Black Hole Mergers as the Fastest Photon Ring Scramblers
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2026-03-10 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
Black holes are the most efficient scramblers in nature. By mapping the instantaneous mass and angular momentum of two spinless black holes in a quasi-circular binary onto those of an effective Kerr black hole, we demonstrate that the final state of the merger remnant corresponds with remarkable accuracy to the configuration that renders null geodesics unstable at the highest possible rate. This suggests a deep connection between the properties of black holes resulting from binary mergers and their unstable null orbits.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.08643,
title = {Black Hole Mergers as the Fastest Photon Ring Scramblers},
author = {D. Giataganas and G. F. Giudice and A. Ianniccari and A. J. Iovino and A. Kehagias and F. Quevedo and D. Perrone and A. Riotto},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.08643},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
4 pages of main text + Supplementary Material, 1 figure