English

Backreactions from loading the stable photon sphere in Weyl conformal gravity

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-03-06 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We investigate the accumulation of null matter at the stable photon sphere in the Mannheim-Kazanas metric, the analogue to the Schwarzschild solution in Weyl's conformal theory of gravity. In our toy problem in which we consider an infinitely-thin shell, we find that a jump in radial pressure Trr{T^r}_r is induced across the shell unless the shell has a radius of either the unstable or stable photon sphere radii. We then find that upon loading the stable photon sphere, its area remains invariant. Furthermore, at a critical threshold loading limit for this zero-width null matter shell, we are able to produce a metric containing an extremal horizon with an AdS2×_2\timesS2^2 geometry completely independent of the cosmological curvature. This hitherto unencountered and therefore unexpected result is a phenomenon unseen in standard nonconformal second-order metrics with nonzero cosmological constants.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.18750,
  title  = {Backreactions from loading the stable photon sphere in Weyl conformal gravity},
  author = {Reinosuke Kusano and Keith Horne and Friedrich Koenig and Miguel Yulo Asuncion},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.18750},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

20 pages, 6 figures (added detailed explanations and stylistic corrections)

R2 v1 2026-07-01T06:58:07.197Z