Numerical study of thin accretion disk images shows that increasing parity-odd scalar hair on Kerr black holes shrinks and distorts the photon ring and shadow, producing multiple disconnected shadows and chaotic lensing features in strong-hair regimes.
Dynamics and Radiative Signatures of Accretion Flows onto a Kerr-like Wormhole
1 Pith paper cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
abstract
Wormholes are a hypothetical object that connects disparate points in spacetime. It is a theoretically well-motivated black hole alternative and offers a potential observationally testable arena for probing strong-field gravity with horizon-scale images. We perform general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations and general relativistic radiative transfer (GRRT) calculations of accretion flows onto a Kerr-like wormhole. Adopting a Kerr black-bounce metric with a fixed throat parameter $\ell = 2.5\,\rm M$, we explore the effects of spin using both two- and three-dimensional simulations. The accretion flow is initialized as a magnetized geometrically thick torus near one mouth of the wormhole, while the opposite mouth is initially gas-free. We find that the spin parameter influences the dynamical properties on both sides of the wormhole through the frame-dragging effects. Based on the GRMHD results, we compute ray-traced images at $230\,\mathrm{GHz}$ using \texttt{RAPTOR}, and analyze the horizon-scale image structure through higher-order photon trajectories. Our GRRT calculations show that emissions originating from the immediate vicinity of the throat can dominate, in contrast to the case of a Kerr black hole. It provides the variable component of the signal and imprints a clear quasi-periodic modulation in the light curves. These properties would be useful to either confirm or rule out such exotic compact objects through horizon-scale observations.
fields
gr-qc 1years
2026 1verdicts
UNVERDICTED 1representative citing papers
citing papers explorer
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Distorting Kerr Images with Parity-Odd Scalar Hair
Numerical study of thin accretion disk images shows that increasing parity-odd scalar hair on Kerr black holes shrinks and distorts the photon ring and shadow, producing multiple disconnected shadows and chaotic lensing features in strong-hair regimes.