Electromagnetic tests of horizonless rotating black hole mimickers
Anna Zulianello, Raúl Carballo-Rubio, Stefano Liberati, Stefano Ansoldi
备注：
V2: 25 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables. Additional discussions included following suggestions by referees, no physics changes. This version accepted for publication. V1: 23 pages, 13 figures, 8 tables
The interest in the implications that astrophysical observations have for the understanding of the structure of black holes has grown since the first detection of gravitational waves. Many arguments that are put forward in order to constraint alternative black hole models rely on substantial assumptions such as perfect spherical symmetry, which implies absence of rotation. However, given that astrophysical black holes will generally exhibit nonzero angular momentum, realistic constraints must take into account the effects of rotation. In this work we analyze the gravitational effect that rotation has on the emission from the surface of ultracompact objects, by studying how angular momentum affects the propagation of light rays. This allows us to evaluate the reliability of the constraints derived for supermassive black holes (more specifically, Sagittarius A* and M87*) assuming lack of rotation, as presented in [Astrophys. J. 701, 1357 (2009); Astrophys. J. 805, 179 (2015)]. We find that for rapidly spinning objects rotation can significantly affect the escaping probability of photon emitted from the surface of the object, with a significant increase at the equatorial regions and a decrease at the poles with respect to the non-rotating case. For not so rapidly spinning black hole candidates like Sagittarius A*, such modifications do not affect significantly the present constraints, which are nevertheless weaker than originally supposed due to the relativistic lensing here considered and additional phenomenological parameters that describe basic processes such as absorption. However, taking into account the angular dependence of the superficial emission of rapidly spinning black hole mimickers will be necessary for future studies of objects like e.g. M87*.
Ultra-compact, horizonless objects such as gravastars, boson stars, wormholes and superspinars can mimick most of the properties of black holes. Here we show that these "black hole mimickers" will most likely develop a strong ergoregion instability when rapidly spinning. Instability timescales range between 10^-5 s and 1 weeks depending on the object, its mass and its angular momentum. For a wide range of parameters the instability is truly effective. This provides a strong indication that astrophysical ultra-compact objects with large rotation are black holes.
We illustrate that regular black holes and horizonless stars, typically considered as quite distinct families of black hole mimickers, are intimately intertwined. We show that any spherically symmetric regular black hole can be continuously deformed into a horizonless star under the mild conditions of non-negativity of gravitational energy (Misner--Sharp quasi-local mass), and an assumed linear relation between the latter and the Arnowitt--Deser--Misner (ADM) mass. We illustrate this general result by considering the family of geometries proposed by Hayward as the description of regular black …
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 a…
The measurements of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) provide a quite powerful tool to test the nature of astrophysical black hole candidates in the strong gravitational field regime. In this paper, we use QPOs within the relativistic precession model to test a recently proposed family of rotating black hole mimickers, which reduce to the Kerr metric in a limiting case, and can represent traversable wormholes or regular black holes with one or two horizons, depending on the values of the parameters. In particular, assuming that the compact object of GRO J1655-40 is described by a rotating bla…
Motivated by the lack of rotating solutions sourced by matter in General Relativity as well as in modified gravity theories, we extend a recently discovered exact rotating solution of the minimal Einstein-scalar theory to its counterpart in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity coupled to a Born-Infeld scalar field. This is accomplished with the implementation of a well-developed mapping between solutions of Ricci-Based Palatini theories of gravity and General Relativity. The new solution is parametrized by the scalar charge and the Born-Infeld coupling constant apart from the mass and spin o…
In arXiv:1705.10172 it was proposed that string theory replaces Schwarzschild black holes with horizonless thin shells with an AdS interior. In this paper we extend the analysis to slowly rotating black holes, solving the Israel-Lanczos-Sen junction conditions for a rotating shell composed of stringy matter to determine the metric. Outside of the shell we find a vacuum solution that differs from Kerr with a 32% larger quadrupole moment. We discuss the observational consequences and explore the possibility to distinguish between a black shell and a black hole. Promising methods include imaging …
We discuss the astrophysical and cosmological implications of having primordial thermal 2-2-hole remnants as dark matter. Thermal 2-2-holes emanate in quadratic gravity as horizonless classical solutions for ultracompact distributions of relativistic thermal gas. In contrast to a large 2-2-hole that imitates the thermodynamic behaviour of a black hole, a small 2-2-hole at late stages of evaporation behaves as a stable remnant with the mass approaching a minimal value. These remnants as all dark matter can satisfy the corresponding observational constraints provided that both the formation and …
In this paper, the Penrose process is being used to extract rotational energy from regular black holes. Initially, we consider the rotating Simpson-Visser regular spacetime which describes the class of geometries of the Kerr black hole's mimickers. The Penrose process is then studied through conformally transformed rotating singular and regular black hole solutions. These both Simpson-Visser and conformally transformed geometries depend on mass, spin, and an additional regularisation parameter $l$. In both cases, we investigate how the spin and regularisation parameter $l$ affects the configur…
We remind that the ring down features observed in the LIGO GWs resulted from trembling of photon spheres (Rp=3M) of newly formed compact objects and not from the trembling of their event horizons (R=2M). Further, the tentative evidences for late time echoes in GWs might be signatures of horizonless compact objects rather than vacuum black holes (BHs). Similarly, even for an ideal BH, the radius of its shadow is R_shad = \sqrt{3}Rp is actually the gravitationally lensed shadow of its photon sphere. Accordingly any compact object having R \geq R = 3M would generate similar shadow. Thus, no obser…
In arXiv:1705.10172 a string theory inspired alternative to gravitational collapse was proposed, consisting of a bubble of AdS space made up of ingredients from string theory. These ultra compact objects are $9/8$ times the size of the corresponding Schwarzschild black hole, but being within the photosphere are almost indistinguishable from them. Slowly rotating counterparts of these black shells were constructed in arXiv:1712.00511, which closely mimic a Kerr black hole, but have a quadrupole moment that differs from Kerr. Recently, arXiv:2109.09814 studied the dynamical stability of the stat…
Compact Stars Sourced by Dark Matter Halos and Their Frozen States
College of Mathematics and Computer Science, Northwest Minzu University（西北民族大学数学与计算机科学学院）；School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University（兰州大学物理科学与技术学院）
Helicity-supported stationary spacetimes: A class of finite-energy, horizonless, axisymmetric solutions
Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa（里斯本大学科学学院太空科学与天体物理研究所）；Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa（里斯本大学科学学院物理系）；Babeş-Bolyai University（巴比什-博约伊大学）；Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca Branch（罗马尼亚科学院天文研究所克卢日-纳波卡分部）
We study the response of a static Unruh-DeWitt detector outside an exotic compact object (ECO) with a general reflective boundary condition in 3+1 dimensions. The horizonless ECO, whose boundary is extremely close to the would-be event horizon, acts as a black hole mimicker. We find that the response rate is notably distinct from the black hole case, even when the ECO boundary is perfectly absorbing. For a (partially) reflective ECO boundary, we find resonance structures in the response rate that depend on the different locations of the ECO boundary and those of the detector. We provide a deta…
The capability of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to image the nearest supermassive black hole candidates at horizon-scale resolutions offers a novel means to study gravity in its strongest regimes and to test different models for these objects. Here, we study the observational appearance at 230 GHz of a surfaceless black hole mimicker, namely a non-rotating boson star, in a scenario consistent with the properties of the accretion flow onto Sgr A*. To this end, we perform general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations followed by general relativistic radiative transfer calculations in …
IFPU, Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe（基础物理宇宙研究所）；SISSA, International School for Advanced Studies（高级研究国际学院）；INFN Sezione di Trieste（的里雅斯特国家核物理研究所）
We construct the first family of horizonless supergravity solutions that have the same mass, charges and angular momenta as general supersymmetric rotating D1-D5-P black holes in five dimensions. This family includes solutions with arbitrarily small angular momenta, deep within the regime of quantum numbers and couplings for which a large classical black hole exists. These geometries are well-approximated by the black-hole solution, and in particular exhibit the same near-horizon throat. Deep in this throat, the black-hole singularity is resolved into a smooth cap. We also identify the hologra…
Static horizonless solutions to the Einstein--Maxwell field equations, with only a circular cosmic string singularity, are extended to exact rotating asymptotically flat solutions. The possible interpretation of these field configurations as spinning elementary particles or as macroscopic rotating cosmic rings is discussed.
Static 2-2-hole solutions of quadratic gravity have been investigated to be a possible horizonless replacement for black holes as the endpoint of gravitational collapse. Realistically such objects will form with spin, but rotating 2-2-hole solutions are currently not known. We take some steps here to explore the existence and properties of such solutions. We employ an expansion of the field equations where the expansion parameter is inversely related to the size of the object. This expansion parameter appears explicitly in the trial metrics, and we are able to find solutions of the leading ord…
Exotic compact objects, horizonless spacetimes with reflective properties, have intriguingly been suggested by some quantum-gravity models as alternatives to classical black-hole spacetimes. A remarkable feature of spinning horizonless compact objects with reflective boundary conditions is the existence of a {\it discrete} set of critical surface radii, $\{r_{\text{c}}({\bar a};n)\}^{n=\infty}_{n=1}$, which can support spatially regular static ({\it marginally-stable}) scalar field configurations (here ${\bar a}\equiv J/M^2$ is the dimensionless angular momentum of the exotic compact object). …
Gravitational-wave astronomy has the potential to explore one of the deepest and most puzzling aspects of Einstein's theory: the existence of black holes. A plethora of ultracompact, horizonless objects have been proposed to arise in models inspired by quantum gravity. These objects may solve Hawking's information-loss paradox and the singularity problem associated with black holes, while mimicking almost all of their classical properties. They are, however, generically unstable on relatively short timescales. Here, we show that this "ergoregion instability" leads to a strong stochastic backgr…
We construct the first smooth horizonless supergravity solutions that have two topologically-nontrivial three-cycles supported by flux, and that have the same mass and charges as a non-extremal D1-D5-P black hole. Our configurations are solutions to six-dimensional ungauged supergravity coupled to a tensor multiplet, and uplift to solutions of Type IIB supergravity. The solutions represent multi-center generalizations of the non-BPS solutions of Jejjala, Madden, Ross, and Titchener, which have over-rotating angular momenta. By adding an additional Gibbons-Hawking center, we succeed in lowering…
GRMHD accretion beyond the black hole paradigm: Light from within the shadow
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie（马克斯·普朗克射电天文研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC（安达卢西亚天体物理研究所-CSIC）；Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo（圣保罗大学天文、地球物理与大气科学研究所）；International Centre for Space and Cosmology, Ahmedabad University（艾哈迈达巴德大学国际空间与宇宙学中心）
A foundational theorem due to Buchdahl states that, within General Relativity (GR), the maximum compactness $\mathcal{C}\equiv GM/(Rc^2)$ of a static, spherically symmetric, perfect fluid object of mass $M$ and radius $R$ is $\mathcal{C}=4/9$. As a corollary, there exists a compactness gap between perfect fluid stars and black holes (where $\mathcal{C}=1/2$). Here we generalize Buchdahl's result by introducing the most general equation of state for elastic matter with constant longitudinal wave speeds and apply it to compute the maximum compactness of regular, self-gravitating objects in GR. W…
Boson stars, self-gravitating objects made of a complex scalar field, have been proposed as simple models for very different scenarios, ranging from galaxy dark matter to black hole mimickers. Here we focus on a very compact type of boson stars to study binary mergers by varying different parameters, namely the phase shift, the direction of rotation and the angular momentum. Our aim is to investigate the properties of the object resulting from the merger in these different scenarios by means of numerical evolutions. These simulations, performed by using a modification of the covariant conforma…
Energy extraction from a rotating Buchdahl star via magnetic reconnection
New Uzbekistan University（新乌兹别克斯坦大学）；Institute of Fundamental and Applied Research, National Research University TIIAME（国立研究大学TIIAME基础与应用研究所）；Tashkent University of Applied Sciences（塔什干应用科学大学）；Tashkent State Technical University（塔什干国立技术大学）
Recently it has been argued that near-horizon modifications of the standard (classical) black hole spacetime could lead to observable alterations of the gravitational waveform generated by a binary black hole coalescence. Such modifications can be inspired by quantum gravity considerations, resulting in speculative horizonless exotic compact objects (ECOs) with no singularities, which may be an alternative to the classical black hole solution. A largely model-independent description of these objects proposed in the literature relies on the introduction of a partially reflective wall at some sm…
We study the gravitational collapse problem of rotating shells in three-dimensional Einstein gravity with and without a cosmological constant. Taking the exterior and interior metrics to be those of stationary metrics with asymptotically constant curvature, we solve the equations of motion for the shells from the Darmois-Israel junction conditions in the "co-rotating" frame. We study various collapse scenarios with "arbitrary" angular momentum for a variety of geometric configurations, including anti-de Sitter, de Sitter, and flat spaces. We find that the collapsing shells can form a BTZ black…
