Related papers: The imitation game reloaded: effective shadows of …
Can a dynamically robust bosonic star (BS) produce an (effective) shadow that mimics that of a black hole (BH)? The BH shadow is linked to the existence of light rings (LRs). For free bosonic fields, yielding mini-BSs, it is known that…
$Q$-stars are a class of boson stars arising in scalar-field theories with interacting potentials, minimally coupled to gravity. We show that, in certain regions of parameter space, the angular velocity of stable timelike circular geodesics…
In this work, we obtain the shadow images of spherically symmetric scalar boson and Proca stars using analytical fittings of numerical solutions, when illuminated by a geometrically thin accretion disk. We chose a sample of four boson and…
Recently, spherical and static flat space solitons (balls) and self-gravitating, everywhere regular, asymptotically flat solitons (stars) were constructed in an Einstein-Proca-Higgs model [1], where a complex vector field gains mass by…
We investigate the gravitational lensing by spinning Proca stars and the shadows and lensing by Kerr black holes (BHs) with synchronised Proca hair, discussing both theoretical aspects and observational constraints from the Event Horizon…
Pushed by a number of advances, electromagnetic observatories have now reached the horizon scale of supermassive black holes. The existence and properties of horizons in our universe is one of the outstanding fundamental issues that can now…
Spherically symmetric bosonic stars are one of the few examples of gravitating solitons that are known to form dynamically, via a classical process of (incomplete) gravitational collapse. As stationary solutions of the…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy can be a powerful tool to test the nature of astrophysical black holes. Extending previous work on Kerr black holes with scalar hair [1] and on boson stars [2], here we study whether astrophysical black hole…
We investigate the dynamics of spinning test particles in the vicinity of Einstein--geometric Proca (EGP) Anti-de Sitter (AdS) compact objects, which arise from metric-Palatini gravity extended by the antisymmetric part of the affine…
Relativistic Bose-Einstein condensates (rBECs) have recently become a well-established system for analogue gravity. Indeed, while such relativistic systems cannot be yet realized experimentally, they provide an interesting framework for…
The Event Horizon Telescope's image of the M87 black hole provides an exciting opportunity to study black hole physics. Since a black hole's event horizon absorbs all electromagnetic waves, it is difficult to actively probe the horizon's…
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…
The images of supermassive black holes surrounded by optically-thin, radiatively-inefficient accretion flows, like those observed with the Event Horizon Telescope, are characterized by a bright ring of emission surrounding the black-hole…
Accretion onto black holes in wind-fed binaries and in collapsars forms small rotating discs with peculiar properties. Such ``mini-discs'' accrete on the free-fall time without help of viscosity and nevertheless can have a high radiative…
Recently, new exploratory channels have opened up for the physics of highly compact objects, such as gravitational waves and black hole shadows. Moreover, more precise analysis and observations are now possible in the physics of accretion…
Ultracompact objects with photonspheres are known to mimic many observational features of black holes. It has been suggested that anomalous tidal heating or the presence of resonances in gravitational wave signals would be a clear imprint…
Massive vector fields can form spatially localized, non-relativistic, stationary field configurations supported by gravitational interactions. The ground state configurations (p-solitons/vector solitons/dark photon stars/polarized Proca…
We demonstrate that black holes and stars in general relativity can be destabilized by perturbations of non-minimally coupled vector fields. Focusing on static and spherically symmetric backgrounds, our analysis shows that black holes with…
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…
A field-theoretic model for a highly compact object that mimicks a black hole is found for the gravitationally interacting system of a boson star and a global monopole which are nonminimally coupled to gravity. According to the strength of…