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Dias da Silva, L. F., Lobo, F. S. N., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2023). Photon rings as tests for alternative spherically symmetric geometries with thin accretion disks. Phys. Rev. D, 108(8), 084055–18pp.
Abstract: The imaging by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) of the supermassive central objects at the heart of the M87 and Milky Way (Sgr A*) galaxies, has marked the first step into peering at the photon rings and central brightness depression that characterize the optical appearance of black holes surrounded by an accretion disk. Recently, Vagnozzi et al. [arXiv:2205.07787] used the claim by the EHT that the size of the shadow of Sgr A* can be inferred by calibrated measurements of the bright ring enclosing it, to constrain a large number of spherically symmetric space-time geometries. In this work we use this result to study some features of the first and second photon rings of a restricted pool of such geometries in thin accretion disk settings. The emission profile of the latter is described by calling upon three analytic samples belonging to the family introduced by Gralla, Lupsasca, and Marrone, in order to characterize such photon rings using the Lyapunov exponent of nearly bound orbits and discuss its correlation with the luminosity extinction rate between the first and second photon rings. We finally elaborate on the chances of using such photon rings as observational discriminators of alternative black hole geometries using very long baseline interferometry.
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Beltran Jimenez, J., Heisenberg, L., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2017). On gravitational waves in Born-Infeld inspired non-singular cosmologies. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 029–23pp.
Abstract: We study the evolution of gravitational waves for non-singular cosmological solutions within the framework of Born-Infeld inspired gravity theories, with special emphasis on the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory. We review the existence of two types of non-singular cosmologies, namely bouncing and asymptotically Minkowski solutions, from a perspective that makes their features more apparent. We study in detail the propagation of gravitational waves near these non-singular solutions and carefully discuss the origin and severity of the instabilities and strong coupling problems that appear. We also investigate the role of the adiabatic sound speed of the matter sector in the regularisation of the gravitational waves evolution. We extend our analysis to more general Born-Infeld inspired theories where analogous solutions are found. As a general conclusion, we obtain that the bouncing solutions are generally more prone to instabilities, while the asymptotically Minkowski solutions can be rendered stable, making them appealing models for the early universe.
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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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Beltran Jimenez, J., Heisenberg, L., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2018). Born-Infeld inspired modifications of gravity. Phys. Rep., 727, 1–129.
Abstract: General Relativity has shown an outstanding observational success in the scales where it has been directly tested. However, modifications have been intensively explored in the regimes where it seems either incomplete or signals its own limit of validity. In particular, the breakdown of unitarity near the Planck scale strongly suggests that General Relativity needs to be modified at high energies and quantum gravity effects are expected to be important. This is related to the existence of spacetime singularities when the solutions of General Relativity are extrapolated to regimes where curvatures are large. In this sense, Born-Infeld inspired modifications of gravity have shown an extraordinary ability to regularise the gravitational dynamics, leading to non-singular cosmologies and regular black hole spacetimes in a very robust manner and without resorting to quantum gravity effects. This has boosted the interest in these theories in applications to stellar structure, compact objects, inflationary scenarios, cosmological singularities, and black hole and wormhole physics, among others. We review the motivations, various formulations, and main results achieved within these theories, including their observational viability, and provide an overview of current open problems and future research opportunities.
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Bazeia, D., Losano, L., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2017). Geodesically complete BTZ-type solutions of 2+1 Born-Infeld gravity. Class. Quantum Gravity, 34(4), 045006–21pp.
Abstract: We study Born-Infeld gravity coupled to a static, non-rotating electric field in 2 + 1 dimensions and find exact analytical solutions. Two families of such solutions represent geodesically complete, and hence nonsingular, spacetimes. Another family represents a point-like charge with a singularity at the center. Despite the absence of rotation, these solutions resemble the charged, rotating BTZ solution of general relativity but with a richer structure in terms of horizons. The nonsingular character of the first two families turn out to be attached to the emergence of a wormhole structure on their innermost region. This seems to be a generic prediction of extensions of general relativity formulated in metric-affine (or Palatini) spaces, where metric and connection are regarded as independent degrees of freedom.
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