Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Cunha, Pedro V P
• Herdeiro, Carlos A R

Titel

Stationary Black Holes and Light Rings

Ist Teil von

• Physical review letters, 2020-05, Vol.124 (18), p.181101-181101, Article 181101

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Physical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

American Physical Society Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The ringdown and shadow of the astrophysically significant Kerr black hole (BH) are both intimately connected to a special set of bound null orbits known as light rings (LRs). Does it hold that a generic equilibrium BH must possess such orbits? In this Letter we prove the following theorem. A stationary, axisymmetric, asymptotically flat black hole spacetime in 1+3 dimensions, with a nonextremal, topologically spherical, Killing horizon admits, at least, one standard LR outside the horizon for each rotation sense. The proof relies on a topological argument and assumes C^{2} smoothness and circularity, but makes no use of the field equations. The argument is also adapted to recover a previous theorem establishing that a horizonless ultracompact object must admit an even number of nondegenerate LRs, one of which is stable.