Dark Bodies and Black Holes, Magic Circles and Montgolfiers: Light and Gravitation from Newton to Einstein

1993 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-106
Author(s):  
Jean Eisenstaedt

The ArgumentThe question of the possible existence of black holes is closely related to the question of the action of gravitation on the propagation of light. It has been raised recurrently from the when that Newton referred to a possible bending of light in his Opticks. And it relies on apparently simple questions: Is light subject to gravitation? What is the effect of a gravitational field on the propagation of light? Could a particle of light emitted by a star be retained by its gravitational field?From the end of the 1960s, the black hole idea has had a very important place in the relativistic literature, not to speak of the popularization of the theory. It turned out to be not only an important concept but also a tool that permitted us to understand general relativity better, indeed a tool that contributed greatly to changing the interpretation of Einstein's theory of gravitation. Here too I want to use this concept of the black hole to assist our understanding of the history of general relativity: the black hole is a fundamental milestone in the evolution of general relativity.

Author(s):  
Katherine Blundell

‘Characterizing black holes’ describes the two different types of black holes: Schwarzschild black holes that do not rotate and Kerr black holes that do. The only distinguishing characteristics of black holes are their mass and their spin. A remarkable feature of a spinning black hole is that the gravitational field pulls objects around the black hole’s axis of rotation, not merely in towards its centre—an effect called frame dragging. The static limit and ergosphere regions of black holes are also described. Einstein’s equations of General Relativity allow many different solutions describing alternative versions of curved spacetime. Could white holes and worm holes exist in our universe?


2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 267-308
Author(s):  
Bernard J. Carr ◽  
George F. R. Ellis ◽  
Gary W. Gibbons ◽  
James B. Hartle ◽  
Thomas Hertog ◽  
...  

Stephen Hawking's contributions to the understanding of gravity, black holes and cosmology were truly immense. They began with the singularity theorems in the 1960s followed by his discovery that black holes have an entropy and consequently a finite temperature. Black holes were predicted to emit thermal radiation, what is now called Hawking radiation. He pioneered the study of primordial black holes and their potential role in cosmology. His organization of and contributions to the Nuffield Workshop in 1982 consolidated the picture that the large-scale structure of the universe originated as quantum fluctuations during the inflationary era. Work on the interplay between quantum mechanics and general relativity resulted in his formulation of the concept of the wavefunction of the universe. The tension between quantum mechanics and general relativity led to his struggles with the information paradox concerning deep connections between these fundamental areas of physics. These achievements were all accomplished following the diagnosis during the early years of Stephen's studies as a post-graduate student in Cambridge that he had incurable motor neuron disease—he was given two years to live. Against all the odds, he lived a further 55 years. The distinction of his work led to many honours and he became a major public figure, promoting with passion the needs of disabled people. His popular best-selling book, A brief history of time , made cosmology and his own work known to the general public world-wide. He became an icon for science and an inspiration to all.


1998 ◽  
Vol 07 (03) ◽  
pp. 471-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. LØVÅS

The use of modified Newtonian potentials to describe the gravitational field around black holes has proven successful. I will present here an investigation of the accuracy of several modified Newtonian potentials proposed in the literature, by comparing the result with the exact relativistic solution. I will do so for optically thin accretion disks that are more sensitive to the form of the potential than optically thick standard disks. I find that simple modified Newtonian potentials capture the essential features of general relativity, and the results from using the modified Newtonian potentials deviate from the relativistic result only by 20% at most for nonrotating black holes. For rotating black holes the accuracy depends on the rotation of the black hole.


Author(s):  
Laurent Baulieu ◽  
John Iliopoulos ◽  
Roland Sénéor

General relativity. The equivalence principle and the derivation of the Einstein–Hilbert equations. The geometrical notions of curvature and affine connection are introduced. Geodesics and the bending of light by a gravitational field. General relativity as a gauge invariant classical field theory.


2021 ◽  
Vol 81 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Astorino ◽  
Adriano Viganò

AbstractAn analytical solution of four-dimensional General Relativity, representing an array of collinear and accelerating black holes, is constructed with the inverse scattering method. The metric can be completely regularised from any conical singularity, thanks to the presence of an external gravitational field. Therefore the multi-black hole configuration can be maintained at equilibrium without the need of strings or struts. Some notable subcases such as the accelerating distorted Schwarzschild black hole and the distorted double C-metric are explicitly presented. The Smarr law and the thermodynamics of these systems is studied. The Bonnor–Swaminarayan and the Bičák–Hoenselaers–Schmidt particle metrics are recovered, through appropriate limits, from the multi-black holes solutions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Andrade ◽  
Christiana Pantelidou ◽  
Julian Sonner ◽  
Benjamin Withers

Abstract General relativity governs the nonlinear dynamics of spacetime, including black holes and their event horizons. We demonstrate that forced black hole horizons exhibit statistically steady turbulent spacetime dynamics consistent with Kolmogorov’s theory of 1941. As a proof of principle we focus on black holes in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes in a large number of dimensions, where greater analytic control is gained. We focus on cases where the effective horizon dynamics is restricted to 2+1 dimensions. We also demonstrate that tidal deformations of the horizon induce turbulent dynamics. When set in motion relative to the horizon a deformation develops a turbulent spacetime wake, indicating that turbulent spacetime dynamics may play a role in binary mergers and other strong-field phenomena.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Berry

<p><b>The central theme of this thesis is the study and analysis of black hole mimickers. The concept of a black hole mimicker is introduced, and various mimicker spacetime models are examined within the framework of classical general relativity. The mimickers examined fall into the classes of regular black holes and traversable wormholes under spherical symmetry. The regular black holes examined can be further categorised as static spacetimes, however the traversable wormhole is allowed to have a dynamic (non-static) throat. Astrophysical observables are calculated for a recently proposed regular black hole model containing an exponential suppression of the Misner-Sharp quasi-local mass. This same regular black hole model is then used to construct a wormhole via the "cut-and-paste" technique. The resulting wormhole is then analysed within the Darmois-Israel thin-shell formalism, and a linearised stability analysis of the (dynamic) wormhole throat is undertaken. Yet another regular black hole model spacetime is proposed, extending a previous work which attempted to construct a regular black hole through a quantum "deformation" of the Schwarzschild spacetime. The resulting spacetime is again analysed within the framework of classical general relativity. </b></p><p>In addition to the study of black hole mimickers, I start with a brief overview of the theory of special relativity where a new and novel result is presented for the combination of relativistic velocities in general directions using quaternions. This is succeed by an introduction to concepts in differential geometry needed for the successive introduction to the theory of general relativity. A thorough discussion of the concept of spacetime singularities is then provided, before analysing the specific black hole mimickers discussed above.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
Wontae KIM ◽  
Mu-In PARK

A black hole is a theoretical prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, differently from Newtonian gravity, which is a non-relativistic gravity. In recent few years, its direct detection via gravitational waves and other multi-messenger observations have made it possible to test the prediction and hence its associated general relativity. From purely theoretical points of view, general relativity cannot be a complete description due to its not being compatible with quantum mechanics, which is a successful description of microscopic objects. In this article, we introduce the conceptional development of quantum-gravity theories and give brief sketches of fundamental problems in quantum black holes. As an interesting model of quantum black holes, we consider a collapsing shell of matter to form a Hayward black hole and investigate semiclassically quantum radiation from the shell. By using the Israel’s formulation and the functional Schrödinger formulation for massless quantum radiation, we find that the Hawking temperature can be deduced from the occupation number of excited states when the shell approaches its own horizon.


Author(s):  
Bo Gao ◽  
Xue-Mei Deng

The neutral time-like particle’s bound orbits around modified Hayward black holes have been investigated. We find that both in the marginally bound orbits (MBO) and the innermost stable circular orbits (ISCO), the test particle’s radius and its angular momentum are all more sensitive to one of the parameters [Formula: see text]. Especially, modified Hayward black holes with [Formula: see text] could mimic the same ISCO radius around the Kerr black hole with the spin parameter up to [Formula: see text]. Small [Formula: see text] could mimic the ISCO of small-spinning test particles around Schwarzschild black holes. Meanwhile, rational (periodic) orbits around modified Hayward black holes have also been studied. The epicyclic frequencies of the quasi-circular motion around modified Hayward black holes are calculated and discussed with respect to the observed Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) frequencies. Our results show that rational orbits around modified Hayward black holes have different values of the energy from the ones of Schwarzschild black holes. The epicyclic frequencies in modified Hayward black holes have different frequencies from Schwarzschild and Kerr ones. These might provide hints for distinguishing modified Hayward black holes from Schwarzschild and Kerr ones by using the dynamics of time-like particles around the strong gravitational field.


Author(s):  
Timothy Clifton

By studying objects outside our Solar System, we can observe star systems with far greater gravitational fields. ‘Extrasolar tests of gravity’ considers stars of different sizes that have undergone gravitational collapse, including white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. A black hole consists of a region of space-time enclosed by a surface called an event horizon. The gravitational field of a black hole is so strong that anything that finds its way inside the event horizon can never escape. Other star systems considered are binary pulsars and triple star systems. With the invention of even more powerful telescopes, there will be more tantalizing possibilities for testing gravity in the future.


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