Related papers: Event Horizon Telescope observations exclude compa…
General Relativity receives quantum corrections relevant at macroscopic distance scales and near event horizons. These arise from the conformal scalar degrees of freedom in the extended effective field theory of gravity generated by the…
No-hair theorems are uniqueness results constraining the form of the metric of black holes in general relativity. These theorems are typically formulated under idealized assumptions, involving a mixture of local (regularity of the horizon)…
The observation of the shadow of the supermassive black hole M87$^{*}$ by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is sensitive to the spacetime geometry near the circular photon orbit and beyond, and it thus has the potential to test general…
We study black holes in the recently proposed ghost-free theory with two gravitons, one of which is massive and another is massless. These black holes possess a regular event horizon which is common for both metrics and has the same values…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has provided a new tool for testing the strong-field regime of gravity by imaging the shadows of M87* and Sgr A*. These observations provide the first real opportunity to test whether quantum…
We investigate what are the key physical features that cause the development of a naked singularity, rather than a black hole, as the end-state of spherical gravitational collapse. We show that sufficiently strong shearing effects near the…
The existence of black holes is one of the key predictions of general relativity (GR) and therefore a basic consistency test for modified theories of gravity. In the case of spherical symmetry in GR the existence of an apparent horizon and…
We derive and critically examine the consequences that follow from the formation of a regular black or white hole horizon in finite time of a distant observer. In spherical symmetry, only two distinct classes of solutions to the…
The $\gamma$-metric is a static, axially-symmetric singular solution of the vacuum Einstein's equations without an event horizon. This is a two-parameter family of solutions, generic values of one of which (called $\gamma$) measure the…
We study null and timelike constant radii geodesics in the environment of an over-spinning putative Kerr-type naked singularity. We are particularly interested in two topics: first, the differences of the shadows of the naked rotating…
A rigidity theorem that applies to smooth electrovac spacetimes which represent either (A) an asymptotically flat stationary black hole or (B) a cosmological spacetime with a compact Cauchy horizon ruled by closed null geodesics was given…
Due to the failure of Birkhoff's theorem, black holes in f(R) gravity theories in which an effective time-varying cosmological "constant" is present are, in general, dynamical. Clifton's exact spherical solution of R^(1+\delta) gravity,…
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,…
The final fate of gravitational collapse of massive stars has been a subject of interest for a long time since such a collapse may lead to black holes and naked singularities alike. Since, the formation of naked singularities is forbidden…
We consider a globally hyperbolic, stationary spacetime containing a black hole but no white hole. We assume, further, that the event horizon, $\tn$, of the black hole is a Killing horizon with compact cross-sections. We prove that if…
The recently proposed theory of "Asymptotically Free Mimetic Gravity" is extended to the general non-homogeneous, spatially non-flat case. We present a modified theory of gravity which is free of higher derivatives of the metric. In this…
Do observations of black hole candidates rule out alternative theories of gravity without horizon formation? This depends on the existence, viability and reasonableness of alternative theories of gravity without black holes. Here a theory…
Null geodesics are invariant under a conformal transformation, and thus it might seem natural to assume that the observables corresponding to the shadow of a space-time are also conformally invariant. Here, we argue instead, that since the…
The half opening angle of a Kerr black-hole shadow is always equal to (5+-0.2)GM/Dc^2, where M is the mass of the black hole and D is its distance from the Earth. Therefore, measuring the size of a shadow and verifying whether it is within…
The 2017 Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of the central source in M87 have led to the first measurement of the size of a black-hole shadow. This observation offers a new and clean gravitational test of the black-hole metric in…