REVIEW 4 major objections 5 minor 1 cited by
Holographic images of a charged black hole in Lorentz symmetry breaking massive gravity
T0 review · 4 major / 5 minor · reviewed 2026-08-12 · deepseek-v4-flash
Pith's one-line read Using gauge/gravity duality, the paper shows that the photon ring radius of a charged black hole in Lorentz-violating massive gravity grows or shrinks with temperature depending on the chemical potential and the model parameter λ, a…
desk verdict Plausible new low-temperature chemical potential dependence of the holographic ring radius, but the central monotonicity claim is contradicted inside the paper and the cross-λ comparison uses disjoint temperature ranges. read the letter →
The pith
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
The reading
What carries the argument
The central object is the lensed response function $\langle O\rangle_{J_O}$: a Gaussian, monochromatic source $J_O(\nu,\psi)$ on the AdS boundary is decomposed into spherical harmonics, the bulk scalar field $\Phi$ is solved mode by mode through the radial equation (22) using a pseudo-spectral method, and the boundary coefficients $\langle O\rangle_l$ are combined with the source oscillation to give the response. An optical lens transform (26)–(29) converts the boundary response into a screen image $\Psi_{sc}(\hat{X}_{sc})$, whose bright peak defines the Einstein ring radius $r_R$. The geodesic counterpart is the effective potential $V(r)$ for null rays, whose maximum locates the unstable photon sphere; the identity $\sin\psi_R = r_R/f$ and the matching relation $\sin\psi_{in} = L_p/\bar\omega$ connect the wave-optics ring to the photon-sphere angular momentum.
What would settle it
Recompute the ring radius for λ = 2, u = 1 at T = 0.00239 and T = 0.03819 using twice the spectral resolution and an independent shooting method; if the radius difference between the two temperatures changes sign or shrinks below the claimed 0.08-to-0.52 variation, the reversal claim fails.
Extended reading notes
Core claim
The paper claims that the Einstein ring formed by a scalar-wave probe in the holographic dual of a charged black hole in Lorentz symmetry breaking massive gravity encodes the model parameter λ and the chemical potential u in a previously unnoticed way. For λ = 2, where the geometry reduces to the Reissner-Nordström–AdS black hole, a large chemical potential u = 1 makes the ring radius grow as temperature increases, while a small chemical potential u = 0.1 makes the radius shrink as temperature rises. For λ = 4, the ring radius always decreases with increasing temperature, independent of u. These behaviors are extracted from the response function of a Gaussian source on the AdS boundary, and the paper verifies them against geometric-optics photon-sphere predictions, finding that the brightest ring sits at the photon ring.
Load-bearing premise
The numerical solution of the radial wave equation is accurate enough to resolve ring-radius shifts of a few percent, because the paper reports no convergence checks or error bars.
Editorial extensions
If this is right
- At low temperatures, the chemical potential changes the ring radius, so the holographic ring radius can act as a probe of the charge or chemical potential of the dual black hole.
- The reversal in temperature dependence between λ = 2 and λ = 4 at large chemical potential provides an observable signature that could distinguish Lorentz-violating massive gravity from the Reissner-Nordström–AdS case.
- Higher wave frequency ω makes the holographic ring match geometric optics more closely, so geodesic photon-sphere calculations become reliable guides in the high-frequency limit.
- For sufficiently high temperature, the chemical potential no longer affects the ring radius, so the new effect is specifically a low-temperature phenomenon.
Reading between the lines
- The sign change of $dr_R/dT$ likely traces a line in the $(u, \lambda)$ plane; a systematic scan of u between 0.1 and 1 for each λ would locate that transition and might connect to the small/large black hole phase structure in the bulk.
- If the low-temperature ring radius is genuinely sensitive to u, one could try to invert the relation: measure ring radius and temperature to estimate the chemical potential of the dual plasma, similar to using the photon ring to infer mass or charge.
- The claimed radius shifts are a few percent of $r_R/f$; independent high-resolution spectral runs would show whether the reversal survives numerical refinement or is an artifact of the pseudo-spectral truncation.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The paper constructs holographic images of a charged black hole in Lorentz symmetry breaking massive gravity using the AdS/CFT dictionary and the framework of Hashimoto et al. It solves the bulk scalar-field equation with a pseudo-spectral method, extracts the boundary response, lenses it onto a screen, and studies how the Einstein-ring radius and brightness depend on source frequency, chemical potential u, temperature T, and the model parameter λ. It also compares the holographic ring radius with geometric-optics photon-sphere predictions. The central claims are that the ring radius increases with λ, that at low temperature the ring radius decreases with increasing chemical potential, and that for u = 1 the temperature dependence of the ring radius is reversed between λ = 2 and λ = 4, while for u = 0.1 the behavior is the same for both λ values.
Significance. If established, the claimed low-temperature chemical-potential dependence and the λ-dependent reversal would go beyond the earlier result of Ref. [37] and would make holographic ring radii a potentially sharper probe of the parameters of this massive-gravity model. The paper's inclusion of both wave-optics and geometric-optics results is a useful consistency check, and the figures provide extensive qualitative information about the dependence of the images on λ, u, T, and frequency. However, the central claim is currently supported by internally contradictory monotonicity statements in the validation section and by a comparison over disjoint temperature intervals, so the significance of the paper is conditional on resolving those issues.
major comments (4)
- [Sec. 4, Figs. 23 and 25] The validation section contradicts itself about the small-chemical-potential case. The text says "when the chemical potential is small, such as u = 0.1 and u = 0.5, the ring radius does not exhibit a monotonic relationship with increasing temperature T," but a few paragraphs later it says "From Fig. 23, we know that for the small chemical potential, the ring radius decreases as the temperature increases while for the large chemical potential the ring radius increases as the temperature increases." Both statements are presented as conclusions from the same comparison, and they cannot both be correct. This directly affects the paper's central claim about which temperature-dependence behavior is definitive for small u.
- [Sec. 3 summary and Sec. 4, Figs. 13–14 vs 17–18] The claimed "reversal" of the temperature dependence for u = 1 is not compared on a common thermodynamic domain. For λ = 2, u = 1, the data are at T = 0.00239, 0.01432, 0.02623, and 0.03819 (Figs. 13–14), while for λ = 4, u = 1, the data are at T = 0.79578, 0.50131, 0.41560, and 0.36937 (Figs. 17–18). These intervals do not overlap, so the sign difference in dR/dT could be a property of different temperature regimes rather than a reversal induced by λ. The authors should either extend the calculation to a common T range, use a normalized temperature variable, or reformulate the claim to account for the different admissible ranges.
- [Sec. 3, Eq. (22)] The pseudo-spectral solution of the radial equation is described in a single sentence, and no convergence tests or error estimates are reported. The central trends involve radius shifts of only 0.01–0.03 in units of f (for example, 0.58 to 0.61 in Fig. 7 and 0.75 to 0.71 in Fig. 12), so the extracted monotonicities require numerical resolution at that scale. Please provide truncation checks and estimated numerical uncertainties for the quoted ring radii.
- [Eqs. (29)–(30)] As printed, the window function in Eq. (30) is W = 0 for 0 ≤ |X| ≤ d and W = 1 for |X| ≥ d, while the integral in Eq. (29) is restricted to |X| ≤ d. Taken literally, the right-hand side of Eq. (29) vanishes identically. This appears to be a typo, but it should be corrected by either changing the window function to 1 inside the aperture and 0 outside, or by changing the integration domain, because the image construction depends on this step.
minor comments (5)
- [Eq. (41) and Fig. 21 caption] The phrase "For the case λ = −1, λ = 2" in Eq. (41) and the caption of Fig. 21 saying "λ = −1" are inconsistent with the paper's stated choice χ = −1, λ > 1; these should presumably read χ = −1.
- [Abstract and Introduction] There are several typos, including "find the the ring radius increases" in the abstract and "flat sapce" in the Introduction; these should be corrected.
- [Sec. 5, first paragraph] The conclusion states that "at low temperatures (as shown in Fig. 24) and high temperatures (as shown in Fig. 26), the radius of the photon ring decreases with increasing chemical potential u," but Figs. 24 and 26 correspond to different λ values, and Fig. 26 shows that at high T the radius changes very little with u; this wording should be aligned with the actual figure contents.
- [Sec. 4, final paragraph] The text refers to "blue curves" for the geodesic prediction, but the figures show solid curves without a specific color designation in the captions; please clarify the line-style/color convention.
- [Sec. 3, Fig. 7] The sentence "the brightest of the Einstein ring decreases with the increase of the parameter λ" is grammatically unclear; it should say the peak brightness of the Einstein ring decreases as λ increases.
Circularity Check
No circular derivation: all ring-radius claims are numerical outputs of the same input metric, and cited prior work is methodological, not load-bearing.
full rationale
The derivation chain is: (i) the static spherically symmetric charged AdS metric (Eq. 10) is taken as input from the Lorentz-breaking massive gravity action; (ii) the complex scalar field is solved from Eq. (22) with the boundary source Eq. (18) using the pseudo-spectral method cited to [37]; (iii) the lensed response is converted to an image via Eqs. (26)-(29); (iv) independently, null geodesics (Eqs. 31-40) give the geometric-optics photon radius. Every ring radius quoted in Secs. 3-4 is an output of this pipeline; no parameter is fitted and then renamed as a prediction. The low-temperature decrease of the ring radius with chemical potential, and the lambda=2 vs lambda=4 difference in temperature dependence, are numerical results of the displayed equations rather than identities or fitted relations. The Sec. 4 comparison uses the same input metric, so it is a consistency check rather than an external benchmark, but the paper does not present it as an independent falsification. Citations [37,38,45,48] include overlapping authors, but they supply the solution method and background model, not an unverified uniqueness theorem, and the central low-temperature claim does not reduce to them. The self-contradictory monotonicity statements in Sec. 4 and the disjoint temperature intervals for lambda=2 and lambda=4 are correctness and precision risks, not circular reasoning. No circular step can be exhibited, so no step is reported.
Assumptions & free parameters
free parameters (5)
- λ (model parameter) =
2, 3, 4, 5
- u (chemical potential) =
0.1 to 1
- T (temperature) =
0.28 to 0.95 range
- ω (source frequency) =
20, 40, 60, 80
- e (scalar charge) =
0.01
assumptions (5)
- domain assumption AdS/CFT correspondence maps the boundary source J0 to a bulk scalar field and the response <O> to the holographic image.
- domain assumption The metric (10) is a valid charged AdS black hole solution in Lorentz symmetry breaking massive gravity.
- domain assumption The scalar field is a probe with negligible backreaction.
- standard math The pseudo-spectral discretization converges to the true solution of Eq. (22).
- ad hoc to paper χ = -1 and λ > 1.
Cite this review
Pith. "Pith review of Holographic images of a charged black hole in Lorentz symmetry breaking massive gravity." pith.science (2026). https://pith.science/paper/3HWYSISG
@misc{pith2026241112528,
author = {Pith},
title = {Pith review of: Holographic images of a charged black hole in Lorentz symmetry breaking massive gravity},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://pith.science/paper/3HWYSISG}},
note = {Machine review of arXiv:2411.12528}
}
read the original abstract
Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, this paper investigates the holographic images of a charged black hole within the context of Lorentz symmetry breaking massive gravity. The photon rings, luminosity-deformed rings, or light points from various observational perspectives are obtained. We also study the influences of both the chemical potential and temperature on the Einstein ring. Unlike the previous work, which primarily examines the effect of chemical potential on ring radius at high temperatures and find no change in the radius with varying chemical potential, we also investigate the effect of chemical potential on the ring radius at low temperature besides at high temperature. Our findings indicate that at low temperatures, the photon ring radius decreases with increasing of chemical potential, while at high temperatures, the results are consistent with previous studies. Additionally, we explore the impact of the model parameter {\lambda} on the Einstein ring radius and find the the ring radius increases as the model parameter {\lambda} increases. More interestingly, for the large chemical potential, u = 1, the temperature dependence of the photon ring radius is reversed for {\lambda} = 2 and {\lambda} = 4. Conversely, for a small chemical potential u = 0.1, the temperature dependence of the Einstein ring stays the same as {\lambda} = 2 and {\lambda} = 4.
Forward citations
Cited by 1 Pith paper
-
Testing Extended Theories of Gravity via Black Hole Photon Rings
For Konoplya-Zhidenko deformed Schwarzschild black holes, epsilon controls photon sphere, shadow, and photon ring size while a2 and b2 are observationally degenerate, and EHT data constrain epsilon to about -0.09 to 0...
Reference graph
Works this paper leans on
-
[33]
K. Hashimoto, S. Kinoshita and K. Murata. Imaging black holes through the AdS/CFT correspondence. Phys. Rev. D, 2020, 101: no.6, 066018
work page 2020
- [37]
-
[1]
write newline
" write newline "" before.all 'output.state := FUNCTION blank.sep after.quote 'output.state := FUNCTION fin.entry output.state after.quoted.block = 'skip 'add.period if write newline FUNCTION new.block output.state before.all = 'skip after.block 'output.state := if FUNCTION new.sentence output.state after.block = 'skip output.state before.all = 'skip afte...
-
[2]
S. G. Turyshev. Experimental Tests of General Relativity: Recent Progress and Future Directions. Usp. Fiz. Nauk 2009, 179: 3034
work page 2009
-
[3]
SS. Perlmutter et al. [Supernova Cosmology Project]. Measurements of and from 42 High Redshift Supernovae. Astrophys. J., 1999, 517: 565-586
work page 1999
-
[4]
Y. Sofue and V. Rubin. Rotation curves of spiral galaxies. Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys., 2001, 39: 137-174
work page 2001
-
[5]
D. C. Maurya. Modified f(Q,C) gravity dark energy models with observational constraints. Mod. Phys. Lett. A, 2024, 39: no.10, 2450034
work page 2024
-
[6]
G. Cognola, E. Elizalde, S. Nojiri, S. D. Odintsov, L. Sebastiani and S. Zerbini. A Class of viable modified f(R) gravities describing inflation and the onset of accelerated expansion. Phys. Rev. D, 2008, 77: 046009
work page 2008
Show all 52 references
-
[7]
De Felice and S
A. De Felice and S. Tsujikawa. Construction of cosmologically viable f(G) dark energy models. Phys. Lett. B, 2009, 675: 1-8
2009
-
[8]
Deruelle and L
N. Deruelle and L. Farina-Busto. The Lovelock Gravitational Field Equations in Cosmology. Phys. Rev. D, 1990, 41: 3696
1990
-
[9]
Fierz and W
M. Fierz and W. Pauli. On relativistic wave equations for particles of arbitrary spin in an electromagnetic field. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A, 1939, 173: 211232
1939
-
[10]
S. L. Dubovsky. Phases of massive gravity. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2004, 10: 076
2004
-
[11]
V. A. Rubakov and P. G. Tinyakov. Infrared-modified gravities and massive gravitons. Phys. Usp., 2008, 51: 759-792
2008
-
[12]
Stepanian, S
A. Stepanian, S. Khlghatyan and V. G. Gurzadyan. Black hole shadow to probe modified gravity. Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 2021, 136: no.1, 127
2021
-
[13]
Ayzenberg and N
D. Ayzenberg and N. Yunes. Black Hole Shadow as a Test of General Relativity: Quadratic Gravity. Class. Quant. Grav., 2018, 35: no.23, 235002
2018
-
[14]
X. M. Kuang, Z. Y. Tang, B. Wang and A. Wang. Constraining a modified gravity theory in strong gravitational lensing and black hole shadow observations. Phys. Rev. D, 2022, 106: no.6, 064012
2022
-
[15]
Antoniou, A
G. Antoniou, A. Bakopoulos and P. Kanti. Evasion of No-Hair Theorems and Novel Black-Hole Solutions in Gauss-Bonnet Theories. Phys. Rev. Lett., 2018, 120: no.13, 131102
2018
-
[16]
X. X. Zeng, H. Q. Zhang and H. Zhang. Shadows and photon spheres with spherical accretions in the four-dimensional Gauss Bonnet black hole. Eur. Phys. J. C, 2020, 80: no.9, 872
2020
-
[17]
X. X. Zeng and H. Q. Zhang. Influence of quintessence dark energy on the shadow of black hole. Eur. Phys. J. C, 2020, 80: no.11, 1058
2020
-
[18]
Akiyama et al
K. Akiyama et al. [Event Horizon Telescope]. First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. IV. Imaging the Central Supermassive Black Hole. Astrophys. J. Lett., 2019, 875: no.1, L4
2019
-
[19]
Akiyama et al
K. Akiyama et al. [Event Horizon Telescope]. First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way. Astrophys. J. Lett., 2022, 930: no.2, L12
2022
-
[20]
P. Z. He, Q. Q. Fan, H. R. Zhang and J. B. Deng. Shadows of rotating Hayward de Sitter black holes with astrometric observables. Eur. Phys. J. C, 2020, 80: no.12, 1195
2020
-
[21]
Falcke, F
H. Falcke, F. Melia and E. Agol. Viewing the shadow of the black hole at the galactic center. Astrophys. J. Lett., 2000, 528: L13
2000
-
[22]
R. S. Lu, A. E. Broderick, F. Baron, J. D. Monnier, V. L. Fish, S. S. Doeleman and V. Pankratius. Imaging the Supermassive Black Hole Shadow and Jet Base of M87 with the Event Horizon Telescope. Astrophys. J., 2014, 788: 120
2014
-
[23]
Vagnozzi, R
S. Vagnozzi, R. Roy, Y. D. Tsai, L. Visinelli, M. Afrin, A. Allahyari, P. Bambhaniya, D. Dey, S. G. Ghosh and P. S. Joshi, et al. Horizon-scale tests of gravity theories and fundamental physics from the Event Horizon Telescope image of Sagittarius A. Class. Quant. Grav., 2023,...
2023
-
[24]
Broderick and A
A. Broderick and A. Loeb. Imaging the Black Hole Silhouette of M87: Implications for Jet Formation and Black Hole Spin. Astrophys. J., 2009, 697: 1164-1179
2009
-
[25]
B. C. Bromley, F. Melia and S. Liu. Polarimetric imaging of the massive black hole at the galactic center. Astrophys. J. Lett., 2001, 555: L83
2001
-
[26]
S. C. Noble, P. K. Leung, C. F. Gammie and L. G. Book. Simulating the Emission and Outflows from Accretion Disks. Class. Quant. Grav., 2007, 24: S259-S274
2007
-
[27]
Bambi, K
C. Bambi, K. Freese, S. Vagnozzi and L. Visinelli. Testing the rotational nature of the supermassive object M87* from the circularity and size of its first image. Phys. Rev. D, 2019, 100: no.4, 044057
2019
-
[28]
Vagnozzi and L
S. Vagnozzi and L. Visinelli. Hunting for extra dimensions in the shadow of M87*. Phys. Rev. D, 2019, 100: no.2, 024020
2019
-
[29]
Allahyari, M
A. Allahyari, M. Khodadi, S. Vagnozzi and D. F. Mota. Magnetically charged black holes from non-linear electrodynamics and the Event Horizon Telescope. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020, 02: 003
2020
-
[30]
Khodadi, A
M. Khodadi, A. Allahyari, S. Vagnozzi and D. F. Mota. Black holes with scalar hair in light of the Event Horizon Telescope. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020, 09: 026
2020
-
[31]
G. Z. Babar, A. Z. Babar and F. Atamurotov. Optical properties of Kerr Newman spacetime in the presence of plasma. Eur. Phys. J. C, 2020, 80: no.8, 761
2020
-
[32]
Kumar and S
R. Kumar and S. G. Ghosh. Black Hole Parameter Estimation from Its Shadow. Astrophys. J., 2020, 892: 78
2020
-
[34]
Hashimoto, S
K. Hashimoto, S. Kinoshita and K. Murata. Einstein Rings in Holography. Phys. Rev. Lett., 2019, 123: no.3, 031602
2019
-
[35]
E. Witten. Anti-de Sitter space and holography. Adv. Theor. Math. Phys., 1998, 2: 253-291
1998
-
[36]
Baggioli
M. Baggioli. Gravity, holography and applications to condensed matter. [arXiv:1610.02681 [hep-th]]
-
[38]
Y. Liu, Q. Chen, X. X. Zeng, H. Zhang, W. L. Zhang and W. Zhang. Holographic Einstein ring of a charged AdS black hole. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2022, 10: 189
2022
-
[39]
X. X. Zeng, K. J. He, J. Pu, G. p. Li and Q. Q. Jiang. Holographic Einstein rings of a Gauss Bonnet AdS black hole. Eur. Phys. J. C, 2023, 83: no.10, 897
2023
-
[40]
X. X. Zeng, L. F. Li and P. Xu. Holographic Einstein rings of a black hole with a global monopole. Eur. Phys. J. C, 2024, 84: 7, 714
2024
-
[41]
X. Y. Hu, X. X. Zeng, L. F. Li and P. Xu. Holographic Einstein rings of Non-commutative black holes. Eur. Phys. J. C, 2024, 84: 2, 199
2024
-
[42]
X. X. Zeng, M. I. Aslam, R. Saleem and X. Y. Hu. Holographic Einstein Rings of Black Holes in Scalar-Tensor-Vector Gravity. [arXiv:2311.04680 [gr-qc]]
-
[43]
X. Y. Hu, X. X. Zeng, L. F. Li and P. Xu. Holographic study on Einstein ring for a charged black hole in conformal gravity. Results Phys., 2024, 61: 107707
2024
-
[44]
X. X. Zeng, X. Y. Hu and K. J. He. Holographic image features of an AdS black hole in Einstein-power-Yang-Mills gravity. [arXiv:2406.03083 [hep-th]]
-
[45]
J. Y. Gui, X. X. Zeng, K. J. He and H. Ye. Holographic Einstein Ring of Deformed AdS-Schwarzschild Black Holes. [arXiv:2407.09069 [hep-th]]
-
[46]
Liang, S
B. Liang, S. W. Wei and Y. X. Liu. Quasinormal Modes and Van der Waals like phase transition of charged AdS black holes in Lorentz symmetry breaking massive gravity. Int. J. Mod. Phys. D, 2019, 28: no.09, 1950113
2019
-
[47]
Fernando
S. Fernando. Massive gravity with Lorentz symmetry breaking: black holes as heat engines. Mod. Phys. Lett. A, 2018, 33: no.31, 1850177
2018
-
[48]
Chabab, H
M. Chabab, H. El Moumni, S. Iraoui and K. Masmar. Phase transitions and geothermodynamics of black holes in dRGT massive gravity. Eur. Phys. J. C, 2019, 79: no.4, 342
2019
-
[49]
X. M. Liu, H. B. Shao and X. X. Zeng. Van der Waals-like phase transition from holographic entanglement entropy in Lorentz breaking massive gravity. Adv. High Energy Phys., 2017, 2017: 6402101
2017
-
[50]
M. V. Bebronne and P. G. Tinyakov. Black hole solutions in massive gravity. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2009, 04: 100
2009
-
[51]
Fernando
S. Fernando. P-V criticality in AdS black holes of massive gravity. Phys. Rev. D, 2016, 94: no.12, 124049
2016
-
[52]
\"Ovg\"un, R
A. \"Ovg\"un, R. C. Pantig and \'A. Rinc\'on. 4D scale-dependent Schwarzschild-AdS/dS black holes: study of shadow and weak deflection angle and greybody bounding. Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 2023, 138: no.3, 192
2023
Reviewed August 12, 2026 · model on record in the stance chip above.
Discussion (0). Continue with ORCID to comment.