English

Shape and position of the shadow in the $\delta = 2$ Tomimatsu-Sato space-time

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2010-09-09 v3 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

Within 5-10 years, very long baseline interferometry facilities will be able to observe the "shadow" of super-massive black hole candidates. This will allow, for the first time, to test gravity in the strong field regime. In this paper, we study numerically the photon orbits in the δ=2\delta = 2 Tomimatsu-Sato space-time. The δ=2\delta = 2 Tomimatsu-Sato space-time is a stationary, axisymmetric, and asymptotically flat exact solution of the vacuum Einstein equations. We compare the associated shadow with the one of Kerr black holes. The shape of the shadow in the δ=2\delta = 2 Tomimatsu-Sato space-time is oblate and the difference between the two axes can be as high as 6% when viewed on the equatorial plane. We argue that future space sub-mm interferometers (e.g. VSOP-3) may distinguish the two cases, and thus are able to test the Cosmic Censorship Conjecture.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1004.3149,
  title  = {Shape and position of the shadow in the $\delta = 2$ Tomimatsu-Sato space-time},
  author = {Cosimo Bambi and Naoki Yoshida},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.3149},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

9 pages, 3 figures. v3: refereed version