Related papers: Universal Properties of Light Rings for Stationary…
It has been established that Black Hole (BH) spacetimes obeying some general set of assumptions always possess, at least, one light ring (per rotation sense) [arXiv:2003.06445]. This theorem was originally established for asymptotically…
The ringdown and shadow of the astrophysically significant Kerr Black Hole (BH) are both intimately connected to a special set of bound null orbits known as Light Rings (LRs). Does it hold that a generic equilibrium BH must possess such…
We present a novel theorem regarding light rings in a stationary spacetime with an ergoregion. We prove that any stationary, axisymmetric, and asymptotically flat spacetime in 1 + 3 dimensions with an ergoregion must have at least one light…
We prove the following theorem: axisymmetric, stationary solutions of the Einstein field equations formed from classical gravitational collapse of matter obeying the null energy condition, that are everywhere smooth and ultracompact (i.e.,…
The existence of light rings in a spacetime is closely related to the existence of black hole horizons and observables such as the ringdown and the shadow. Black holes, compared to nonvacuum ultracompact objects, have rather unique…
It has been argued that ultracompact objects, which possess light rings but no horizons, may be unstable against gravitational perturbations. To test this conjecture, we revisit the quasi-black hole solutions, a family of horizonless…
Ultracompact objects are self-gravitating systems with a light ring. It was recently suggested that fluctuations in the background of these objects are extremely long-lived and might turn unstable at the nonlinear level, if the object is…
Light rings (LRs) - closed circular orbits of null geodesics - are key features of both black holes and horizonless ultracompact objects. While unstable LRs are relevant for the observation of black hole images, stable LRs have been…
Non-singular horizonless ultracompact objects provide a simple resolution to the black holes singularity problem. It has been shown that, if these objects are compact enough to exhibit the presence of the light-ring required to mimic the…
The standard Black Holes (BHs) in General Relativity, as well as other ultra-compact objects (with or without an event horizon) admit planar circular photon orbits. These light rings (LRs) determine several spacetime properties. For…
Recently, ultracompact objects have been found to be susceptible to a new nonlinear instability, known as the light-ring instability, triggered by stable light rings. This discovery raises concerns about the viability of these objects as…
Ultracompact objects with light-rings (LRs) but without an event horizon could mimic black holes (BHs) in their strong gravity phenomenology. But are such objects dynamically viable? Stationary and axisymmetric ultracompact objects that can…
Circular photon orbits have become an attractive topic in recent years. They play extremely important roles in black hole shadows, gravitational lensings, quasi-normal modes, and spacetime topological properties. In our recent work,…
The geometry of black hole spacetimes can be probed with exquisite precision in the gravitational-wave window, and possibly also in the optical regime. We study the accretion of bright spots -- objects which emit strongly in the optical or…
We investigate the kinematic topologies of light rings (LRs) and massive particle rings (PRs) encircling spherical and axisymmetric black holes. Our results demonstrate that the global topology number of LRs is consistently -1 for…
Recently, two types of static black hole models that retain general covariance have been proposed within the Hamiltonian constraint approach to effective quantum gravity (EQG). We have studied the light rings and shadows of these black…
Stationary, axisymmetric and slowly rotating vacuum spacetimes in the Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz (HL) gravity are studied, and shown that, for any given spherical static vacuum solution of the HL theory (of any model, including the ones with an…
Using the Ernst formalism, a novel solution of vacuum general relativity (GR) was recently obtained [1], describing a Schwarzschild black hole (BH) immersed in a nonasymptotically flat rotating background, dubbed swirling universe, with the…
We prove the existence of instabilities for the geometric linear wave equation on extremal Kerr spacetime backgrounds, which describe stationary black holes rotating at their maximally allowed angular velocity. These instabilities can be…
In this work we establish some results concerning the existence of external light rings in extremal black hole spacetimes through the Newman-Penrose formalism. Specifically, assuming conformal flatness, staticity and the null energy…