Estimating the Cosmological Constant from Shadows of Kerr–de Sitter Black Holes

The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has revealed the first direct image of a black hole, as per the shadow of a Kerr black hole of general relativity. However, other Kerr-like rotating black holes of modified gravity theories cannot be ignored, and they are essential as they offer an arena in which these theories can be tested through astrophysical observation. This motivates us to investigate asymptotically de Sitter rotating black holes wherein interpreting the cosmological constant Λ as the vacuum energy leads to a deformation in the vicinity of a black hole—new Kerr–de Sitter solution, which has a richer geometric structure than the original one. We derive an analytical formula necessary for the shadow of the new Kerr–de Sitter black holes and then visualize the shadow of black holes for various parameters for an observer at given coordinates (r0,θ0) in the domain (r0,rc) and estimate the cosmological constant Λ from its shadow observables. The shadow observables of the new Kerr–de Sitter black holes significantly deviate from the corresponding observables of the Kerr–de Sitter black hole over an appreciable range of the parameter space. Interestingly, we find a finite parameter space for (Λ, a) where the observables of the two black holes are indistinguishable.

Observational scalings testing modified gravity

We consider different observational effects to test a modified gravity approach involving the cosmological constant in the common description of dark matter and dark energy.We obtain upper limits for the cosmological constant by studying the scaling relations for 12 nearby galaxy clusters, the radiated power from gravitational waves and the Tully-Fisher relation for super spiral galaxies. Our estimations reveal that, for all these cases, the upper limits for Λ are consistent with its actual value predicted by cosmological observations.

Rotating Kerr-Newman space-times in metric-affine gravity

We present new rotating vacuum configurations endowed with both dynamical torsion and nonmetricity fields in the framework of Metric-Affine gauge theory of gravity. For this task, we consider scalar-flat Weyl-Cartan geometries and obtain an axisymmetric Kerr-Newman solution in the decoupling limit between the orbital and the spin angular momentum. The corresponding Kerr-Newman-de Sitter solution is also compatible with a cosmological constant and additional electromagnetic fields.

A measurement of the cosmic expansion within our lifetime

The most exciting future observation in cosmology will feature a monitoring of the cosmic expansion in real time, unlike anything that has ever been attempted before. This campaign will uncover crucial physical properties of the various constituents in the Universe, and perhaps answer a simpler question concerning whether or not the cosmic expansion is even accelerating. An unambiguous yes/no response to this query will significantly impact cosmology, of course, but also the standard model of particle physics. Here, we discuss---in a straightforward way---how to understand the so-called `redshift drift' sought by this campaign, and why its measurement will help us refine the standard-model parameters if the answer is `yes.' A `no' answer, on the other hand, could be more revolutionary, in the sense that it might provide a resolution of several long-standing problems and inconsistencies in our current cosmological models. An outcome of zero redshift drift, for example, would obviate the need for a cosmological constant and render inflation completely redundant.

Central charges for AdS black holes

Nontrivial diffeomorphisms act on the horizon of a generic 4D black holes and create distinguishing features referred to as soft hair. Amongst these are a left-right pair of Virasoro algebras with associated charges that reproduce the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy for Kerr black holes. In this paper we show that if one adds a negative cosmological constant, there is a similar set of infinitesimal diffeomorphisms that act non-trivially on the horizon. The algebra of these diffeomorphisms gives rise to a central charge. Adding a boundary counterterm, justified to achieve integrability, leads to well-defined central charges with cL = cR. The macroscopic area law for Kerr-AdS black holes follows from the assumption of a Cardy formula governing the black hole microstates.

Spacetime Foam, Midisuperspace, and the Cosmological Constant

Perhaps the cosmological constant really is huge at the Planck scale, but is “hidden” by Planck scale quantum fluctuations of spacetime. I briefly review this proposal and provide some evidence, coming from a simplified midisuperspace model, that an appropriate “foamy” structure can do the job of hiding a large cosmological constant, and can persist under time evolution.

f(T) cosmology with nonzero curvature

We investigate exact and analytic solutions in [Formula: see text] gravity within the context of a Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker background space with nonzero spatial curvature. For the power-law theory [Formula: see text] we find that the field equations admit an exact solution with a linear scalar factor for negative and positive spatial curvature. That Milne-like solution is asymptotic behavior for the scale factor near the initial singularity for the model [Formula: see text]. The analytic solution for that specific theory is presented in terms of Painlevé series for [Formula: see text]. Moreover, from the value of the resonances of the Painlevé series we conclude that the Milne-like solution is always unstable while for large values of the independent parameter, the field equations provide an expanding universe with a de Sitter expansion of a positive cosmological constant. Finally, the presence of the cosmological term [Formula: see text] in the studied [Formula: see text] model plays no role in the general behavior of the cosmological solution and the universe immerge in a de Sitter expansion either when the cosmological constant term [Formula: see text] in the [Formula: see text] model vanishes.