Olmo, G. J., Rosa, J. L., Rubiera-Garcia, D., & Saez-Chillon Gomez, D. (2023). Shadows and photon rings of regular black holes and geonic horizonless compact objects. Class. Quantum Gravity, 40(17), 174002–37pp.
Abstract: The optical appearance of a body compact enough to feature an unstable bound orbit, when surrounded by an accretion disk, is expected to be dominated by a luminous ring of radiation enclosing a central brightness depression typically known as the shadow. Despite observational limitations, the rough details of this picture have been now confirmed by the results of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration on the imaging of the M87 and Milky Way supermassive central objects. However, the precise characterization of both features-ring and shadow-depends on the interaction between the background geometry and the accretion disk, thus being a fertile playground to test our theories on the nature of compact objects and the gravitational field itself in the strong-field regime. In this work we use both features in order to test a continuous family of solutions interpolating between regular black holes and horizonless compact objects, which arise within the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity, a viable extension of Einstein's general relativity (GR). To this end we consider seven distinctive classes of such configurations (five black holes and two traversable wormholes) and study their optical appearances under illumination by a geometrically and optically thin accretion disk, emitting monochromatically with three analytic intensity profiles previously suggested in the literature. We build such images and consider the sub-ring structure created by light rays crossing the disk more than once and existing on top of the main ring of radiation. We discuss in detail the modifications as compared to their GR counterparts, the Lyapunov exponents of unstable nearly-bound orbits, as well as the differences between black hole and traversable wormholes for the three intensity profiles. In addition we use the claim by the EHT Collaboration on the radius of the bright ring acting (under proper calibrations) as a proxy for the radius of the shadow itself to explore the parameter space of our solutions compatible with such a result.
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Olmo, G. J., Rubiera-Garcia, D., & Saez-Chillon Gomez, D. (2022). New light rings from multiple critical curves as observational signatures of black hole mimickers. Phys. Lett. B, 829, 137045–5pp.
Abstract: We argue that the appearance of additional light rings in a shadow observation – beyond the infinite sequence of exponentially demagnified self-similar rings foreseen in the Kerr solution – would make a compelling case for the existence of black hole mimickers having multiple critical curves. We support this claim by discussing three different scenarios of spherically symmetric wormhole geometries having two such critical curves, and explicitly work out the optical appearance of one such object when surrounded by an optically and geometrically thin accretion disk.
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Mora-Perez, G., Olmo, G. J., Rubiera-Garcia, D., & Saez-Chillon Gomez, D. (2024). Boundary terms and on-shell action in Ricci-based gravity theories: The Hamiltonian formulation. Phys. Rev. D, 110(8), 084051–11pp.
Abstract: Considering the so-called Ricci-based gravity theories, a family of extensions of general relativity whose action is given by a nonlinear function of contractions and products of the (symmetric part of the) Ricci tensor of an independent connection, the Hamiltonian formulation of the theory is obtained. To do so, the independent connection is decomposed in two parts, one compatible with a metric tensor and the other one given by a 3-rank tensor. Subsequently, the Riemann tensor is expressed in terms of its projected components onto a hypersurface, allowing one to construct the 3 & thorn; 1 decomposition of the theory and the corresponding Gauss-Codazzi relations, where the boundary terms naturally arise in the gravitational action. Finally, the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) decomposition is followed in order to construct the corresponding Hamiltonian and the ADM energy for any Ricci-based gravity theory. The formalism is applied to the simple case of Schwarzschild spacetime.
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Guerrero, M., Olmo, G. J., Rubiera-Garcia, D., & Saez-Chillon Gomez, D. (2022). Multiring images of thin accretion disk of a regular naked compact object. Phys. Rev. D, 106(4), 044070–13pp.
Abstract: We discuss the importance of multiring images in the optical appearance of a horizonless spherically symmetric compact object, when illuminated by an optically thin accretion disk. Such an object corresponds to a subcase of an analytically tractable extension of the Kerr solution dubbed as the “eye of the storm” by Simpson and Visser in [J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 03 (2022) 011], which merits in removing curvature singularities via an asymptotically Minkowski core, while harboring both a critical curve and an infinite potential barrier at the center for null geodesics. This multiring structure is induced by light rays winding several times around the object, and whose luminosity is significantly boosted as compared to the Schwarzschild solution by the modified shape of the potential. Using three toy profiles for the emission of an infinitely thin disk, truncated at its inner edge (taking its maximum value there) and having different decays with the distance, we discuss the image created by up to eight rings superimposed on top of the direct emission of the disk as its edge is moved closer to the center of the object. Our results point to the existence of multiring images with a non-negligible luminosity in shadow observations when one allows for the existence of other compact objects in the cosmic zoo beyond the Schwarzschild solution. Such multiring images could be detectable within the future projects on very long baseline interferometry.
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Guerrero, M., Olmo, G. J., Rubiera-Garcia, D., & Saez-Chillon Gomez, D. (2021). Shadows and optical appearance of black bounces illuminated by a thin accretion disk. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 036–19pp.
Abstract: We study the light rings and shadows of an uniparametric family of spherically symmetric geometries interpolating between the Schwarzschild solution, a regular black hole, and a traversable wormhole, and dubbed as black bounces, all of them sharing the same critical impact parameter. We consider the ray-tracing method in order to study the impact parameter regions corresponding to the direct, lensed, and photon ring emissions, finding a broadening of all these regions for black bounce solutions as compared to the Schwarzschild one. Using this, we determine the optical appearance of black bounces when illuminated by three standard toy models of optically and geometrically thin accretion disks viewed in face-on orientation.
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