Implications for the hierarchy problem, inflation and geodesic motion from fiber fabric of spacetime

In this paper, we represent a resolution for the hierarchy problem where the inverse size of the extra dimension and the fundamental Planck scale would all be of the order of the TeV scale by proposing a fiber fabric of spacetime. The origin of the large hierarchy is essentially due to the $$\cosh $$ cosh function which is physically originated from the dynamics of the horizontal metric in the vacuum of non-zero energy. In addition, the fiber fabric of spacetime allows us to resolve elegantly and naturally the problems of the chirality fermions and stabilizing potential for the size of the extra dimension, which are usually encountered in the higher dimensional theories. Then, we explore the inflation with the modulus of the extra dimension identified as the inflaton where our slow-roll inflationary model belongs to the E-model class with $$n=1$$ n = 1 . We calculate the main inflationary observables which are consistent with the present experiments. Finally, we study how the geodesic motion of neutral test particles gets modified from the extension of spacetime. We compute the radius of the photon sphere, the innermost stable circular orbit, the perihelion shift, the light bending angle, and the observables of the strong gravitational lensing and the retrolensing phenomenon. By comparing the predicted values with the experimental observations, we determine the constraints on the fiber fabric of spacetime.

Accretion disk around a Schwarzschild black hole in asymptotic safety

We study quantum gravity effects on radiation properties of thin accretion disks around a renormalization group improved (RGI-) Schwarzschild black hole. In the infrared (IR) limit of the asymptotically safe theory with higher derivatives, the running Newton coupling G(r) depends on a free parameter which encodes the quantum effects on the spacetime geometry. By varying this parameter, modifications to thermal properties of the disk as the time averaged energy flux, the disk temperature, the differential luminosity, and the conversion efficiency of accreting mass into radiation, are obtained. In addition to a shifting of the radius of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) toward small values, we find an increase of the maximum values of these thermal properties and a greater efficiency than in the classical relativistic regime. We discuss astrophysical applications of these results by using observational data of the stellar-mass black hole candidate LMC X-3. Our findings could, in principle, be used to identify quantum gravity effects through astrophysical observations.

Null geodesics and QNMs in the field of regular black holes

In this paper, we analyze the null geodesics of regular black holes (BHs). A detailed analysis of geodesic structure, both null geodesics and timelike geodesics, has been investigated for the said BH. As an application of null geodesics, we calculate the radius of photon sphere and gravitational bending of light. We also study the shadow of the BH spacetime. Moreover, we determine the relation between radius of photon sphere [Formula: see text] and the shadow observed by a distance observer. Furthermore, we discuss the effect of various parameters on the radius of shadow [Formula: see text]. Also, we compute the angle of deflection for the photons as a physical application of null-circular geodesics. We find the relation between null geodesics and quasinormal mode (QNM) frequency in the eikonal approximation by computing the Lyapunov exponent. It is also shown that (in the eikonal limit) the QNMs of BHs are governed by the parameter of null-circular geodesics. The real part of QNMs frequency determines the angular frequency, whereas the imaginary part determines the instability timescale of the circular orbit. Next, we study the massless scalar perturbations and analyze the effective potential graphically. Massive scalar perturbations are also discussed. As an application of timelike geodesics, we compute the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) and marginally bound circular orbit (MBCO) of the regular BHs which are closely related to the BH accretion disk theory. In the appendix, we calculate the relation between angular frequency and Lyapunov exponent for null-circular geodesics.

Particle Motion and Plasma Effects on Gravitational Weak Lensing in Lorentzian Wormhole Spacetime

Here we study particle motion in the specific Lorentzian wormhole spacetime characterized, in addition to the total mass M, with the dimensionless parameter λ. In particular we calculate the radius of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) for test particles and the photonsphere for massless particles. We show that the effect of the dimensionless wormhole parameter decreases the ISCO radius and the radius of the photon orbit. Then, we study plasma effects on gravitational weak lensing in wormhole spacetime and obtain the deflection angle of the light. We show that the effect of λ decreases the deflection angle. We study the effects of uniform and non-uniform plasma on the light deflection angle separately, and show that the uniform plasma causes the deflection angle to be smaller in contrast to the non-uniform plasma.

A critical assessment of black hole solutions with a linear term in their redshift function

Different theories of gravity can admit the same black hole solution, but the parameters usually have different physical interpretations. In this work we study in depth the linear term $$\beta r$$ β r in the redshift function of black holes, which arises in conformal gravity, de Rham–Gabadadze–Tolley (dRGT) massive gravity, f(R) gravity (as approximate solution) and general relativity. Geometrically we quantify the parameter $$\beta $$ β in terms of the curvature invariants. Astrophysically we found that $$\beta $$ β can be expressed in terms of the cosmological constant, the photon orbit radius and the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) radius. The metric degeneracy can be broken once black hole thermodynamics is taken into account. Notably, we show that under Hawking evaporation, different physical theories with the same black hole solution (at the level of the metric) can lead to black hole remnants with different values of their physical masses with direct consequences on their viability as dark matter candidates. In particular, the mass of the graviton in massive gravity can be expressed in terms of the cosmological constant and of the formation epoch of the remnant. Furthermore the upper bound of remnant mass can be estimated to be around $$0.5 \times 10^{27}$$ 0.5 × 10 27 kg.

Thin accretion disks around rotating black holes in 4D Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity

Recently, Kumar and Ghosh have derived Kerr-like rotating black hole solutions in the framework of four-dimensional Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet theory of gravity and investigated the black hole shadow. Using the steady-state Novikov–Thorne model, we study thin accretion disk processes for such rotating black holes including the energy flux, temperature distribution, emission spectrum, energy conversion efficiency as well as the radius of the innermost stable circular orbit. We also study the effects of the Gauss–Bonnet coupling parameter $$\alpha $$ α on these quantities. The results are compared to slowly rotating relativistic Kerr black holes which show that for a positive Gauss–Bonnet coupling, thin accretion disks around rotating black holes in four-dimensional Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity are hotter and more efficient than that for Kerr black holes with the same rotation parameter a, while for a negative coupling they are cooler and less efficient. Thus the accretion disk processes may be considered as tools for testing Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity using astrophysical observations.

Exploring higher order images with Fe Kα-lines from relativistic disks: black hole spin determination and bias

We study the contributions to the relativistic Fe Kα line profile from higher order images (HOIs) produced by strongly deflected rays from the disk which cross the plunging region, located between the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) radius and the event horizon of a Kerr black hole. We investigate the characteristics features imprinted by the HOIs in the line profile for different black hole spins, disk emissivity laws and inclinations. We find that they extend from the red wing of the profile up to energies slightly lower than those of the blue peak, adding ∼0.4 − 1.3 per cent to the total line flux. The contribution to the specific flux is often in the ∼1 per cent to 7 per cent range, with the highest values attained for low and negative spin (a ≲ 0.3) black holes surrounded by intermediate inclination angle (i ∼ 40○) disks. We simulate future observations of a black hole X-ray binary system with the Large Area Detector of the planned X-ray astronomy enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry Mission (eXTP) and find that the Fe Kα line profiles of systems accreting at ≲ 1 per cent the Eddington rate are affected by the HOI features for a range of parameters. This would provide evidence of the extreme gravitational lensing of HOI rays. Our simulations show also that not accounting for HOI contributions to the Fe Kα line profile may systematically bias measurements of the black hole spin parameter towards values higher by up to ∼0.3 than the inputted ones.

A full relativistic thin disc - the physics of the plunging region and the value of the stress at the ISCO

The widely used Novikov-Thorne relativistic thin disc equations are only valid down to the radius of the innermost-stable circular orbit (ISCO). This leads to an undetermined boundary condition at the ISCO, known as the inner stress of the disc, which sets the luminosity of the disc at the ISCO and introduces considerable ambiguity in accurately determining the mass, spin and accretion rate of black holes from observed spectra. We resolve this ambiguity by self-consistently extending the relativistic disc solution through the ISCO to the black hole horizon by calculating the inspiral of an average disc particle subject to turbulent disc forces, using a new particle-in-disc technique. Traditionally it has been assumed that the stress at the ISCO is zero, with material plunging approximately radially into the black hole at close to the speed of light. We demonstrate that in fact the inspiral is less severe, with several (∼4 − 17) orbits completed before the horizon. This leads to a small non-zero stress and luminosity at and inside the ISCO, with a local surface temperature at the ISCO between ∼0.15 − 0.3 times the maximum surface temperature of the disc, in the case where no dynamically important net magnetic field is present. For a range of disc parameters we calculate the value of the inner stress/surface temperature, which is required when fitting relativistic thin disc models to observations. We resolve a problem in relativistic slim disc models in which turbulent heating becomes inaccurate and falls to zero inside the plunging region.