Linear Stability of Black Holes and Naked Singularities

A review of the current status of the linear stability of black holes and naked singularities is given. The standard modal approach, that takes advantage of the background symmetries and analyze separately the harmonic components of linear perturbations, is briefly introduced and used to prove that the naked singularities in the Kerr–Newman family, as well as the inner black hole regions beyond Cauchy horizons, are unstable and therefore unphysical. The proofs require a treatment of the boundary condition at the timelike boundary, which is given in detail. The nonmodal linear stability concept is then introduced, and used to prove that the domain of outer communications of a Schwarzschild black hole with a non-negative cosmological constant satisfies this stronger stability condition, which rules out transient growths of perturbations, and also to show that the perturbed black hole settles into a slowly rotating Kerr black hole. The encoding of the perturbation fields in gauge invariant curvature scalars and the effects of the perturbation on the geometry of the spacetime is discussed. These notes follow from a course delivered at the V José Plínio Baptista School of Cosmology, held at Guarapari (Espírito Santo) Brazil, from 30 September to 5 October 2021.

Cosmic censorship, massless fermionic test fields, and absorption probabilities

In the conventional approach, fermionic test fields lead to a generic overspinning of black holes resulting in the formation of naked singularities. The absorption of the fermionic test fields with arbitrarily low frequencies is allowed for which the contribution to the angular momentum parameter of the space-time diverges. Recently we have suggested a more subtle treatment of the problem considering the fact that only the fraction of the test fields that is absorbed by the black hole contributes to the space-time parameters. Here, we re-consider the interaction of massless spin (1/2) fields with Kerr and Kerr–Newman black holes, adapting this new approach. We show that the drastic divergence problem disappears when one incorporates the absorption probabilities. Still, there exists a range of parameters for the test fields that can lead to overspinning. We employ backreaction effects due to the self-energy of the test fields which fixes the overspinning problem for fields with relatively large amplitudes, and renders it non-generic for smaller amplitudes. This non-generic overspinning appears likely to be fixed by alternative semi-classical and quantum effects.

Penrose Process: Its Variants and Astrophysical Applications

We present a review of the Penrose process and its modifications in relation to the Kerr black holes and naked singularities (superspinars). We introduce the standard variant of this process, its magnetic version connected with magnetized Kerr black holes or naked singularities, the electric variant related to electrically charged Schwarzschild black holes, and the radiative Penrose process connected with charged particles radiating in the ergosphere of magnetized Kerr black holes or naked singularities. We discuss the astrophysical implications of the variants of the Penrose process, concentrating attention to the extreme regime of the magnetic Penrose process leading to extremely large acceleration of charged particles up to ultra-high energy E∼1022 eV around magnetized supermassive black holes with mass M∼1010M⊙ and magnetic intensity B∼104 G. Similarly high energies can be obtained by the electric Penrose process. The extraordinary case is represented by the radiative Penrose process that can occur only around magnetized Kerr spacetimes but just inside their ergosphere, in contrast to the magnetic Penrose process that can occur in a more extended effective ergosphere determined by the intensity of the electromagnetic interaction. The explanation is simple, as the radiative Penrose process is closely related to radiated photons with negative energy whose existence is limited just to the ergosphere.

Image of the thin accretion disk around compact objects in the Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity

We study the optical appearance of a thin accretion disk around compact objects within the Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity. Considering static spherically symmetric black holes and naked singularities we search for characteristic signatures which can arise in the observable images due to the modification of general relativity. While the images of the Gauss–Bonnet black holes closely resemble the Schwarzschild black hole, naked singularities possess a distinctive feature. A series of bright rings are formed in the central part of the images with observable radiation $$10^3$$ 10 3 times larger than the rest of the flux making them observationally significant. We elucidate the physical mechanism, which causes the appearance of the central rings, showing that the image is determined by the light ring structure of the spacetime. In a certain region of the parametric space the Gauss–Bonnet naked singularities possess a stable and an unstable light ring. In addition the gravitational field becomes repulsive in a certain neighbourhood of the singularity. This combination of features leads to the formation of the central rings implying that the effect is not specific for the Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity but would also appear for any other compact object with the same characteristics of the photon dynamics.

Singularities in Static Spherically Symmetric Configurations of General Relativity with Strongly Nonlinear Scalar Fields

There are a number of publications on relativistic objects dealing either with black holes or naked singularities in the center. Here we show that there exist static spherically symmetric solutions of Einstein equations with a strongly nonlinear scalar field, which allow the appearance of singularities of a new type (“spherical singularities”) outside the center of curvature coordinates. As the example, we consider a scalar field potential ∼sinh(ϕ2n),n>2, which grows rapidly for large field values. The space-time is assumed to be asymptotically flat. We fulfill a numerical investigation of solutions with different n for different parameters, which define asymptotic properties at spatial infinity. Depending on the configuration parameters, we show that the distribution of the stable circular orbits of test bodies around the configuration is either similar to that in the case of the Schwarzschild solution (thus mimicking an ordinary black hole), or it contains additional rings of unstable orbits.

Cosmological constant effect on charged and rotating black hole shadows

Motivated by recent astrophysical observations, we investigate the shadow behaviors of four-dimensional charged rotating black holes with a cosmological constant. This study is made in terms of a reduced moduli space parameterized by the charge and the rotation parameters. For fixed observers, we analyse in some details the shadow behaviors and the corresponding naked singularities of Kerr–Newman and Kerr–Sen four-dimensional black holes in Anti-de Sitter backgrounds. Then, a comparative discussion is provided by computing the geometrical observables and the energy emission rate.

Can Naked Singularities Exist Without Violating The Laws of Black Hole Thermodynamics?

According to the cosmic censorship conjecture, it is impossible for nature to have a physical singularity without a horizon because if it were to arise in any formalism, for instance as an extremal black hole (Kerr or Reissner-Nordstrom) then the surface gravity κ = 0, which is a strict violation of the third law of black hole thermodynamics. In this paper we explore whether a true singularity can exist without defying this law.