.
The Cauchy horizon inside a perturbed Kerr black hole develops an instability that transforms it into a curvature singularity. We solve for the linearized Weyl scalars $ψ_0$ and $ψ_4$ and for the curvature scalar $R_{αβγδ}R^{αβγδ}$ along outgoing null rays approaching the Cauchy horizon in the interior of perturbed Kerr black holes using the Teukolsky equation, and compare our results with those found in perturbation analysis. Our results corroborate the previous perturbation analysis result that at its early parts the Cauchy horizon evolves into a deformationally-weak, null, scalar-curvature …
We discuss a recently presented boosted Kerr black hole solution which had already been used by other authors. This boosted metric is based on wrong assumptions regarding asymptotic inertial observers and moreover the performed boost is not a proper Lorentz transformation. This note aims to clarify some of the issues when boosting black holes and the necessary care in order to interpret them. As it is wrongly claimed that the presented boosted Kerr metric is of Bondi-Sachs type, we recall out some of the necessary requirements and difficulties, when the casting the Kerr metric into a metric wi…
In this paper we study some features of the Kerr metric both from an analytic and a visual point of view by performing accurate raytracing in various situations. We focus on features that are unique to the maximal analytic extension of the Kerr metric as compared to that of the Schwarzschild or even the Reissner-Nordström one. A large number of new, yet underexplored phenomena appear, especially regarding the structure of bounded null geodesics and the aspect of the negative gravity regions whose visual characteristics are shown both from outside and inside it.
We construct initial data corresponding to a single perturbed Kerr black hole in vacuum. These data are defined on specific hyperboloidal ("ACMC-") slices on which the mean extrinsic curvature K asymptotically approaches a constant at future null infinity scri+. More precisely, we require that K obeys the Taylor expansion K=K0 + s^4 where K0 is a constant and s describes a compactified spatial coordinate such that scri+ is represented by s=0. We excise the singular interior of the black hole and assume a marginally outer trapped surface as inner boundary of the computational domain. The moment…
Using a constrained formalism for Einstein equations in Dirac gauge, we propose to compute excised quasistationary initial data for black hole spacetimes in full general relativity. Vacuum spacetime settings are numerically constructed by using the isolated horizon formalism; we especially tackle the conformal metric part of our equations, assuming global stationarity. We show that a no-boundary treatment can be used on the horizon for the equation related to the conformal metric. We relate this finding to previous suggestions in the literature, and use our results to assess the widely used co…
The exact (closed form) solutions of the equations of motion in the theory of general relativity that describe motion of test particle and photon in Kerr and Kerr-(anti) de Sitter spacetimes all involve the multivariable hypergeometric function of Lauricella $F_D$: Kraniotis [Class. Quantum Grav. {\bf 21} 2004, 4743; Class. Quantum Grav. {\bf 22} 2005, 4391; Class. Quantum Grav. {\bf 24} 2007, 1775]. The domain of variables ${\cal D}_n$ of the corresponding function depends on the first integrals of motion associated with the isometries of the Kerr-(anti) de Sitter metric and Carter's constant…
The linear perturbation of a Kerr black hole induced by a rotating massive circular ring is discussed by using the formalism by Teukolsky, Chrzanowski, Cohen and Kegeles. In these formalism, the perturbed Weyl scalars, $ψ_0$ and $ψ_4$, are first obtained from the Teukolsky equation. The perturbed metric is obtained in a radiation gauge via the Hertz potential. The computation can be done in the same way as in our previous paper, in which we considered the perturbation of a Schwarzschild black hole induced by a rotating ring. By adding lower multipole modes such as mass and angular momentum per…
The pseudo-complex General Relativity (pc-GR) is further considered. A new projection method is proposed. It is shown, that the pc-GR introduces automatically terms into the system which can be interpreted as dark energy. The modified pseudo-complex Schwarzschild solution is investigated. The dark energy part is treated as a liquid and possible solutions are discussed. As a consequence, the collapse of a large stellar mass into a singularity at $r=0$ is avoided and no event-horizon is formed. Thus, black holes don't exist. The resulting object can be viewed as a gray star. It contains no singu…
The paper presents equations determining the particle spin evolution in the post-Newtonian approximation in the problem of motion of two mass and spin possessing particles. The equations are derived with the Einstein-Infeld-Hoffmann method from the condition of metric tensor symmetry. The consideration uses the condition of coordinate harmonicity and the metric coincidence nearby the particles with expansions of the Kerr solution written in the harmonic coordinates. For gyroscopes on satellites Gravity Probe B, for example, the equations yield a deviation of the axis of revolution, which is, f…
We explicitly construct the metric of a Kerr black hole that is tidally perturbed by the external universe in the slow-motion approximation. This approximation assumes that the external universe changes slowly relative to the rotation rate of the hole, thus allowing the parameterization of the Newman-Penrose scalar $ψ_0$ by time-dependent electric and magnetic tidal tensors. This approximation, however, does not constrain how big the spin of the background hole can be and, in principle, the perturbed metric can model rapidly spinning holes. We first generate a potential by acting with a differ…
We compare and contrast the emission of gravitational waves and waveforms for the recently established "helicoidal-drifting-sequence" of a test particle around a Kerr black hole with the publicly available waveform templates of numerical-relativity. The merger of two black holes of comparable mass are considered. We outline a final smooth merging of the test particle into the final Kerr black hole. We find a surprising and unexpected agreement between the two treatments if we adopt, for the mass of the particle and the Kerr black hole a Newtonian-center-of-mass description, and for the Kerr bl…
The angular dependence of the gravitational radiation emitted in compact binary mergers and gravitational collapse is usually separated using spin-weighted spherical harmonics ${}_sY_{\ell m}$ of spin weight $s$, that reduce to the ordinary spherical harmonics $Y_{\ell m}$ when $s=0$. Teukolsky first showed that the perturbations of the Kerr black hole that may be produced as a result of these events are separable in terms of a different set of angular functions: the spin-weighted spheroidal harmonics ${}_sS_{\ell m n}$, where $n$ denotes the "overtone index" of the corresponding Kerr quasinor…
It has been recently demonstrated that the orbital velocity profile around Kerr black holes in the equatorial plane as observed in the locally non-rotating frame exhibits a non-monotonic radial behaviour. We show here that this unexpected minimum-maximum feature of the orbital velocity remains if the Kerr vacuum is generalized to the Kerr-de Sitter or Kerr-anti-de Sitter metric. This is a new general relativity effect in Kerr spacetimes with non-vanishing cosmological constant. Assuming that the profile of the orbital velocity is known, this effect constrains the spacetime parameters.
The complete solution of the vacuum Kerr-Schild equations in general relativity is presented, including the space-times with a curved background metric. The corresponding result for a flat background has been obtained by Kerr.
Recent measurements of gravitational-wave ringdown following the merger of binary black holes raise the prospect of precision black hole spectroscopy in the near future. To perform the most sensitive tests of the nature of black holes using ringdown measurements, it is critical to compute the deviations to the spectrum of black holes in particular extensions of relativity. These spectral shifts are also needed to interpret any violations of the predictions of relativity that may be detected during ringdown. Here we present a first step towards computing the shifts to the spectrum of Kerr black…
We present a pseudo-Newtonian potential for accretion disk modeling around the rotating black holes. This potential can describe the general relativistic effects on accretion disk. As the inclusion of rotation in a proper way is very important at an inner edge of disk the potential is derived from the Kerr metric. This potential can reproduce all the essential properties of general relativity within 10% error even for rapidly rotating black holes.
We derive the Teukolsky equation for perturbations of a Kerr spacetime when the spacetime metric is written in either ingoing or outgoing Kerr-Schild form. We also write explicit formulae for setting up the initial data for the Teukolsky equation in the time domain in terms of a three metric and an extrinsic curvature. The motivation of this work is to have in place a formalism to study the evolution in the ``close limit'' of two recently proposed solutions to the initial value problem in general relativity that are based on Kerr-Schild slicings. A perturbative formalism in horizon penetrating…
Singularities in the metric of the classical solutions to the Einstein equations (Schwarzschild, Kerr, Reissner -- Nordström and Kerr -- Newman solutions) lead to appearance of generalized functions in the Einstein tensor that are not usually taken into consideration. The generalized functions can be of a more complex nature than the Dirac $\d$-function. To study them, a technique has been used based on a limiting solution sequence. The solutions are shown to satisfy the Einstein equations everywhere, if the energy-momentum tensor has a relevant singular addition of non-electromagnetic origin.…
We prove, outside the influence region of a ball of radius $R_0$ centered in the origin of the initial data hypersurface, the existence of global solutions near to Kerr spacetime, provided that the initial data are sufficiently near to those of Kerr; This external region is the "far" part of the outer region of the perturbed Kerr spacetime. Moreover if we assume that the corrections to the Kerr metric decay sufficiently fast, $o(r^{-3})$, we prove that the various null components of the Riemann tensor decay in agreement with the "Peeling theorem".
In the first part of this thesis, Kerr-Schild metrics and extended Kerr-Schild metrics are analyzed in the context of higher dimensional general relativity. Employing the higher dimensional generalizations of the Newman-Penrose formalism and the algebraic classification of spacetimes based on the existence and multiplicity of Weyl aligned null directions, we establish various geometrical properties of the Kerr-Schild congruences, determine compatible Weyl types and in the expanding case discuss the presence of curvature singularities. We also present known exact solutions admitting these Kerr-…
Relativistic tidal equations are formulated with respect to the rest frame of a central gravitational source and their solutions are studied. The existence of certain relativistic critical tidal currents are thereby elucidated. Specifically, observers that are spatially at rest in the exterior Kerr spacetime are considered in detail; in effect, these fiducial observers define the rest frame of the Kerr source. The general tidal equations for the free motion of test particles are worked out with respect to the Kerr background. The analytic solutions of these equations are investigated and the e…
Observations of the black hole shadow of supermassive black holes, such as Sagittarius A* at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, allow us to study the properties of black holes and the nature of strong-field gravity. According to the Kerr hypothesis, isolated, stationary, and axisymmetric astrophysical black holes are described by the Kerr metric. The Kerr hypothesis holds in General Relativity and in some modified gravity theories, but there are others in which it is violated. In principle, black hole shadow observations can be used to determine if the Kerr metric is the correct description f…
Black hole based tests of general relativity have proliferated in recent times with new and improved detectors and telescopes. Modelling of the black hole neighborhood, where most of the radiation carrying strong-field signature originates, is of utmost importance for robust and accurate constraints on possible violations of general relativity. As a first step, this paper presents the extension of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of thin accretion disks to parametrically deformed black holes that generalize the Kerr solution. The extension is based on \textsc{harmpi}, a pub…
We derive an exact radiating Kerr-Newman like black hole solution, with constant curvature $R=R_0$ imposed, to {\it metric} $f(R)$ gravity via complex transformations suggested by Newman-Janis. This generates a geometry which is precisely that of radiating Kerr-Newman-de Sitter / anti-de Sitter with the $f(R)$ gravity contributing an $R_0$ cosmological-like term. The structure of three horizon-like surfaces, {\it viz.} timelike limit surface, apparent horizon and event horizon, are determined. We demonstrate the existence of an additional cosmological horizon, in $f(R)$ gravity model, apart fr…
In previous papers, explicit symplectic integrators were designed for nonrotating black holes, such as a Schwarzschild black hole. However, they fail to work in the Kerr spacetime because not all variables can be separable, or not all splitting parts have analytical solutions as explicit functions of proper time. To cope with this difficulty, we introduce a time transformation function to the Hamiltonian of Kerr geometry so as to obtain a time-transformed Hamiltonian consisting of five splitting parts, whose analytical solutions are explicit functions of the new coordinate time. The chosen tim…
We present a new approach for setting initial Cauchy data for multiple black hole spacetimes. The method is based upon adopting an initially Kerr-Schild form of the metric. In the case of non-spinning holes, the constraint equations take a simple hierarchical form which is amenable to direct numerical integration. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by solving analytically the problem of initial data in a perturbed Schwarzschild geometry.
We present an analytical treatment of gravitational lensing by a Kerr black hole in the weak deflection limit. Lightlike geodesics are expanded as a Taylor series up to and including third-order terms in m/b and a/b, where m is the black hole mass, a the angular momentum and b the impact parameter of the light ray. Positions and magnifications of individual images are computed with a perturbative analysis. At this order, the degeneracy with the translated Schwarzschild lens is broken. The critical curve is still a circle displaced from the black hole position in the equatorial direction and th…
In general relativity, the Kerr metric uniquely represents the geometry surrounding an isolated, rotating black hole. An identification of significant non-Kerr features in some astrophysical source would then provide a `smoking-gun' for the break-down of general relativity in the strong-field regime. On the other hand, Kerr black holes are common to many other theories of gravity, and thus a validation of the Kerr metric does not necessarily favour general relativity amongst all possibilities. The nature of gravitational perturbations will however differ between different theories of gravity. …
We analyse the expression for the mass of a stationary axisymmetric configuration in general relativity obtained in our previous work [1]. From the generality of our formula and its incompatibility with the corresponding expression in Kerr space-time we argue that a stationary equilibrium distribution of a real matter cannot be a source of the Kerr metric.
Modified theories of gravity are often built such that they contain general relativity as a limiting case. This inclusion property implies that the Kerr metric is common to many families of theories. For example, all analytic $f(R)$ theories with vanishing constant term admit the Kerr solution. In any given theory, however, the response of the gravitational field to astrophysical disturbances is tied to the structure of the field equations. As such, even if black holes are Kerr, the underlying theory can, in principle, be probed through gravitational distortions. In this paper, we study linear…
Metrics representing black holes in General Relativity may exhibit naked singularities for certain values of their parameters. This is the case for super-extremal ($J^2 > M>0$) Kerr and super-extremal ($|Q|>M>0$) Reissner-Nördstrom spacetimes, and also for the negative mass Schwarzschild spacetime. We review our recent work where we show that these nakedly singular spacetimes are unstable under linear gravitational perturbations, a result that supports the cosmic censorship conjecture, and also that the inner stationary region beyond the inner horizon of a Kerr black hole ($J^2 <M$) is linearl…
Motivated by the desire to understand the leading order nonlinear gravitational wave interactions around arbitrarily rapidly rotating Kerr black holes, we describe a numerical code designed to compute second order vacuum perturbations on such spacetimes. A general discussion of the formalism we use is presented in (arXiv:2008.11770); here we show how we numerically implement that formalism with a particular choice of coordinates and tetrad conditions, and give example results for black holes with dimensionless spin parameters $a=0.7$ and $a=0.998$. We first solve the Teukolsky equation for the…
Repulsive gravity is not very popular in physics. However, one comes across it in at least two main occurrences in general relativity: in the negative-$r$ region of Kerr spacetime, and as the result of the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter, when the latter is assumed to be CPT-transformed matter. Here we show how these two independent developments of general relativity are perfectly consistent in predicting gravitational repulsion and how the above Kerr negative-$r$ region can be interpreted as the habitat of antimatter. As a consequence, matter particles traveling along …
We explore the (non)-universality of Martinez's conjecture, originally proposed for Kerr black holes, within and beyond general relativity. The conjecture states that the Brown-York quasilocal energy at the outer horizon of such a black hole reduces to twice its irreducible mass, or equivalently, to \sqrt{A} /(2\sqrt{pi}), where `A' is its area. We first consider the charged Kerr black hole. For such a spacetime, we calculate the quasilocal energy within a two-surface of constant Boyer-Lindquist radius embedded in a constant stationary-time slice. Keeping with Martinez's conjecture, at the out…
In this paper we study the Hawking radiation in Reissner-Nordstrom and Kerr-Newman black holes by considering the charge to be the function of radial coordinate.
As a first step towards the calculation of waveform of Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals for Modified Gravity theories, we calculate the orbital frequencies of a Small Compact Object inspiralling into a super massive blackhole for a Nonlocal gravity model. The small compact object moves along an orbit which can be approximated to a geodesic of the background spacetime due to large mass ratio of central blackhole to Small Compact Object. In General Relativity, the fundamental orbital frequencies $Ω_r,\;Ω_θ$ and $Ω_ϕ$ can be calculated by solving geodesic equations of the Kerr metric. If we formulate…
The observation of the bending of light by mass, now known as gravitational lensing, was key in establishing general relativity as one of the pillars of modern physics. In the past couple of decades, there has been increasing interest in using gravitational lensing to test general relativity beyond the weak deflection limit. Black holes and neutron stars produce the strong gravitational fields needed for such tests. For a rotating compact object, the distinction between prograde and retrograde photon trajectories becomes important. In this paper, we explore subtleties that arise in interpretin…
This is the first of two papers on computing the self-force in a radiation gauge for a particle moving in circular, equatorial orbit about a Kerr black hole. In the EMRI (extreme-mass-ratio inspiral) framework, with mode-sum renormalization, we compute the renormalized value of the quantity $h_{αβ}u^αu^β$, gauge-invariant under gauge transformations generated by a helically symmetric gauge vector; and we find the related order $\frak{m}$ correction to the particle's angular velocity at fixed renormalized redshift (and to its redshift at fixed angular velocity). The radiative part of the pertur…
Astrophysical black hole systems are the ideal laboratories for testing Einstein's theory of gravity in the strong field regime. We have recently developed a framework which uses the reflection spectrum of black hole systems to perform precision tests of general relativity by testing the Kerr black hole hypothesis. In this paper, we analyze XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the supermassive black hole in the Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-06-30-15 with our disk reflection model. We consider the Johannsen metric with the deformation parameters $α_{13}$ and $α_{22}$, which quantify deviations from the…
An electromagnetic analog of the Kerr-Newman solution in general relativity is derived, based on Minkowski's formulation for electromagnetic fields in moving media. The equivalent system is a distribution of charges and currents largely localized within a spinning disk of radius a. This occurs in a rotating medium of inhomogeneous index of refraction and "frame dragging" at exactly half the angular velocity of the electrical charge.
General relativity has been tested by many experiments, which, however, almost exclusively probe weak spacetime curvatures. In this thesis, I create two frameworks for testing general relativity in the strong-field regime with observations of black holes in the electromagnetic spectrum using current or near-future instruments. In the first part of this thesis, I design tests of the no-hair theorem, which uniquely characterizes the nature of black holes in general relativity in terms of their masses and spins and which states that these compact objects are described by the Kerr metric. I invest…
Einstein's theory of General Relativity predicts that the spacetime metric around astrophysical black holes is described by the Kerr solution. In this work, we employ state-of-the-art in relativistic reflection modeling to analyze a selected set of NuSTAR spectra of Galactic black holes to obtain the most robust and precise constraints on the Kerr black hole hypothesis possible today. Our constraints are much more stringent than those from other electromagnetic techniques, and with some sources we get stronger constraints than those currently available from gravitational waves.
General relativity has been widely tested in weak gravitational fields but still stands largely untested in the strong-field regime. According to the no-hair theorem, black holes in general relativity depend only on their masses and spins and are described by the Kerr metric. Mass and spin are the first two multipole moments of the Kerr spacetime and completely determine all higher-order moments. The no-hair theorem and, hence, general relativity can be tested by measuring potential deviations from the Kerr metric affecting such higher-order moments. Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a prime target f…
Gravitational wave echoes may imply physics beyond general relativity; however, several approaches to searching for echoes require fitting the data to toy templates which are not physically motivated. Here, I create a procedure which outputs a more realistic form for echoes, starting from initial conditions, by calculating the modulated transfer function.