Related papers: Holography of the Photon Ring
The black hole photon ring is a prime target for upcoming space-based VLBI missions seeking to image the fine structure of astrophysical black holes. The classical Lyapunov exponents of the corresponding nearly bound null geodesics control…
The bright ring-like structures observed in the images of M87* and SgrA* captured by the Event Horizon Telescope strongly support the validity of general relativity. Lensed images of the emission region, often referred to as photon rings in…
Photon rings are key targets for near-future space-based very-long baseline interferometry missions. The ratio of flux measured between successive light-rings is characterized by the Lyapunov exponents of the corresponding nearly-bound null…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration recently released horizon-scale images of the supermassive black hole M87*. These images are consistently described by an optically thin, lensed accretion flow in the Kerr spacetime. General…
We study the physics of photon rings in a wide range of axisymmetric black holes admitting a separable Hamilton-Jacobi equation for the geodesics. Utilizing the Killing-Yano tensor, we derive the Penrose limit of the black holes, which…
Very-long baseline interferometric observations have resolved structure on scales of only a few Schwarzschild radii around the supermassive black holes at the centers of our Galaxy and M87. In the near future, such observations are expected…
Black hole images are theoretically predicted (under mild astrophysical assumptions) to display a stack of lensed "photon rings" that carry information about the underlying spacetime geometry. Despite vigorous efforts, no such ring has been…
Light circling around an astrophysical black hole can spend a long time skirting its unstably bound photon orbits before escaping to infinity. To a distant observer, this orbiting light would appear as a bright ring encircling the image of…
Astrophysical black holes (BHs) are universally expected to be described by the Kerr metric, a stationary, vacuum solution of general relativity (GR). Indeed, by imaging M87$^\star$ and Sgr A$^\star$ and measuring the size of their shadows,…
We investigate whether photon ring observations in black hole imaging are able to distinguish between the Kerr black hole in general relativity and alternative black holes that deviate from Kerr. Certain aspects of photon rings have been…
We propose a new test of strong-field general relativity (GR) based on the universal interferometric signature of the black hole photon ring. The photon ring is a narrow ring-shaped feature, predicted by GR but not yet observed, that…
General relativity predicts that black hole images ought to display a bright, thin (and as-of-yet-unresolved) ring. This "photon ring" is produced by photons that explore the strong gravity of the black hole, flowing along trajectories that…
Ongoing astronomical efforts extract physical properties of black holes from electromagnetic emissions in their near-vicinity. This requires finding the null geodesics which extend from the near-horizon region out to a distant observatory.…
The central supermassive black hole of the galaxy M87 is currently a target for precision spin measurement using high-resolution, horizon-scale imaging. Such observations aim to resolve the first lensed (${n}~{=}~{1}$) sub-image of the…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) captured the first images of a black hole using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). In the near future, extensions of the EHT such as the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) will allow access to finer-scale…
We examine the motion of the massless scalar field and nearly bound null geodesics in the near-ring region of a black hole, which may possess either acceleration or a gravitomagnetic mass. Around such black holes, the photon ring deviates…
High-frequency very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations can now resolve the horizon-scale emission from sources in the immediate vicinity of nearby supermassive black holes. Future space-VLBI observations will access highly…
The Event Horizon Telescope image of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87 is dominated by a bright, unresolved ring. General relativity predicts that embedded within this image lies a thin "photon ring," which is composed of an…
We report measurements of the gravitationally lensed secondary image -- the first in an infinite series of so-called "photon rings" -- around the supermassive black hole M87* via simultaneous modeling and imaging of the 2017 Event Horizon…
When surrounded by a transparent emission region, black holes are expected to reveal a dark shadow caused by gravitational light bending and photon capture at the event horizon. To image and study this phenomenon, we have assembled the…