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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 6: BH Physics I

GR 6.2: Talk

Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 11:45–12:05, ZHG008

Unmasking Black Hole Mimickers in Higher-Curvature Gravity — •Michael Florian Wondrak — Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen, The Netherlands — Department of Mathematics/IMAPP, Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

In higher-curvature gravity, Birkhoff’s theorem no longer applies, i.e. the Schwarzschild black hole is no longer unique, but widens to a family of black hole mimickers, namely naked singularities and wormholes. Some naked singularities seem undistinguishable from Schwarzschild when the accreted matter is treated as pressureless in a simple analytical way. Closer to reality, however, with (beyond-GR)MHD simulations, those naked singularities can be ruled out by BH imaging as they dynamically form a hot and bright mass accumulation around the would-be horizon. So not only impacts the accuracy in modeling accreted matter the potential of ruling out BH mimickers, it also allows to constrain a variety of quantum-gravity theories based on their low-energy predictions.

Keywords: Higher-curvature gravity; Black hole mimicker; Testing quantum-gravity theories; (Beyond-GR)MHD simulation