English

Apparent shape of super-spinning black holes

Astrophysics 2009-02-06 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We consider the possibility that astrophysical Black Holes (BHs) can violate the Kerr bound; i.e., they can have angular momentum greater than BH mass, J>MJ > M. We discuss implications on the BH apparent shape. Even if the bound is violated by a small amount, the shadow cast by the BH changes significantly (it is \sim an order of magnitude smaller) from the case with JMJ \le M and can be used as a clear observational signature in the search for super--spinning BHs. We discuss briefly recent observations in the mm range of the super--massive BH at the Center of the Galaxy, speculating on the possibility that it might violate the Kerr bound.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0812.1328,
  title  = {Apparent shape of super-spinning black holes},
  author = {Cosimo Bambi and Katherine Freese},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.1328},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

7 pages, 3 figures. v3: refereed version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:49:06.678Z