Despite their potential importance for understanding astrophysical jets, physically realistic exact solutions for magnetospheres around Kerr black holes have not been found, even in the force-free approximation. Instead approximate analytical solutions such as the Blandford-Znajek (split-)monopole, as well as numerical solutions, have been constructed. In this paper we consider a new approach to the analysis and construction of such magnetospheres. We consider force-free electrodynamics close to the rotation axis of a magnetosphere surrounding a Kerr black hole assuming axisymmetry. This is the region where the force-free approximation should work the best, and where the jets are located. We perform a systematic study of the asymptotic region with (split-)monopole, paraboloidal and vertical asymptotic behaviors. Imposing asymptotics similar to a (split-)monopole, we find under certain assumptions that demanding regularity at the rotation axis and the event horizon restricts solutions of the stream equation so much that it is not possible for a solution to be continuously connected to the static (split-)monopole around the Schwarzschild black hole in the limit where the rotation goes to zero. On the one hand, this result provides independent evidence to the issues discovered with the asymptotics of the Blandford-Znajek (split-)monopole in Ref. [1]. On the other hand, we also point out possible caveats in our arguments that one could conceivably exploit to amend the perturbative construction of the Blandford-Znajek (split-)monopole.
Plasma-filled magnetospheres can extract energy from a spinning black hole and provide the power source for a variety of observed astrophysical phenomena. These magnetospheres are described by the highly nonlinear equations of force-free electrodynamics, or FFE. Typically these equations can only be solved numerically. In this paper we consider the FFE equations very near the horizon of a maximally spinning black hole, where the energy extraction takes place. Thanks to an enhanced conformal symmetry which appears in this near-horizon region, we are able to analytically obtain several infinite …
We have analyzed the thermodynamics of slowly rotating magnetized Kerr black-hole, with typical spin parameter $a\le 0.1$ (nearly static) in the background of non-linear electrodynamics. In particular we have studied the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, Hawking temperature, angular momentum, specific heats and identified regions of parameters for possible phase-transitions. It turns out that once the stability lost the black-hole never come back to its original stable position.
In this work, expanded solutions of force-free magnetospheres on general Kerr black holes are derived through a radial distance expansion method. From the regular conditions both at the horizon and at spatial infinity, two previously known asymptotical solutions (one of them is actually an exact solution) are identified as the only solutions that satisfy the same conditions at the two boundaries. Taking them as initial conditions at the boundaries, expanded solutions up to the first few orders are derived by solving the stream equation order by order. It is shown that our extension of the exac…
In this paper the spacetime of a general boosted Kerr black hole relative to a Lorentz frame at future null infinity is regarded as a background to examine its respective Papapetrou fields. Taking into account its sole Killing vector we evaluate the electric and magnetic components -- in Bondi-Sachs (BS) and Kerr-Schild (KS) coordinates -- of the Maxwell field which comes from spacetime isometries. To this end we consider a general timelike observer in KS coordinates. Satisfying sufficient conditions for horizon and ergosphere formation it is shown that nonsingular magnetic field configuration…
Force-Free Electrodynamics for black holes in Anti de Sitter is considered. We present new, energy extracting solutions of Force-Free Electrodynamics in Anti de Sitter - Near Horizon Extremal Kerr and Super-Entropic Near Horizon Extremal Kerr geometries. The relevant equations of motion are derived from an action for force-free plasma surrounding spinning black holes with generic asymptotics. We consider the energy flux of electrodynamic fields in rotating frames to argue that the correct measure for energy extraction is the energy flux measured by a rotating observer in the near horizon regio…
Thermodynamic topological classification of magnetically charged slowly rotating Kerr black holes in nonlinear electrodynamics with a cosmological constant
A new proof of the uniqueness of the Kerr-Newman black hole solutions amongst asymptotically flat, stationary and axisymmetric electro-vacuum spacetimes surrounding a connected Killing horizon is given by means of an explicit construction of the corresponding complex Ernst potentials on the axis of symmetry. This construction, which makes use of the inverse scattering method, also works in the case of a degenerate horizon.
We present here the general expressions for the acceleration of massive test particles along the symmetry axis of the Kerr metric, and then study the main properties of this acceleration in different regions of the spacetime. In particular, we show that there exists a region near the black hole in which the gravitational field is repulsive. We provide possible physical interpretations about the role of this effect in terms of the different conserved parameters. The studies of these geodesics are important not only to understand better the structure of the Kerr spacetime but also to its use as …
Analytical solutions to force-free electrodynamics around black holes are fundamental for building simple models of accretion disk and jet dynamics. We present a (nonexhaustive) classification of complex highest-weight solutions to the force-free equations in the near-horizon region of the extremal Kerr black hole. Several classes of real magnetically dominated or null solutions, either axisymmetric or nonaxisymmetric, are described which admit finite energy and angular momentum with respect to the asymptotically flat observer. Subtleties related to the velocity of light surface in the near-ho…
In nonlinear electrodynamics coupled to gravity, regular spherically symmetric electrically charged solutions satisfy the weak energy condition and have obligatory de Sitter centre. By the Gürses-Gürsey algorithm they are transformed to spinning electrically charged solutions asymptotically Kerr-Newman for a distant observer. Rotation transforms de Sitter center into de Sitter vacuum surface which contains equatorial disk $r=0$ as a bridge. We present general analysis of the horizons, ergoregions and de Sitter surfaces, as well as the conditions of the existence of regular solutions to the fie…
In this work we explore the consequences of considering from the very beginning the stationary and axisymmetric properties of the Kerr black hole as one attempts to derive this solution through the Kerr-Schild ansatz. The first consequence is kinematical and is based on a new stationary and axisymmetric version of the Kerr theorem that yields to the precise shear-free and geodesic null congruence of flat spacetime characterizing the Kerr solution. A straightforward advantage of this strategy is that now the parameter $a$ appears naturally as associated to the conserved angular momentum of the …
We consider force-free magnetospheres around the extreme Kerr black hole. In this case there is no known exact analytic solution to force free electrodynamics which is stationary, axisymmetric and magnetically-dominated. However, any stationary, axisymmetric and regular force-free magnetosphere in extreme Kerr black hole approaches the same attractor solution in the near-horizon extreme Kerr (NHEK) limit with null electromagnetic field. We show that by moving away from the attractor solution in the NHEK region, one finds magnetically-dominated solutions in the extreme Kerr black hole with fini…
We study the scattering of monochromatic bosonic plane waves impinging upon a rotating black hole, in the special case that the direction of incidence is aligned with the spin axis. We present accurate numerical results for electromagnetic Kerr scattering cross sections for the first time, and give a unified picture of the Kerr scattering for all massless bosonic fields.
Tidal forces are an important feature of General Relativity, which are related to the curvature tensor. We analyze the tidal tensor in Kerr spacetime, with emphasis on the case along the symmetry axis of the Kerr black hole, noting that tidal forces may vanish at a certain point, unlike in the Schwarzschild spacetime, using Boyer-Lindquist coordinates. We study in detail the effects of vanishing tidal forces in a body constituted of dust infalling along the symmetry axis. We find the geodesic deviation equations and solve them, numerically and analytically, for motion along the symmetry axis o…
In this Letter we consider the radial infall along the symmetry axis of an ultra-relativistic point particle into a rotating Kerr black hole. We use the Sasaki-Nakamura formalism to compute the waveform, energy spectra and total energy radiated during this process. We discuss possible connections between these results and the black hole-black hole collision at the speed of light process.
Source-free equations of nonlinear electrodynamics minimally coupled to gravity admit regular axially symmetric asymptotically Kerr-Newman solutions which describe charged rotating black holes and electromagnetic spinning solitons (lumps). Asymptotic analysis of solutions shows, for both black holes and solitons, the existence of de Sitter vacuum interior which has the properties of a perfect conductor and ideal diamagnetic and displays superconducting behaviour which can be responsible for practically unlimited life time of an object. Superconducting current flows on the equatorial ring repla…
An attempt is made to supplement Carter's partial investigation of the global structure of Kerr-Newman spacetime on the symmetry axis. Namely, the global structure of θ= const. timelike submanifolds of Kerr-Newman metric starting from the symmetry axis all the way down to the equatorial plane are studied by introducing a new time coordinate slightly different from the usual Boyer-Lindquist time coordinate. It turns out that the maximal anaytic extension of θ= θ_0 (0 \leq θ_0 < π/2) submanifolds is the same as that of the symmetry axis first studied by Carter whereas θ= π/2 equatorial plane has…
We have investigated the acceleration of the unbound high energy particles moving along the rotation axis in the Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime, and then study the dependence of the repulsive effects on the NUT charge for the particles in the spacetime. Whether the repulsive effects with the NUT charge become stronger depends on the Carter constant, the position and velocity of the particles themselves. We also present numerically the changes of the observable velocity and acceleration with the NUT charge for the unbound particles in the Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime.
We propose a theoretical principle to measure the mass, spin and direction of spin axis of Kerr black holes (BHs) through observing 2 quantities of the spinning strong gravitational lens effect of BHs. Those observable quantities are generated by 2 light rays emitted at the same time by a source near the BH: the primary and secondary rays that reach a distant observer, respectively, the earliest and secondary temporally. The time delay between detection times and the ratio of observed specific fluxes of those rays are the observable quantities. Rigorously, our proposal is applicable to a singl…
Quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects may be included in physical processes of magnetar and pulsar magnetospheres with strong magnetic fields. Involving the quantum corrections, the Maxwell electrodynamics is modified to non-linear electrodynamics. In this work, we study the force-free magnetosphere in non-linear electrodynamics in a general framework. The pulsar equation describing a steady and axisymmetric magnetosphere is derived, which now admits solutions with corrections. We derive the first-order non-linear corrections to the near-zone dipole magnetosphere in some popular non-linear eff…
The structural properties of geodesic currents in an ambient Kerr background is studied from an analytical point of view. The geodesics in the congruence correspond to charged particles that carry energy and angular momentum from the black hole through the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. It is shown that the resulting magnetosphere naturally satisfies the Znajek regularity condition. Particular attention is paid here to the energy extracted by matter currents rather than by electromagnetic Poynting fluxes.
We investigate null geodesics impinging parallel to the rotation axis of a Kerr-Newman black hole, and show that the absorption cross section for a massless scalar field in the eikonal limit can be described in terms of the photon orbit parameters. We compare our sinc and low-frequency approximations with numerical results, showing that they are in excellent agreement.
We construct a one-parameter family of stationary axisymmetric and asymptotically flat spacetimes solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov system bifurcating from the Kerr spacetime. The constructed solutions have the property that the spatial support of the matter is a finite, axisymmetric shell located away from the black hole. Our proof is mostly based on the analysis of the set of trapped timelike geodesics for stationary axisymmetric spacetimes close to Kerr, where the geodesic flow is not necessarily integrable. Moreover, the analysis of the Einstein field equations relies on the modified Carter…
Source-free equations of nonlinear electrodynamics minimally coupled to gravity (NED-GR) admit regular axially symmetric asymptotically Kerr-Newman solutions, which describe electrically charged rotating black holes and spinning solitons. Asymptotic analysis of solutions shows the existence of de Sitter vacuum interior which has the properties of a perfect conductor and an ideal diamagnetic. The Kerr ring singularity (a naked singularity in the case without horizons) is replaced with a superconducting current, which serves as a nondissipative source of the Kerr-Newman fields and can be respons…
A shared property of several of the known exact solutions to the equations of force-free electrodynamics is that their charge-current four-vector is \textit{null}. We examine the general properties of null-current solutions and then focus on the principal congruences of the Kerr black hole spacetime. We obtain a large class of exact solutions, which are in general time-dependent and non-axisymmetric. These solutions include waves that, surprisingly, propagate without scattering on the curvature of the black hole's background. They may be understood as generalizations to Robinson's solutions to…
We analyze the instability of the non-rotating fermion vacuum in Kerr spacetimes. We describe how the co-rotating Fermi sea is formed as a result of a spontaneous vacuum decay. Most significantly, and drawing upon intuition gained from analogous electrodynamic processes in supercritical fields, we show that this decay process is encoded entirely in a subset of quasi-normal fermion modes.
The Blandford-Znajek monopole is a conjectured solution of force-free electrodynamics in the vicinity of a slowly rotating Kerr black hole, supposedly defined as a perturbation in small angular momentum. It is used to argue for the extraction of energy from rotating black holes by the Blandford-Znajek process. We set up a careful analysis of the perturbative definition of the Blandford-Znajek monopole, showing in particular that the regime in which it is defined allows to use the technique of matched asymptotic expansions. Our conclusion is that the Blandford-Znajek monopole, as it is defined,…
The Kerr-Newman black hole solution can be constructed straightforwardly as the unique solution to the boundary value problem of the Einstein-Maxwell equations corresponding to an asymptotically flat, stationary and axisymmetric electro-vacuum spacetime surrounding a connected Killing horizon.
We show that the gravitomagnetic interaction of a Kerr black hole (BH) with a surrounding magnetic field induces an electric field that accelerates charged particles to ultra-relativistic energies in the vicinity of the BH. Along the BH rotation axis, these electrons/protons can reach energies of even thousands of PeV, so stellar-mass BHs in long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and supermassive BHs in active galactic nuclei (AGN) can contribute to the ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) thorough this mechanism. At off-axis latitudes, the particles accelerate to energies of hundreds of GeV and emit s…
The shadow of a black hole can be one of the strong observational evidences for stationary black holes. If we see shadows at the center of galaxies, we would say whether the observed compact objects are black holes. In this paper, we consider a formula for the contour of a shadow in an asymptotically-flat, stationary, and axisymmetric black hole spacetime. We show that the formula is useful for obtaining the contour of the shadow of several black holes such as the Kerr-Newman black hole and rotating regular black holes. Using the formula, we can obtain new examples of the contour of the shadow…
We present a semi-analytical approach to the interaction of two (originally) Kerr black holes through a head-on collision process. An expression for the rate of emission of gravitational radiation is derived from an exact solution to the Einstein's field equations. The total amount of gravitational radiation emitted in the process is calculated and compared to current numerical investigations. We find that the spin-spin interaction increases the emission of gravitational wave energy up to 0.2% of the total rest mass. We discuss also the possibility of spin-exchange between the holes.
After many years of efforts, the first nonlinearly charged rotating black hole has been finally reported by Garcia-Diaz in two recent works. This is an important result that was pending in General Relativity, since nonlinear generalizations of the Kerr-Newman solution were not yet known. Unfortunately, the Lagrangian supporting this configuration cannot be expressible in terms of the standard invariants using elementary functions. In the present work we circumvent this problem by using the formulations of nonlinear electrodynamics in terms of mixed electromagnetic eigenvalues, introduced by Sa…
The full metric describing a stationary axisymmetric system of two arbitrary Kerr sources, black holes or hyperextreme objects, located on the symmetry axis and kept apart in equilibrium by a massless strut is presented in a concise explicit form involving five physical parameters. The binary system composed of a Schwarzschild black hole and a Kerr source is a special case not covered by the general formulas, and we elaborate the metric for this physically interesting configuration too.
The study of the electrodynamics of static, axisymmetric and force-free Kerr magnetospheres relies vastly on solutions of the so called relativistic Grad-Shafranov equation (GSE). Different numerical approaches to the solution of the GSE have been introduced in the literature, but none of them has been fully assessed from the numerical point of view in terms of efficiency and quality of the solutions found. We present a generalization of these algorithms and give detailed background on the algorithmic implementation. We assess the numerical stability of the implemented algorithms and quantify …
We find an exact spherically symmetric magnetically charged black hole solution to general relativity (GR) coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics (NED) with an appropriate Lagrangian density. In turn, starting with this spherical black hole as a seed metric, we construct a rotating spacetime, a modification of Kerr black hole, using the revised Newman-Janis algorithm that depends on mass, spin, and a NED parameter $g$. We find an exact expression for thermodynamic quantities of the black holes like the mass, Hawking temperature, entropy, heat capacity, and free energy expressed in terms of horiz…
The metrics of gravitational shock waves for a Schwarzschild black hole in ordinary coordinates and for a Kerr black hole in Boyer-Lindquist coordinates are derived. The Kerr metric is discussed for two cases: the case of a Kerr black hole moving parallel to the rotational axis, and moving perpendicular to the rotational axis. Then, two properties from the derived metrics are investigated: the shift of a null coordinate and the refraction angle crossing the gravitational shock wave. Astrophysical applications for these metrics are discussed in short.
We discuss universal properties of axisymmetric and stationary configurations consisting of a central black hole and surrounding matter in Einstein-Maxwell theory. In particular, we find that certain physical equations and inequalities (involving angular momentum, electric charge and horizon area) are not restricted to the Kerr-Newman solution but can be generalized to the situation where the black hole is distorted by an arbitrary axisymmetric and stationary surrounding matter distribution.
The Teukolsky master equation -- a fundamental equation for test fields of any spin, or perturbations, in type D spacetimes -- is classically treated in its separated form. Then the solutions representing even the simplest sources -- point particles -- are expressed in terms of series. The only known exception is a static particle (charge or mass) in the vicinity of Schwarzschild black hole. Here, we present a generalization of this result to a static point particle of arbitrary spin at the axis of Kerr black hole. A simple algebraic formula for the Debye potential from which all the NP compon…
We study conformal symmetries on the horizon of a general stationary and axisymmetric black hole. We find that there exist physically reasonable boundary conditions that uniquely determine a set of symmetry generators, which form one copy of the Virasoro algebra. For extremal black holes, Cardy's formula reproduces exactly the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.
We discuss the solution to Einstein's equations for a Lense-Thirring inspired metric describing a slowly rotating black hole coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics. We show that different schemes of rotation for the black hole exist; they depend on a parameter $γ$ defining the dependence of the metric on the polar angle. The fulfilment of the complete set of gravitational field equations and conservation laws implies constraints on this parameter and the metric functions. The vanishing of $γ$ provides the Lense-Thirring line element associated to any non-linear electrodynamics; the Kerr-Newman m…
We prove that for any vacuum, maximal, asymptotically flat, axisymmetric initial data for Einstein equations close to extreme Kerr data, the inequality $\sqrt{J} \leq m$ is satisfied, where $m$ and $J$ are the total mass and angular momentum of the data. The proof consists in showing that extreme Kerr is a local minimum of the mass.
We revisit the spectrum of linear axisymmetric gravitational perturbations of the (near-)extreme Kerr black hole. Our aim is to characterise those perturbations that are responsible for the deviations away from extremality, and to contrast them with the linearized perturbations treated in the Newman-Penrose formalism. For the near horizon region of the (near-)extreme Kerr solution, i.e. the (near-)NHEK background, we provide a complete characterisation of axisymmetric modes. This involves an infinite tower of propagating modes together with the much subtler low-lying mode sectors that contain …
The Kerr rotating black hole metric has unstable photon orbits that orbit around the hole at fixed values of the Boyer-Lindquist coordinate $r$ that depend on the axial angular momentum of the orbit, as well as on the parameters of the hole. For zero orbital axial angular momentum, these orbits cross the rotational axes at a fixed value of $r$ that depends on the mass $M$ and angular momentum $J$ of the black hole. Nonzero angular momentum of the hole causes the photon orbit to rotate so that its direction when crossing the north polar axis changes from one crossing to the next by an angle I s…
The first exact rotating charged black hole solution to the Einstein{nonlinear electrodynamics theory is reported. It is equipped with mass, rotation parameter, electric and magnetic charges, and three parameters due to the electrodynamics: beta is associated to the potential vectors A{mu} and starP{nu}, and two constants, F0 and G0, related to the presence of the invariants F and G in the Lagrangian L(F;G). This Petrov type D solution is characterized by the Weyl tensor eigenvalue Psi2, the Ricci tensor eigenvalue S = 2Phi(11), and the scalar curvature R; it allows for event horizons, exhibit…
Stationary axisymmetric binary systems of unequal counterrotating Kerr-Newman sources with a massless strut in between are studied. By means of the choice of a suitable parametrization, the axis conditions and the absence of individual magnetic charges are fulfilled; thus, the entire metric reduces to a 6-parametric asymptotically flat exact solution. Later on, with the purpose to describe interacting black holes, the analytic functional form of the horizon half-length parameter $σ_{k}$ is obtained explicitly in terms of physical Komar parameters: mass $M_{k}$, electric charge $Q_{k}$, angular…
We prove the uniqueness theorem for stationary axisymmetric black hole solution in Einstein-Maxwell-axion-dilaton gravity being the low-energy limit of the heterotic string theory. We consider both non-degenerate and extremal Kerr-Sen black hole solutions.
This is the second of a series of papers investigating the oscillation properties of relativistic, non-selfgravitating tori orbiting around black holes. Extending the work done in a Schwarzschild background, we here consider the axisymmetric oscillations of vertically integrated tori in a Kerr spacetime. The tori are modeled with a number of different non-Keplerian distributions of specific angular momentum and we discuss how the oscillation properties depend on these and on the rotation of the central black hole. We first consider a local analysis to highlight the relations between acoustic a…
We analyze the behavior of causal geodesics on a Kerr-de Sitter spacetime with particular emphasis on their completeness property. We set up an initial value problem (IVP) whose solutions lead to a global understanding of causal geodesics on these spacetime. Causal geodesics that avoid the rotation axis are complete except the ones that hit the ring-like curvature singularity and those that encounter the ring singularity are necessary equatorial ones. We also show the existence of geodesics that cross or lie on the rotation axis. The equations governing the latter family show the repulsive nat…
