Related papers: A Primer to Slow Light
Astrophysical black holes are likely to be surrounded by various forms of matter in the form of disks or halos. While a number of studies have examined the impact of an environment on the lensing of light or gravitational waves from…
The existence of extremely dark and compact astronomical bodies is by now a well established observational fact. On the other hand, classical General Relativity predicts the existence of black holes which fit very well with the…
Using media with extremely low group velocities one can create an optical analog of a curved space-time. Leonhardt and Piwnicki have proposed that a vortex flow will act as an optical black hole. We show that although the Leonhardt -…
We review the theory of light propagation in moving media with extremely low group velocity. We intend to clarify the most elementary features of monochromatic slow light in a moving medium and, whenever possible, to give an instructive…
Weak gravitational lensing is rapidly becoming one of the principal probes of dark matter and dark energy in the universe. In this brief review we outline how weak lensing helps determine the structure of dark matter halos, measure the…
There are many books on the classical subject of special relativity. However, after having spent a number of years, both in relativistic engineering and research with relativity, I have come to the conclusion that there exist a place for a…
We investigate the shadow of an exact black hole solution of Einstein's equations recently proposed by Cardoso et al., to describe a supermassive black hole immersed in a dark matter halo. We analyze and discuss the light rings and the…
A series of benchmark tests of slow light in saturable absorbers is proposed. Stage I concerns experimental tests of saturable absorption, which can mimic slow light in saturable media. Stage II outlines the more demanding requirements for…
This is an introduction into the problem of how to set up black hole initial-data for the matter-free field equations of General Relativity. The approach is semi-pedagogical and addresses a more general audience of astrophysicists and…
This thesis contributes to the field of gravitational lensing (GL) and observational cosmology. We discuss the use of gravitational lensing as a tool in search of exotic objects in the Universe. In the next chapter the concordance of an…
Black holes are perhaps the most strange and fascinating objects known to exist in the universe. Our understanding of space and time is pushed to its limits by the extreme conditions found in these objects. They can be used as natural…
We report the existence of two exotic compact objects in the leading relativistic model of modified Newtonian dynamics, namely aether-scalar-tensor theory. This model is consistent with precision cosmology and gravitational wave constraints…
Too light primordial black holes evaporate and are therefore strongly constrained by various bounds, e.g. Cosmic Microwave Background distortion. However, if they are formed strongly clustered, the corresponding haloes may collapse in…
We present a broad review on black holes. We analyse some of the fundamental concepts in black hole theory, the observational and theoretical status of stellar and galactic black holes, and their appearance as quantum objects.
Small black holes should have formed in the early Universe if the density contrast was high enough. This article aims at giving a - biased and partial - short overview of the latest breakthroughs in this field. It first deals with tentative…
The paper is based on the recently proposed 4-dimensional optical space theory and draws some of its consequences for gravitation. Starting with the discussion of central movement, the paper proceeds to establish the a metric compatible…
We provide an in depth study of the theoretical peculiarities that arise in effective negative mass lensing, both for the case of a point mass lens and source, and for extended source situations. We describe novel observational signatures…
In diffraction catastrophes such as the rainbow the wave nature of light resolves ray singularities and draws delicate interference patterns. In quantum catastrophes such as the black hole the quantum nature of light resolves wave…
Very compact objects probe extreme gravitational fields and may be the key to understand outstanding puzzles in fundamental physics. These include the nature of dark matter, the fate of spacetime singularities, or the loss of unitarity in…
Special relativity includes a concealed mechanism for reducing time-dilation effects in two mutually-receding objects. Forwarding their signals via one or more intermediate physical relay stages (a "probe chain") allows enhanced…