Photons emitted by light sources in the neighbourhood of a black hole can wind several times around it before fleeing towards the observer. For spherically symmetric black holes, two infinite sequences of images are created for any given source, asymptotically approaching the shadow border with decreasing magnitude. These sequences are reflected by a characteristic staircase structure in the complex visibility function that may be used to decode the properties of the black hole metric. Recalling the formalism of gravitational lensing in the strong deflection limit, we derive analytical formulae for the height, the width and the periodicities of the steps in the visibility as functions of the black hole parameters for the case of a single compact and distant source. With respect to diffuse emission by the whole accretion flow, this ideal framework provides clean insight and model-independent information on the metric. These basic formulae can then be used to build visibilities for more complicated sources and track the changes induced by alternative metrics and ultimately test General Relativity. As simple examples, we include visibilities for Reissner-Nordström and Janis-Newman-Winicour metrics.
We develop a high-precision model for laser ranging interferometric (LRI) observables of the GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission. For this, we study the propagation of an electromagnetic wave in the gravitational field in the vicinity of an extended body, in the post-Newtonian approximation of the general theory of relativity. We present a general relativistic model for the phase of a plane wave that accounts for contributions of all the multipoles of the gravitating body, its angular momentum, as well as the contribution of tidal fields produced by external sources. We develop a new approach t…
Current attempts to probe general relativistic effects in quantum mechanics focus on precision measurements of phase shifts in matter-wave interferometry. Yet, phase shifts can always be explained as arising due to an Aharonov-Bohm effect, where a particle in a flat space-time is subject to an effective potential. Here we propose a novel quantum effect that cannot be explained without the general relativistic notion of proper time. We consider interference of a "clock" - a particle with evolving internal degrees of freedom - that will not only display a phase shift, but also reduce the visibil…
In [M. Zych et al., Nat. Commun. 2, 505 (2011)], the authors predicted that the interferometric visibility is affected by a gravitational field in way that cannot be explained without the general relativistic notion of proper time. In this work, we take a different route and start deriving the same effect using the unitary representation of the local Lorentz transformation in the Newtonian Limit. In addition, we show that the effect on the interferometric visibility due to gravity persists in different spacetime geometries. However, the influence is not necessarily due to the notion of proper …
We present a comprehensive numerical study of the dynamics of relativistic axisymmetric accretion tori with a power-law distribution of specific angular momentum orbiting in the background spacetime of a Kerr black hole. By combining general relativistic hydrodynamics simulations with a linear perturbative approach we investigate the main dynamical properties of these objects over a large parameter space. The astrophysical implications of our results extend and improve two interesting results that have been recently reported in the literature. Firstly, the induced quasi-periodic variation of t…
The direct observation of gravitational waves will provide a unique tool for probing the dynamical properties of highly compact astrophysical objects, mapping ultra-relativistic regions of space-time, and testing Einstein's general theory of relativity. LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), a joint NASA-ESA mission to be launched in the next decade, will perform these scientific tasks by detecting and studying low-frequency cosmic gravitational waves through their influence on the phases of six modulated laser beams exchanged between three remote spacecraft. By directly measuring the pola…
Probing the Scalar Hair of Rotating Horndeski Black Holes through Thick Disk Images
School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology（华南理工大学物理与光电学院）；Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao-Tong University（上海交通大学李政道研究所）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理与天文学院）；Key Laboratory of Multiscale Spin Physics (Ministry of Education), Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学多尺度自旋物理教育部重点实验室）
Triaxial neutron stars may be important sources of gravitational radiation for the forthcoming generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO, VIRGO, and GEO600. We investigate the viscosity triggered bar mode secular instability of rapidly rotating neutron stars by means of a perturbation analysis of numerically constructed ``exact'' general relativistic axisymmetric star models. In the theoretical approach, only the dominant parts of the nonaxisymmetric terms of the 3D-Einstein equations are taken into account. A comparison of our results with previous studies of New…
Inspiralling binary systems of neutron stars or black holes are promising sources of gravitational radiation detectable by large-scale laser interferometric gravitational observatories, such as the US LIGO and Italian-French VIRGO projects. Accurate theoretical gravitational-waveform templates will be needed to carry out matched filtering data analysis of the detectors' output once they are on the air by the end of this decade. For all but the final, strongly general relativistic coalescence of the two bodies, high-order post-Newtonian methods are playing a major role in the theorists' efforts…
According to the general-relativistic no-hair theorem, astrophysical black holes depend only on their masses and spins and are uniquely described by the Kerr metric. Mass and spin are the first two multipole moments of the Kerr spacetime and completely determine all other moments. The no-hair theorem can be tested by measuring potential deviations from the Kerr metric which alter such higher-order moments. In this review, I discuss tests of the no-hair theorem with current and future observations of such black holes across the electromagnetic spectrum, focusing on near-infrared observations of…
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）
Tidal disruption has a dramatic impact on the outcome of neutron star-black hole mergers. The phenomenology of these systems can be divided in three classes: nondisruptive, mildly disruptive or disruptive. The cutoff frequency of the gravitational radiation produced during the merger (which is potentially measurable by interferometric detectors) is very different in each regime, and when the merger is disuptive it carries information on the neutron star equation of state. Here we use semianalytical tools to derive a formula for the critical binary mass ratio $Q=M_{\rm BH}/M_{\rm NS}$ below whi…
Firewalls are controversial principally because they seem to imply departures from general relativistic expectations in regions of spacetime where the curvature need not be particularly large. One of the virtues of the Harlow-Hayden approach to the firewall paradox, concerning the time available for decoding of Hawking radiation emanating from charged AdS black holes, is precisely that it operates in the context of cold black holes, which are not strongly curved outside the event horizon. Here we clarify this point. The approach is based on ideas borrowed from applications of the AdS/CFT corre…
Black hole-neutron star binary mergers display a much richer phenomenology than black hole-black hole mergers, even in the relatively simple case - considered in this paper - in which both the black hole and the neutron star are nonspinning. When the neutron star is tidally disrupted, the gravitational wave emission is radically different from the black hole-black hole case and it can be broadly classified in two groups, depending on the spatial extent of the disrupted material. We present a phenomenological model for the gravitational waveform amplitude in the frequency domain that encompasse…
We study the relativistic orbit of binary black holes in systems with small mass ratio. The trajectory of the smaller object (another black hole or a neutron star), represented as a particle, is determined by the geodesic equation on the perturbed massive black hole spacetime. The particle itself generates the gravitational perturbations leading to a problem that needs regularization. Here we study perturbations around a Schwarzschild black hole using Moncrief's gauge invariant formalism. We decompose the perturbations into $\ell-$multipoles to show that all $\ell-$metric coefficients are $C^0…
Extreme-Lensing Signatures Revealed by Correlations of Simulated Black-Hole Movies
University of Haifa（海法大学）；Haifa Research Center for Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, University of Haifa（海法大学海法理论物理与天体物理学研究中心）；University of Haifa at Oranim（奥拉尼姆海法大学）；Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton（普林斯顿高等研究院）；Princeton Gravity Initiative, Princeton University（普林斯顿大学普林顿引力计划）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía（安达卢西亚天体物理研究所）
The highly elliptical, 16-year-period orbit of the star S2 around the massive black hole candidate Sgr A* is a sensitive probe of the gravitational field in the Galactic centre. Near pericentre at 120 AU, ~1400 Schwarzschild radii, the star has an orbital speed of ~7650 km/s, such that the first-order effects of Special and General Relativity have now become detectable with current capabilities. Over the past 26 years, we have monitored the radial velocity and motion on the sky of S2, mainly with the SINFONI and NACO adaptive optics instruments on the ESO Very Large Telescope, and since 2016 a…
