Related papers: Black hole photon ring beyond General Relativity: …
We generalize our previous work on gravitational lensing by a Kerr black hole in the strong deflection limit, removing the restriction to observers on the equatorial plane. Starting from the Schwarzschild solution and adding corrections up…
We present a highly tractable non-singular modification of the Kerr geometry, dubbed the "eye of the storm" -- a rotating regular black hole with an asymptotically Minkowski core. This is achieved by "exponentially suppressing" the mass…
We establish a thermodynamic-optical duality that directly bridges the semiclassical quantum evaporation of black holes with their classical macroscopic geometry. By employing a diffeomorphic inversion, we re-parameterize the intrinsic…
In general relativity, astrophysical black holes are uniquely described by the Kerr metric. Observational tests of the Kerr nature of these compact objects and, hence, of general relativity, require a metric that encompasses a broader class…
From any location outside the event horizon of a black hole there are an infinite number of trajectories for light to an observer. Each of these paths differ in the number of orbits revolved around the black hole and in their proximity to…
We propose a new method to determine the physical parameters of Kerr black holes (namely, specific angular momentum $a$, inclination angle $i$, and distance $D$ from an observer) only from the shadow's information such as the size and…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a powerful tool for testing the Kerr hypothesis and probing the strong gravity regime around accreting black holes. Most tests of General Relativity (GR) assume that the spacetime around a black hole is…
Here we provide shadow images of a Kerr-like black hole (BH) in cold dark matter (CDM) halo illuminated with a celestial light source and a thin accretion disk. The impact of spin parameter, critical density and the scale radius on the…
Gravitational lensing of luminous matter that surrounds a black hole or some other sufficiently compact object produces an infinite sequence of images. Besides the direct (or primary) image, it comprises demagnified and deformed replicas of…
We investigate the polarized images of an equatorial emitting ring around a Konoplya-Zhidenko rotating non-Kerr black hole, which introduces an additional deformation parameter. The deformation parameter $\eta$ allows the spin parameter to…
Black hole spectroscopy is a clean and powerful tool to test gravity in the strong-field regime and to probe the nature of compact objects. Next-generation ground-based detectors, such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, will…
The lack of rotating black holes, typically found in nature, hinders testing modified gravity from astrophysical observations. We present the axially symmetric counterpart of an existing spherical hairy black hole in Horndeski gravity…
The recent observation of the shadow of the supermassive compact object M87$^*$ by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has opened up a new window to probe the strong gravity regime. In this paper, we study shadows cast by two…
We propose a new parametrization for testing the Kerr nature of astrophysical black hole candidates. The common approaches focus on the attempt to constrain possible deviations from the Kerr solution described by new terms in the metric.…
In a previous paper, one of us has described a code to compute the thermal spectrum of geometrically thin and optically thick accretion disks around generic stationary and axisymmetric black holes, which are not necessarily of the Kerr…
Gravitational lensing near a black hole is strong enough that light rays can circle the event horizon multiple times. Photons emitted in multiple directions at a single event, perhaps because of localized, impulsive heating of accreting…
We address the astrophysical imaging of a family of deformed Kerr black holes (BHs). These are stationary, asymptotically flat black hole (BH) spacetimes, that are solutions of General Relativity minimally coupled to a massive, complex…
The properties of the ergosphere and energy extraction by Penrose process in a rotating non-Kerr black hole are investigated. It is shown that the ergosphere is sensitive to the deformation parameter $\epsilon$ and the shape of the…
Interpreting horizon-scale observations of astrophysical black holes demands a general understanding of null geodesics in the Kerr spacetime. These may be divided into two classes: "direct" rays that primarily determine the observational…
We derive closed formulas for the mass and spin parameters of a Kerr black hole in terms of a minimal quantity of observational data: the red-/blue-shifts of photons emitted by massive particles (stars) moving on geodesics around the black…