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At least 829 records · Page 46
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DOE OSTI2015

THE DISTRIBUTION AND ANNIHILATION OF DARK MATTER AROUND BLACK HOLES

We use a Monte Carlo code to calculate the geodesic orbits of test particles around Kerr black holes, generating a distribution function of both bound and unbound populations of dark matter (DM) particles. From this distribution function, we calculate annihilation rates and observable gamma-ray spectra for a few simple DM models. The features of these spectra are sensitive to the black hole spin, observer inclination, and detailed properties of the DM annihilation cross-section and density profile. Confirming earlier analytic work, we find that for rapidly spinning black holes, the collisional Penrose process can reach efficiencies exceeding 600%, leading to a high-energy tail in the annihilation spectrum. The high particle density and large proper volume of the region immediately surrounding the horizon ensures that the observed flux from these extreme events is non-negligible.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

The accreting black hole Swift J1753.5–0127 from radio to hard X-ray

We report on multiwavelength measurements of the accreting black hole Swift J1753.5–0127 in the hard state at low luminosity (L ∼ 2.7 × 10{sup 36} erg s{sup −1} assuming a distance of d = 3 kpc) in 2014 April. The radio emission is optically thick synchrotron, presumably from a compact jet. We take advantage of the low extinction (E(B−V)=0.45 from earlier work) and model the near-IR to UV emission with a multitemperature disk model. Assuming a black hole mass of M{sub BH} = 5 M{sub ⊙} and a system inclination of i = 40°, the fits imply an inner radius for the disk of R{sub in}/R{sub g} > 212d{sub 3}(M{sub BH}/5 M{sub ⊙}){sup −1}, where R{sub g} is the gravitational radius of the black hole and d{sub 3} is the distance to the source in units of 3 kpc. The outer radius is R{sub out}/R{sub g}=90,000 d{sub 3}(M{sub BH}/5 M{sub ⊙}){sup −1}, which corresponds to 6.6 × 10{sup 10} d{sub 3} cm, consistent with the expected size of the disk given previous measurements of the size of the companion's Roche lobe. The 0.5–240 keV energy spectrum measured by Swift/X-ray Telescope (XRT), Suzaku (XIS, PIN, and GSO), and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array is relatively well characterized by an absorbed power law with a photon index of Γ = 1.722 ± 0.003 (90% confidence error), but a significant improvement is seen when a second continuum component is added. Reflection is a possibility, but no iron line is detected, implying a low iron abundance. We are able to fit the entire (radio to 240 keV) spectral energy distribution (SED) with a multitemperature disk component, a Comptonization component, and a broken power law, representing the emission from the compact jet. The broken power law cannot significantly contribute to the soft X-ray emission, and this may be related to why Swift J1753.5–0127 is an outlier in the radio/X-ray correlation. The broken power law (i.e., the jet) might dominate above 20 keV, which would constrain the break frequency to be between 2.4 × 10{sup 10} and 3.6 × 10{sup 12} Hz. Although the fits to the full SED do not include significant thermal emission in the X-ray band, previous observations have consistently seen such a component, and we find that there is evidence at the 3.1σ level for a disk-blackbody component with a temperature of kT{sub in}=150{sub −20}{sup +30} eV and an inner radius of 5R{sub g}–14R{sub g}. If this component is real, it might imply the presence of an inner optically thick accretion disk in addition to the strongly truncated (R{sub in}> 212R{sub g}) disk. We also perform X-ray timing analysis, and the power spectrum is dominated by a Lorentzian component with ν{sub max} = 0.110 ± 0.003 Hz and ν{sub max} = 0.16 ± 0.04 Hz as measured by XIS and XRT, respectively.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Measuring the mass of the central black hole in the bulgeless galaxy NGC 4395 from gas dynamical modeling

NGC 4395 is a bulgeless spiral galaxy, harboring one of the nearest known type 1 Seyfert nuclei. Although there is no consensus on the mass of its central engine, several estimates suggest it is one of the lightest massive black holes (MBHs) known. We present the first direct dynamical measurement of the mass of this MBH from a combination of two-dimensional gas kinematic data, obtained with the adaptive optics assisted near-infrared integral field spectrograph Gemini/NIFS and high-resolution multiband photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. We use the photometric data to model the shape and stellar mass-to-light ratio of the nuclear star cluster (NSC). From the Gemini/NIFS observations, we derive the kinematics of warm molecular hydrogen gas as traced by emission through the H{sub 2} 1–0 S(1) transition. These kinematics show a clear rotational signal, with a position angle orthogonal to NGC 4395's radio jet. Our best-fitting tilted ring models of the kinematics of the molecular hydrogen gas contain a black hole with mass M=4{sub −3}{sup +8}×10{sup 5} M{sub ⊙} (3σ uncertainties) embedded in an NSC of mass M=2×10{sup 6} M{sub ⊙}. Our black hole mass measurement is in excellent agreement with the reverberation mapping mass estimate of Peterson et al. but shows some tension with other mass measurement methods based on accretion signals.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

DISTINGUISHING COMPACT BINARY POPULATION SYNTHESIS MODELS USING GRAVITATIONAL WAVE OBSERVATIONS OF COALESCING BINARY BLACK HOLES

The coalescence of compact binaries containing neutron stars or black holes is one of the most promising signals for advanced ground-based laser interferometer gravitational-wave (GW) detectors, with the first direct detections expected over the next few years. The rate of binary coalescences and the distribution of component masses is highly uncertain, and population synthesis models predict a wide range of plausible values. Poorly constrained parameters in population synthesis models correspond to poorly understood astrophysics at various stages in the evolution of massive binary stars, the progenitors of binary neutron star and binary black hole systems. These include effects such as supernova kick velocities, parameters governing the energetics of common envelope evolution and the strength of stellar winds. Observing multiple binary black hole systems through GWs will allow us to infer details of the astrophysical mechanisms that lead to their formation. Here we simulate GW observations from a series of population synthesis models including the effects of known selection biases, measurement errors and cosmology. We compare the predictions arising from different models and show that we will be able to distinguish between them with observations (or the lack of them) from the early runs of the advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors. This will allow us to narrow down the large parameter space for binary evolution models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

NEAR-EXTREMAL BLACK HOLES AS INITIAL CONDITIONS OF LONG GRB SUPERNOVAE AND PROBES OF THEIR GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EMISSION

Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) associated with supernovae and short GRBs with extended emission (SGRBEE) from mergers are probably powered by black holes as a common inner engine, as their prompt GRB emission satisfies the same Amati correlation in the E{sub p,i}–E{sub iso} plane. We introduce modified Bardeen equations to identify hyper-accretion driving newly formed black holes in core-collapse supernovae to near-extremal spin as a precursor to prompt GRB emission. Subsequent spin-down is observed in the BATSE catalog of long GRBs. Spin-down provides a natural unification of long durations associated with the lifetime of black hole spin for normal long GRBs and SGRBEEs, given the absence of major fallback matter in mergers. The results point to major emissions unseen in high frequency gravitational waves. A novel matched filtering method is described for LIGO–Virgo and KAGRA broadband probes of nearby core-collapse supernovae at essentially maximal sensitivity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

UNIVERSAL BEHAVIOR OF X-RAY FLARES FROM BLACK HOLE SYSTEMS

X-ray flares have been discovered in black hole systems such as gamma-ray bursts, the tidal disruption event Swift J1644+57, the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of our Galaxy, and some active galactic nuclei. Occurrences of X-ray flares are always accompanied by relativistic jets. However, it is still unknown whether or not there is a physical analogy among such X-ray flares produced in black hole systems spanning nine orders of magnitude in mass. Here, we report observed data of X-ray flares and show that they have three statistical properties similar to solar flares, including power-law distributions of their energies, durations, and waiting times, which can be explained by a fractal-diffusive, self-organized criticality model. These statistical similarities, together with the fact that solar flares are triggered by a magnetic reconnection process, suggest that all of the X-ray flares are consistent with magnetic reconnection events, implying that their concomitant relativistic jets may be magnetically dominated.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Black hole horizons from the double copy

We describe a procedure for locating black hole horizons in 'Kerr–Schild' spacetimes in the double copy paradigm. Using only single- and zeroth-copy data on flat spacetime, our procedure predicts the existence of trapped surfaces in the double-copy gravitational solution. We show explicitly how this procedure locates the horizon of the Schwarzschild black hole and the general Myers–Perry black hole.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Black hole-neutron star binaries near neutron star disruption limit in the mass regime of event GW230529

In May 2023, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration reported the likely black hole-neutron star (BHNS) merger GW230529_181500. The signal was observed with high significance in only one detector, limiting constraints on the black hole spin and motivating our study of disruption in this mass regime. That event is expected to be the merger of a 2.5–4.5 M ⊙ primary with a secondary compact object of mass between 1.2–2.0 M ⊙ . This makes it the first BHNS merger with a significant potential for the production of electromagnetic (EM) counterparts, and provides further evidence for compact objects existing within the suspected lower mass gap. To produce post-merger EM transients, the component of the black hole spin aligned with the orbital angular momentum must be sufficiently high, allowing the neutron star to be tidally disrupted. The disrupting BHNS binary may then eject a few percent of a solar mass of matter, leading to an observable kilonova driven by radioactive decays in ejecta, and/or a compact-binary gamma-ray burst (cbGRB) resulting from the formation of an accretion disk and relativistic jet. Determining which mergers lead to disruption of the neutron star is necessary to predict the prevalence of EM signals from BHNS mergers, yet most BHNS simulations so far have been performed far from the minimum spin required for tidal disruption. Here, we use the Spectral Einstein Code to explore the behavior of BHNS mergers in a mass range consistent with GW230529_181500 close to that critical spin, and compare our results against the mass remnant model currently used by the LVK Collaboration to predict the probability of tidal disruption. Furthermore, our numerical results reveal the emergence of non-zero accretion disks even below the predicted NS disruption limit, of low mass but capable of powering cbGRBs. Our results also demonstrate that the remnant mass model underpredicts the disk mass for the DD2 equation of state, while they are within expected modeling errors for SFHo. The disruption limit itself, however, is not found to significantly differ from the predictions of the analytical model, unless remnant masses M rem ≲ 0.001 M ⊙ prove interesting observationally. In all of our simulations, any kilonova signal would be dim and most likely dominated by post-merger disk outflows.

GW230529_181500↗
DOE OSTI2014

Phantom black holes and critical phenomena

We consider the two classes cosh and sinh of normal and phantom black holes of Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory. The thermodynamics of these holes is characterized by heat capacities that may have both signs depending on the parameters of the theory. Leaving aside the normal Reissner-Nordström black hole, it is shown that only some phantom black holes of both classes exhibit critical phenomena. The two classes share a nonextremality, but special, critical point where the transition is continuous and the heat capacity, at constant charge, changes sign with an infinite discontinuity. This point yields a classification scheme for critical points. It is concluded that the two unstable and stable phases coexist on one side of the criticality state and disappear on the other side, that is, there is no configuration where only one phase exists. The sinh class has an extremality critical point where the entropy diverges. The transition from extremality to nonextremality with the charge held constant is accompanied by a loss of mass and an increase in the temperature. A special case of this transition is when the hole is isolated (microcanonical ensemble), it will evolve by emission of energy, which results in a decrease of its mass, to the final state of minimum mass and vanishing heat capacity. The Ehrenfest scheme of classification is inaccurate in this case but the generalized one due to Hilfer leads to conclude that the transition is of order less than unity. Fluctuations near criticality are also investigated.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Energy and information near black hole horizons

The central challenge in trying to resolve the firewall paradox is to identify excitations in the near-horizon zone of a black hole that can carry information without injuring a freely falling observer. By analyzing the problem from the point of view of a freely falling observer, I arrive at a simple proposal for the degrees of freedom that carry information out of the black hole. An infalling observer experiences the information-carrying modes as ingoing, negative energy excitations of the quantum fields. In these states, freely falling observers who fall in from infinity do not encounter a firewall, but freely falling observers who begin their free fall from a location close to the horizon are ''frozen'' by a flux of negative energy. When the black hole is ''mined,'' the number of information-carrying modes increases, increasing the negative energy flux in the infalling frame without violating the equivalence principle. Finally, I point out a loophole in recent arguments that an infalling observer must detect a violation of unitarity, effective field theory, or free infall.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Black hole complementarity in gravity's rainbow

To see how the gravity's rainbow works for black hole complementary, we evaluate the required energy for duplication of information in the context of black hole complementarity by calculating the critical value of the rainbow parameter in the certain class of the rainbow Schwarzschild black hole. The resultant energy can be written as the well-defined limit for the vanishing rainbow parameter which characterizes the deformation of the relativistic dispersion relation in the freely falling frame. It shows that the duplication of information in quantum mechanics could not be allowed below a certain critical value of the rainbow parameter; however, it might be possible above the critical value of the rainbow parameter, so that the consistent formulation in our model requires additional constraints or any other resolutions for the latter case.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Cosmic string loops as the seeds of super-massive black holes

Recent discoveries of super-massive black holes at high redshifts indicate a possible tension with the standard ΛCDM paradigm of early universe cosmology which has difficulties in explaining the origin of the required nonlinear compact seeds which trigger the formation of these super-massive black holes. Here we show that cosmic string loops which result from a scaling solution of strings formed during a phase transition in the very early universe lead to an additional source of compact seeds. The number density of string-induced seeds dominates at high redshifts and can help trigger the formation of the observed super-massive black holes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Warping and tearing of misaligned circumbinary disks around eccentric supermassive black hole binaries

We study the warping and tearing of a geometrically thin, non-self-gravitating disk surrounding binary supermassive black holes on an eccentric orbit. The circumbinary disk is significantly misaligned with the binary orbital plane, and is subject to the time-dependent tidal torques. In principle, such a disk is warped and precesses, and is torn into mutually misaligned rings in the region, where the tidal precession torques are stronger than the local viscous torques. We derive the tidal-warp and tearing radii of the misaligned circumbinary disks around eccentric SMBH binaries. We find that in disks with the viscosity parameter α larger than a critical value depending on the disk aspect ratio, the disk warping appears outside the tearing radius. This condition is expressed for small amplitude warps as α > √H/(3r) for H/r∼<0.1, where H is the disk scale height. If α < √H/(3r), only the disk tearing occurs because the tidal warp radius is inside the tearing radius, where most of disk material is likely to rapidly accrete onto SMBHs. In warped and torn disks, both the tidal-warp and the tearing radii most strongly depend on the binary semi-major axis, although they also mildly depend on the other orbital and disk parameters. This strong dependence enables us to estimate the semi-major axis, once the tidal warp or tearing radius is determined observationally: for the tidal warp radius of 0.1 pc, the semi-major axis is estimated to be ∼10{sup −2} pc for 10{sup 7} M{sub ⊙} black hole with typical orbital and disk parameters. We also briefly discuss the possibility that central objects of observed warped maser disks in active galactic nuclei are supermassive black hole binaries.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Regular black holes in f(T) Gravity through a nonlinear electrodynamics source

We seek to obtain a new class of exact solutions of regular black holes in f(T) Gravity with non-linear electrodynamics material content, with spherical symmetry in 4D. The equations of motion provide the regaining of various solutions of General Relativity, as a particular case where the function f(T)=T. We developed a powerful method for finding exact solutions, where we get the first new class of regular black holes solutions in the f(T) Theory, where all the geometrics scalars disappear at the origin of the radial coordinate and are finite everywhere, as well as a new class of singular black holes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

On stars, galaxies and black holes in massive bigravity

In this paper we study the phenomenology of stars and galaxies in massive bigravity. We give parameter conditions for the existence of viable star solutions when the radius of the star is much smaller than the Compton wavelength of the graviton. If these parameter conditions are not met, we constrain the ratio between the coupling constants of the two metrics, in order to give viable conditions for e.g. neutron stars. For galaxies, we put constraints on both the Compton wavelength of the graviton and the conformal factor and coupling constants of the two metrics. The relationship between black holes and stars, and whether the former can be formed from the latter, is discussed. We argue that the different asymptotic structure of stars and black holes makes it unlikely that black holes form from the gravitational collapse of stars in massive bigravity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Black holes and Higgs stability

We study the effect of primordial black holes on the classical rate of nucleation of AdS regions within the standard electroweak vacuum. We find that the energy barrier for transitions to the new vacuum, which characterizes the exponential suppression of the nucleation rate, can be reduced significantly in the black-hole background. A precise analysis is required in order to determine whether the the existence of primordial black holes is compatible with the form of the Higgs potential at high temperature or density in the Standard Model or its extensions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Gravitational waves at interferometer scales and primordial black holes in axion inflation

We study the prospects of detection at terrestrial and space interferometers, as well as at pulsar timing array experiments, of a stochastic gravitational wave background which can be produced in models of axion inflation. This potential signal, and the development of these experiments, open a new window on inflation on scales much smaller than those currently probed with Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure measurements. The sourced signal generated in axion inflation is an ideal candidate for such searches, since it naturally grows at small scales, and it has specific properties (chirality and non-gaussianity) that can distinguish it from an astrophysical background. We study under which conditions such a signal can be produced at an observable level, without the simultaneous overproduction of scalar perturbations in excess of what is allowed by the primordial black hole limits. We also explore the possibility that scalar perturbations generated in a modified version of this model may provide a distribution of primordial black holes compatible with the current bounds, that can act as a seeds of the present black holes in the universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Twisted black hole is Taub-NUT

Recently a purportedly novel solution of the vacuum Einstein field equations was discovered: it supposedly describes an asymptotically flat twisted black hole in 4-dimensions whose exterior spacetime rotates in a peculiar manner—the frame dragging in the northern hemisphere is opposite from that of the southern hemisphere, which results in a globally vanishing angular momentum. Furthermore it was shown that the spacetime has no curvature singularity. We show that the geometry of this black hole spacetime is nevertheless not free of pathological features. In particular, it harbors a rather drastic conical singularity along the axis of rotation. In addition, there exist closed timelike curves due to the fact that the constant r and constant t surfaces are not globally Riemannian. In fact, none of these are that surprising since the solution is just the Taub-NUT geometry. As such, despite the original claim that the twisted black hole might have observational consequences, it cannot be.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗