Relativistic time delay analysis of pulsar signals near ultra-compact objects

The upcoming discoveries of pulsars orbiting the center of the Milky Way will present unparalleled opportunities to examine the causal structure of the spacetime geometry of Sagittarius A*. In this paper, we investigate the fully relativistic propagation time delay of pulsar signals in the Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN-1) and Janis-Newman-Winicour (JNW) spacetimes. This delay arises basically from the spacetime curvatures in the vicinity of these ultra-compact objects, induced by the intense gravitational field near the Galactic Center (GC). Using the principles of gravitational lensing, we compute the arrival time of photons originating from a pulsar in orbit around the GC. To validate our approach, we compare our time delay analysis of the Schwarzschild black hole with the corresponding delay in the post-Newtonian framework. Subsequently, we find that the propagation time of pulsar signal is greater and lesser for the given horizon-less ultra-compact objects for direct and indirect propagation respectively. Therefore, our results suggest quite significant propagation time delay differences in JMN-1 and JNW spacetimes, when compared to the Schwarzschild black hole case. This can be inferred as a possible distinguishing feature for these ultra-compact objects' geometries.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Influence of primary hair and plasma on intensity distribution of black hole shadows

In this paper, we investigate the influence of primary hair ($l$) on the shadows of hairy Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes obtained through gravitational decoupling. In the context of hairy Schwarzschild black holes, $l$ either has no effect or consistently enlarges the photon sphere radius. Notably, even when it violates the strong energy condition, it can decrease the radius. For Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes, an additional matter field consistently expands the photon sphere radius, potentially reaching $3M$, akin to the pure Schwarzschild case. Remarkably, we demonstrate that black holes can exist even when overcharged ($Q^2 > M^2$), casting shadows. Specific intensity calculations reveal $l$ consistently reduces it in both scenarios. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of pressureless plasma, finding $l$ exerts a stronger influence on visible size than plasma. These results can help in our understanding of theoretical models of black hole shadows and can be tested by comparison with the images obtained by EHT collaboration.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Imaging ultra-compact objects with radiatively inefficient accretion flows

Recent Event Horizon Telescope observations of M87* and Sgr A* strongly suggests the presence of supermassive black hole at their respective cores. In this work, we use the semi-analytic Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows (RIAF) model to investigate the resulting images of Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN-1) naked singularity and the Schwarzschild BH. We aim at choosing the JMN-1 naked singularity model and compare the synchrotron images with the Schwarzschild solution to search any distinct features which can distinguish the two objects and find alternative to the black hole solution. We perform general relativistic ray-tracing and radiative transfer simulations using Brahma code to generate synchrotron emission images utilising thermal distribution function for emissivity and absorptivity. We investigate effects in the images by varying inclination angle, disk width and frequency. The shadow images simulated by the JMN-1 model closely resemble those generated by the Schwarzschild black hole. When we compare these images, we find that the disparities between them are minimal. We conduct simulations using various plasma parameters, but the resulting images remain largely consistent for both scenarios. This similarity is evident in the horizontal cross-sectional brightness profiles of the two instances. Notably, the JMN-1 model exhibits slightly higher intensity in comparison to the Schwarzschild black hole. We conclude that JMN-1 presents itself as a viable substitute for the black hole scenario. This conclusion is not solely grounded in the fact that they are indistinguishable from their respective shadow observations, but also in the consideration that JMN-1 emerges as an end state of a continual gravitational collapse. This paradigm not only allows for constraints on spacetime but also provides a good probe for the nature of the central compact object.Comment: Accepted in A&A, 7 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2202.0058

Energy extraction from Janis-Newman-Winicour naked singularity

In general, energy extraction methods such as the Penrose process and the magnetic Penrose process are thought to be reliant on the existence of an ergoregion. Inside an ergoregion, there are negative energy states that allow a particle to extract energy and escape to an observer at infinity. In this paper, we considered the electromagnetic field in the rotating Janis-Newman-Winicour (JNW) spacetime. This concept is feasible because an accretion disc forms an electromagnetic field around compact objects. After that, we briefly examine negative energy orbits and their significance in energy extraction. The ergoregion is absent in a rotating JNW geometry, but we show that the effective ergoregion is there. The change in a negative energy orbit concerning the magnetic field (B), spin parameter (a), and electric charge (Q) is analyzed. We find that the total energy extraction efficiency within this process can be around $60\%$ for the rotating JNW naked singularity.Comment: 11 pages, 18 figure

Naked Singularity as a Possible Source of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

The source of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) remains one of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics. Their possible source can be the galactic nuclei, where the ultra-high gravity region plays a crucial role. Cosmic rays are extremely energetic particles that travel through space with energies exceeding $10^{20}eV$, but their origin is still a mystery despite years of studies and observations. In view of this, in this work, we studied the Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN-1) naked singularity as a natural particle accelerator. We derived the necessary expressions to find center of mass energy when two particles collide. We have obtained results showing that center of mass energy of the two particles will reach to Planck energy scale. This will form a microscopic black hole which will decay in Hawking radiation, having energy on the order of $10^{26} eV$ from the ultra-high gravity region of Sgr A*. These outgoing highly energetic particles from the naked singularity could be the possible sources of UHECRs.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Precession of timelike bound orbits in Kerr spacetime

Astrometric observations of S-stars provide a unique opportunity to probe the nature of Sagittarius-A* (Sgr-A*). In view of this, it has become important to understand the nature and behavior of timelike bound trajectories of particles around a massive central object. It is known now that whereas the Schwarzschild black hole does not allow the negative precession for the S-stars, the naked singularity spacetimes can admit the positive as well as negative precession for the bound timelike orbits. In this context, we study the perihelion precession of a test particle in the Kerr spacetime geometry. Considering some approximations, we investigate whether the timelike bound orbits of a test particle in Kerr spacetime can have negative precession. In this paper, we only consider low eccentric timelike equatorial orbits. With these considerations, we find that in Kerr spacetimes, negative precession of timelike bound orbits is not allowed.Comment: 12 pages, 18 figure

Horizon-scale tests of gravity theories and fundamental physics from the Event Horizon Telescope image of Sagittarius A∗^*

Horizon-scale images of black holes (BHs) and their shadows have opened an unprecedented window onto tests of gravity and fundamental physics in the strong-field regime. We consider a wide range of well-motivated deviations from classical General Relativity (GR) BH solutions, and constrain them using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of Sagittarius A$^*$ (Sgr A$^*$), connecting the size of the bright ring of emission to that of the underlying BH shadow and exploiting high-precision measurements of Sgr A$^*$'s mass-to-distance ratio. The scenarios we consider, and whose fundamental parameters we constrain, include various regular BHs, string-inspired space-times, violations of the no-hair theorem driven by additional fields, alternative theories of gravity, novel fundamental physics frameworks, and BH mimickers including well-motivated wormhole and naked singularity space-times. We demonstrate that the EHT image of Sgr A$^*$ places particularly stringent constraints on models predicting a shadow size larger than that of a Schwarzschild BH of a given mass, with the resulting limits in some cases surpassing cosmological ones. Our results are among the first tests of fundamental physics from the shadow of Sgr A$^*$ and, while the latter appears to be in excellent agreement with the predictions of GR, we have shown that a number of well motivated alternative scenarios, including BH mimickers, are far from being ruled out at present.Comment: 82 pages, 47 figures, 50+ models tested. v3: fixed a few figures, clarified several points, included various analytical expressions for shadow sizes within the different models, added a few references, included a summary table (Table II). Version accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Tidal forces in the Simpson-Visser black-bounce and wormhole spacetimes

The concept of regular black holes has gained attention in recent years, especially in the context of quantum gravity theories. In these theories, the existence of singularities is paradoxical as they represent a breakdown of the laws of physics. Motivated by the recent developments in this area, we study the tidal force effects in one such family of regular geometries described by the Simpson-Visser metric. We find the radial and angular force profiles for a radially in-falling particle in this spacetime and calculate the variation of the geodesic separation vector with the radial coordinate using two different initial conditions. These results are then compared with that of Schwarzschild black hole spacetime. We show that for a regular black hole, both radial and angular tidal forces show a peak outside the horizon and then fall to ultimately switch their behavior from stretching to compression and vice-versa. Also, they are finite at $r=0$ unlike the Schwarzschild spacetime. It is also seen that the angular deviation profile shows an oscillating behavior for a particular initial condition. Our analysis can be used to distinguish between regular black hole, one-way and two-way wormholes and a singular black hole spacetimes.Comment: 12 pages, 17 figure