Superradiant Amplification by Stars and Black Holes

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Superradiant Amplification by Stars and Black Holes Superradiant amplification by stars and black holes Vitor Cardoso1,2 , Richard Brito1, Jo˜ao L. Rosa1, 1 CENTRA, Departamento de F´ısica, Instituto Superior T´ecnico – IST, Universidade de Lisboa – UL, Avenida Rovisco Pais 1, 1049 Lisboa, Portugal and 2 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9, Canada It has long been known that dissipation is a crucial ingredient in the superradiant amplification of wavepackets off rotating objects. We show that, once appropriate dissipation mechanisms are included, stars are also prone to superradiance and superradiant instabilities. In particular, ultra- light dark matter with small interaction cross section with the star material or self-annihilation can trigger a superradiant instability. On long timescales, the instability strips the star of most of its angular momentum. Whether or not stationary hairy configurations exist, remains to be seen. PACS numbers: 04.70.-s,04.80.-y,12.60.-i,11.10.St I. INTRODUCTION long as dissipation is included [23]. The purpose of this work is to compute explicitly the amplification factors when a toy model for dissipation is used, and to show Rotating bodies with internal degrees of freedom – that, within this toy model, stars are superradiantly- where energy can be dumped into – display superradi- unstable against massive scalar-field fluctuations. ance. This means that the scattering of low-frequency Our results make possible the existence of hairy stars, waves extracts rotational energy away from the body and supported solely by superradiance. For dark matter mod- is used to amplify incoming radiation [1–3]. When the els comprised of light degrees of freedom, our results open object is a black hole, dissipation is intrinsically built the door to constrain the interaction cross section with in the problem under the form of a one-way membrane: ordinary matter or the self-annihilation cross-section. the event horizon. Black hole superradiance was in fact shown to exist and to trigger interesting phenomena. These include black hole bombs, once the black hole is II. SETUP surrounded by some confining medium, giving rise to ex- ponentially growing modes [4–8]. The scattering of mas- sive fields belongs to this category: the mass term effec- We are interested in describing ultra-light bosonic de- tively confines the field giving rise to floating orbits [9] grees of freedom, described by a scalar minimally cou- or to superradiant instabilities, which extract rotational pled to gravity, and interacting with a star. Dissipation energy away from the black hole [10–16]. The instabil- can be modelled in several – and complex – ways. For ity leads to a depletion of mass and angular momen- instance, one can let the scalar couple to spacetime de- tum from the black hole, resulting in observationally- grees of freedom, or one can consider the coupling to mi- interesting “holes” in the Regge-plane [17–19]. As a croscopic degrees of freedom, describing the interaction consequence, the observation of supermassive black holes of self-annihilation of – for example – dark matter with alone can impose stringent bounds on the mass of ultra- a star. The description of a dissipative system within light bosons [13, 15]. Finally, in multi-scalar theories or full General Relativity for systems (such as stars) with theories with a complex scalar, superradiance is the re- many internal degrees of freedom is a very complex prob- sponsible for new hairy black hole solutions [20] (whether lem [24]. or not these solutions are generically approached as the Instead, we follow Zeldovich’s seminal work and con- end-state of the superradiant-instability is discussed in sider a toy model for absorption, by modifying the Klein- Ref. [18]). For a Review, we refer the reader to Ref. [3]. Gordon equation inside the star and in a frame co- rotating with the star as [21] Given the rich phenomenology of black hole superradi- ance, one might ask whether those results carry through ∂Φ ✷Φ+ α = µ2Φ . (1) to other self-gravitating objects. Ideal stars do not dis- ∂t play superradiance and none of the associated instabili- ties (except for possible ergoregions instabilities [3]). But Here, µ~ is the mass of the scalar field. The α term is realistic stars do dissipate energy and they have several added to break Lorentz invariance, and describes absorp- channels available for it. The original arguments by Zel- tion on a timescale τ 1/α, in a frame co-rotating with dovich already made clear that any classical system with the star. The constant∼ 1/α has dimensions of time, or dissipation will be prone to superradiant scattering [1, 21] length in geometrical units. Contact with particle physics (see also Ref. [22] who studied the correspondence be- can be made by considering the particle associated with tween superradiance and tidal friction on viscous Newto- the scalar field and identifying 1/α with the mean free nian anisotropic stars). In fact, stars in full General Rel- path ℓ of the particle inside the star. In other words, for a ativity were recently shown to display superradiance, as particle with cross section σ to decay into other particles 2 via interaction with say a neutron of mass mN , then when transforming to a frame at rest with the star, and using (1). α = nσ , (2) where n is the nucleon number density in the star. One can also express the dissipation parameter α with the III. SUPERRADIANT AMPLIFICATION help of the star’s total mass M, in the dimensionless com- FACTORS OF MASSLESS FIELDS bination GM ρσ -2 Mα = 2 10 c mN -3 10 R=50M ρ M σ -4 10 0.92 15 −3 −41 2 . (3) ∼ 10 Kg m M⊙ 10 cm -5 -1 10 2 | -6 Thus, the dimensionless combination can be of order one in 10 A R=10M -7 for interesting dark matter candidates [25–27] (and ref- / | 10 2 erences therein). The constant α could also be used sim- | -8 out 10 A ilarly to describe dark matter self-annihilation. | -9 10 R=5M It is easy to see, following Zeldovich, that if the fre- -10 10 numerical quency in the accelerated frame is ω and the field behaves -11 analytical −iωt+imϕ 10 as e then in the inertial frame the azimuthal -12 coordinate is ϕ = ϕ′ Ωt, and hence the frequency is 10 0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010 ω ω′ = ω mΩ. In other− words, the effective damping pa- M rameter−αω′ becomes negative in the superradiant regime and the medium amplifies – rather than absorbing– radi- FIG. 1. Superradiant amplification of a scalar field by a rotat- ation [1, 3, 21]. This procedure can be used to derive the ing star, where dissipation is modeled through equation (1). wave equation of a scalar field in a rotating black hole Here, Mα =0.1, MΩ=0.01. We find that the amplification background (up to first order in rotation), starting from factor scales with the dissipation parameter α for small Mα. that of a scalar field in a Schwarzschild geometry. As we For non-compact, slowly-rotating stars, the amplification fac- will shortly see, it also allows to predict the amplification tor (solid lines) is well described by the analytic result (8), factors of scalar fields in a Kerr background. Thus, while shown as a dashed curve in the plot. only a phenomenological approach to the problem, the inclusion of the Lorentz-violating term is well motivated To solve the Klein-Gordon equation (1), we use the and consistent with known results. In Appendix A we following ansatz for the field, work out another model for dissipation, inspired in the theory behind dissipation in fluids [28]. The results are Ψ(r) Φ(t, r, ϑ, ϕ)= e−iωt+imϕP (cos ϑ) , (6) perfectly consistent with the toy model (1) adopted in r l the main body of this work. As is clear from the previous discussion, superradi- where Pl are Legendre functions. To solve the equation ance requires only rotation and dissipation. The par- inside the star, we first transform to a frame co-rotating ticular background geometry or material is only relevant with the star (which amounts to replacing ϕ ϕ Ωt, or ω ω mΩ), impose regularity at the center→ and− then to quantitatively describe the phenomena. We will focus → − exclusively on backgrounds describing a constant density, match the radial function and its derivative. For now we perfect fluid star in General Relativity as a proxy for the focus on zero field mass, µ = 0. At large distances, the generic case: solution takes the form 2 iωr −iωr 2 2Φ 2 dr 2 2 Ψ= Aoute + Aine , (7) ds = e dt + + r dΩ , (4) − 1 2m(r)/r − where the subscripts denote an out-going and an in-going with piece (due to the time dependence of the ansatz for the 4π 1 2Mr2/R3 1 2M/R field). Thus, the asymptotic solution allows one to frame m = ρr3 , P = ρ − − − , 2 3 this in a context of a scattering experiment. We define 3 3 1 2M/R 1 2Mr /R ! 2 2 p − − p− the amplification factor as Aout / Ain 1. Positive 3 1 | | | | − eΦ = 1 2M/R p1 2Mr2/R3p. (5) amplification factors correspond to superradiant ampli- 2 − − 2 − fication from the star. Negative factors correspond to Here, M,Rp are the star’sp mass and radius, and are related overall absorption by the star. 4π 3 to the density ρ via M = 3 ρR . Our numerical results are summarized in Fig. 1 for Notice that we take an exact general-relativistic solu- Mα = 0.1, MΩ = 0.01.
Recommended publications
  • Dicke's Superradiance in Astrophysics
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 9-1-2016 12:00 AM Dicke’s Superradiance in Astrophysics Fereshteh Rajabi The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Prof. Martin Houde The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Physics A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Fereshteh Rajabi 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Physical Processes Commons, Quantum Physics Commons, and the Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy Commons Recommended Citation Rajabi, Fereshteh, "Dicke’s Superradiance in Astrophysics" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4068. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4068 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract It is generally assumed that in the interstellar medium much of the emission emanating from atomic and molecular transitions within a radiating gas happen independently for each atom or molecule, but as was pointed out by R. H. Dicke in a seminal paper several decades ago this assumption does not apply in all conditions. As will be discussed in this thesis, and following Dicke's original analysis, closely packed atoms/molecules can interact with their common electromagnetic field and radiate coherently through an effect he named superra- diance. Superradiance is a cooperative quantum mechanical phenomenon characterized by high intensity, spatially compact, burst-like features taking place over a wide range of time- scales, depending on the size and physical conditions present in the regions harbouring such sources of radiation.
    [Show full text]
  • Schwarzschild Black Hole Can Also Produce Super-Radiation Phenomena
    Schwarzschild black hole can also produce super-radiation phenomena Wen-Xiang Chen∗ Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Materials Science, GuangZhou University According to traditional theory, the Schwarzschild black hole does not produce super radiation. If the boundary conditions are set in advance, the possibility is combined with the wave function of the coupling of the boson in the Schwarzschild black hole, and the mass of the incident boson acts as a mirror, so even if the Schwarzschild black hole can also produce super-radiation phenomena. Keywords: Schwarzschild black hole, superradiance, Wronskian determinant I. INTRODUCTION In a closely related study in 1962, Roger Penrose proposed a theory that by using point particles, it is possible to extract rotational energy from black holes. The Penrose process describes the fact that the Kerr black hole energy layer region may have negative energy relative to the observer outside the horizon. When a particle falls into the energy layer region, such a process may occur: the particle from the black hole To escape, its energy is greater than the initial state. It can also show that in Reissner-Nordstrom (charged, static) and rotating black holes, a generalized ergoregion and similar energy extraction process is possible. The Penrose process is a process inferred by Roger Penrose that can extract energy from a rotating black hole. Because the rotating energy is at the position of the black hole, not in the event horizon, but in the area called the energy layer in Kerr space-time, where the particles must be like a propelling locomotive, rotating with space-time, so it is possible to extract energy .
    [Show full text]
  • Coherently Amplifying Photon Production from Vacuum with a Dense Cloud of Accelerating Photodetectors ✉ Hui Wang 1 & Miles Blencowe 1
    ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00622-3 OPEN Coherently amplifying photon production from vacuum with a dense cloud of accelerating photodetectors ✉ Hui Wang 1 & Miles Blencowe 1 An accelerating photodetector is predicted to see photons in the electromagnetic vacuum. However, the extreme accelerations required have prevented the direct experimental ver- ification of this quantum vacuum effect. In this work, we consider many accelerating pho- todetectors that are contained within an electromagnetic cavity. We show that the resulting photon production from the cavity vacuum can be collectively enhanced such as to be 1234567890():,; measurable. The combined cavity-photodetectors system maps onto a parametrically driven Dicke-type model; when the detector number exceeds a certain critical value, the vacuum photon production undergoes a phase transition from a normal phase to an enhanced superradiant-like, inverted lasing phase. Such a model may be realized as a mechanical membrane with a dense concentration of optically active defects undergoing gigahertz flexural motion within a superconducting microwave cavity. We provide estimates suggesting that recent related experimental devices are close to demonstrating this inverted, vacuum photon lasing phase. ✉ 1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA. email: [email protected] COMMUNICATIONS PHYSICS | (2021) 4:128 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00622-3 | www.nature.com/commsphys 1 ARTICLE COMMUNICATIONS PHYSICS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00622-3 ne of the most striking consequences of the interplay Cavity wall Obetween relativity and the uncertainty principle is the predicted detection of real photons from the quantum fi TLS defects electromagnetic eld vacuum by non-inertial, accelerating pho- Cavity mode todetectors.
    [Show full text]
  • Dicke Superradiance in Solids [Invited]
    C80 Vol. 33, No. 7 / July 2016 / Journal of the Optical Society of America B Review Dicke superradiance in solids [Invited] 1 1 2 1 2 KANKAN CONG, QI ZHANG, YONGRUI WANG, G. TIMOTHY NOE II, ALEXEY BELYANIN, AND 1,3,4, JUNICHIRO KONO * 1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA 4Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA *Corresponding author: [email protected] Received 18 February 2016; revised 7 April 2016; accepted 7 April 2016; posted 8 April 2016 (Doc. ID 259437); published 13 May 2016 Recent advances in optical studies of condensed matter systems have led to the emergence of a variety of phenomena that have conventionally been studied in the realm of quantum optics. These studies have not only deepened our understanding of light–matter interactions but have also introduced aspects of many-body corre- lations inherent in optical processes in condensed matter systems. This paper is concerned with the phenomenon of superradiance (SR), a profound quantum optical process originally predicted by Dicke in 1954. The basic concept of SR applies to a general N body system, where constituent oscillating dipoles couple together through interaction with a common light field and accelerate the radiative decay of the whole system. Hence, the term SR ubiquitously appears in order to describe radiative coupling of an arbitrary number of oscillators in many situations in modern science of both classical and quantum description.
    [Show full text]
  • The Black Hole Bomb and Superradiant Instabilities
    The black hole bomb and superradiant instabilities Vitor Cardoso∗ Centro de F´ısica Computacional, Universidade de Coimbra, P-3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal Oscar´ J. C. Dias† Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrof´ısica - CENTRA, Departamento de F´ısica, F.C.T., Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal Jos´e P. S. Lemos‡ Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrof´ısica - CENTRA, Departamento de F´ısica, Instituto Superior T´ecnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal Shijun Yoshida§ Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrof´ısica - CENTRA, Departamento de F´ısica, Instituto Superior T´ecnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal ¶ (Dated: February 1, 2008) A wave impinging on a Kerr black hole can be amplified as it scatters off the hole if certain conditions are satisfied giving rise to superradiant scattering. By placing a mirror around the black hole one can make the system unstable. This is the black hole bomb of Press and Teukolsky. We investigate in detail this process and compute the growing timescales and oscillation frequencies as a function of the mirror’s location. It is found that in order for the system black hole plus mirror to become unstable there is a minimum distance at which the mirror must be located. We also give an explicit example showing that such a bomb can be built. In addition, our arguments enable us to justify why large Kerr-AdS black holes are stable and small Kerr-AdS black holes should be unstable. PACS numbers: 04.70.-s I. INTRODUCTION one can extract as much rotational energy as one likes from the black hole.
    [Show full text]
  • A Modern Approach to Superradiance
    A Modern Approach to Superradiance Solomon Endlicha and Riccardo Pencob,c a Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94306, USA b Physics Department, Center for Theoretical Physics & Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA c Center for Particle Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA Abstract In this paper, we provide a simple and modern discussion of rotational superradiance based on quantum field theory. We work with an effective theory valid at scales much larger than the size of the spinning object responsible for superradiance. Within this framework, the probability of absorption by an object at rest completely determines the superradiant amplification rate when that same object is spinning. We first discuss in detail superradiant scattering of spin 0 particles with orbital angular momentum ℓ = 1, and then extend our analysis to higher values of orbital angular momentum and spin. Along the way, we provide a simple derivation of vacuum friction—a “quantum torque” acting on spinning objects in empty space. Our results apply not only to black holes but to arbitrary spinning objects. We also discuss superradiant instability due to formation of bound states and, as an illustration, we calculate the instability rate Γ for bound states with massive spin 1 particles. For a black hole with mass M and angular velocity Ω, we find Γ (GMµ)7Ω when the particle’s Compton wavelength 1/µ is ∼ much greater than the size GM of the spinning object. This rate is parametrically much larger than the instability rate for spin 0 particles, which scales like (GMµ)9Ω.
    [Show full text]
  • Super- and Subradiance by Entangled Free Particles
    Super- and subradiance by entangled free particles Aviv Karnieli1,*, Nicholas Rivera2, Ady Arie3 and Ido Kaminer4 1Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel 2Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA 3School of Electrical Engineering, Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel 4Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel *corresponding authors: [email protected]; [email protected] When multiple quantum emitters radiate, their emission rate may be enhanced or suppressed due to collective interference in a process known as super- or subradiance. Such processes are well-known to occur also in light emission by free charged particles. To date, all experimental and theoretical studies of super- and subradiance in these systems involved the classical correlations between the emitters. However, dependence on quantum correlations, such as entanglement between different emitting particles, has not been studied. Recent advances in coherent-shaping of free-electron wavefunctions motivate the investigation of such quantum regimes of super- and subradiance. In this Letter, we show how a pair of coincident path-entangled electrons can demonstrate either super- or subradiant light emission, depending on the two-particle wavefunction. By choosing different free-electron Bell-states, the spectrum and emission pattern of the light can be reshaped, in a manner that cannot be accounted for by a classical mixed state. We show these results for light emission in any optical medium, and discuss their generalization to many-body quantum states. Our findings suggest that light emission can be sensitive to the explicit quantum state of the emitting matter wave, and possibly serve as a non-destructive measurement scheme for measuring the quantum state of many-body systems.
    [Show full text]
  • (BEC) with Constant Density
    Analog Black Holes and Energy Extraction by Super-Radiance from Bose Einstein Condensates (BEC) with Constant Density Betül Demirkaya,∗ Tekin Dereli,† Kaan Güven,‡ Department of Physics, Koç University, 34450 Sarıyer, İstanbul, Turkey December 6, 2018 Abstract This paper presents a numerical study of the acoustic superradiance from the single vortex state of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The draining bathtub model of an incompressible barotropic fluid is adopted to describe the vortex. The propagation of the velocity poten- tial fluctuations are governed by the massless scalar Klein-Gordon wave equation, which establishes the rotating black-hole analogy. Hence, the amplified scattering of these fluctuations from the vortex comprise the superradiance effect. Particular to this study, a coordinate transforma- tion is applied which enables the identification of the event horizon and the ergosphere termwise in the metric. Thus, the respective spectral solutions can be obtained asymptotically at either boundary. Fur- ther, the time-domain calculations of the energy of the propagating perturbations and the independently performed reflection coefficient calculations from the asymptotic solutions of the propagating pertur- bations are shown to be in very good agreement. While the former solution provides the full dynamical behavior of the superradiance, the latter method gives the frequency spectrum of the superradiance as a arXiv:1806.02139v2 [cond-mat.other] 5 Dec 2018 function of the rotational frequency of the vortex. Hence, a compre- hensive analysis of the superradiance effect can be conducted within this workframe. ∗[email protected][email protected][email protected] 1 1 Introduction Analogies in physics enable us to observe a particular phenomenon with the same characteristic features in different systems pertaining to disparate mechanisms and space-time-energy scales.
    [Show full text]
  • Hawking Radiation Is Probably a Type of Superradiation
    Hawking radiation is probably a type of superradiation Yi-Xiao Zhang South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006,China Wen-Xiang Chen∗ Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Materials Science, GuangZhou University In this article, it mainly discusses that when the scalar field equation presets boundary condi- tions, the effective action form of Hawking radiation is consistent with the effective action form of superradiation. From this I conclude that Hawking radiation may be a form of superradiation. Keywords: Hawking radiation, superradiance, effective action I. INTRODUCTION Hawking radiation is a kind of thermal radiation emitted by black holes, which is speculated by quantum effect theory. This theory was put forward by physicist Stephen Hawking in 1974. With the Hawking radiation theory, we can explain how to reduce the mass of black holes to cause black hole evapotranspiration. And because Hawking radiation can cause black holes to lose mass, when black holes lose more mass than they increase, they will shrink and eventually disappear. The divergence of a relatively small black hole is usually larger than that of a normal black hole, so the former shrinks and disappears faster than the latter. Hawking's analysis quickly became the first convincing theory of quantum gravity, although the existence of Hawking radiation has not yet been actually observed. In June 2008, NASA launched the GLAST satellite, which can search for flashes of gamma rays in evaporating black holes. In the theory of extra dimensions, collisions of high-energy particles may also create black holes that disappear by themselves. In September 2010, the results of a simulated gravity study were considered by some scientists to demonstrate the possible existence and possible nature of Hawking radiation for the first time.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Effect of Scalar Fields on Hawking Radiation and Quasinormal
    DOCTORAL THESIS On the effect of scalar fields on Hawking radiation and quasinormal modes of black holes By Avijit Chowdhury Roll No.: 13IP001 Department of Physical Sciences Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata Supervisor: Prof. Narayan Banerjee arXiv:2106.02294v1 [gr-qc] 4 Jun 2021 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Physical Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata May 21, 2021 iii Declaration by the student Date: May 21, 2021 I, Avijit Chowdhury Registration No. 13IP001 dated 25/07/2013, a stu- dent of Department of Physical Sciences of the Integrated PhD Programme of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata (IISER Kolkata), hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and, to the best of my knowledge, it neither contains materials previously published or writ- ten by any other person, nor it has been submitted for any degree/diploma or any other academic award anywhere before. I also declare that all copyrighted material incorporated into this thesis is in compliance with the Indian Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012 and that I have received written permission from the copyright owners for my use of their work. I hereby grant permission to IISER Kolkata to store the thesis in a database which can be accessed by others. ———————————– Avijit Chowdhury Department of Physical Sciences Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata Mohanpur 741246, West Bengal, India v Certificate from the Supervisor Date: May 21, 2021 This is to certify that the thesis entitled “On the effect of scalar fields on Hawking radiation and quasinormal modes of black holes” submitted by Avijit Chowdhury Registration No.
    [Show full text]
  • Ultra Light Boson Dark Matter and Event Horizon Telescope Observations of M87*
    Ultra Light Boson Dark Matter and Event Horizon Telescope Observations of M87* 1, 1, Hooman Davoudiasl ∗ and Peter B. Denton y 1Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA The initial data from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) on M87∗, the supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, provide direct observational information on its mass, spin, and accretion disk properties. A combination of the EHT data and other constraints provide evidence 9 that M87∗ has a mass 6:5 10 M and dimensionless spin parameter a∗ > 0:5. These deter- ∼ × 21 j j minations disfavor ultra light bosons of mass µb 10− eV, within the range considered∼ for fuzzy dark matter, invoked to explain dark matter distribution∼ on kpc scales. Future observations of ∼ M87∗ could be expected to strengthen our conclusions. INTRODUCTION its production in the early Universe. These interactions could then result in its detection in a variety of labora- Black holes (BHs) are at the same time simple and tory experiments. Nonetheless, DM has only been ob- mysterious. They are characterized by only a few pa- served through its gravitational effects in astrophysics rameters - mass, spin, and charge - and are considered and cosmology. Therefore, purely gravitational probes purely gravitational objects. Yet their essential character of DM provide the most model-independent approach to is quite enigmatic: they represent a one-way exit (up to constraining its properties. quantum effects [1]) from the causally connected Uni- It turns out that BHs, themselves purely gravitational, verse, and their internal properties are masked by an can provide a unique probe of ultra light DM states event horizon that is the point of no return.
    [Show full text]
  • Superradiance Arxiv:1501.06570V3 [Gr-Qc] 4 Sep 2015
    September 7, 2015 Superradiance Richard Brito,1 Vitor Cardoso,1;2;3 Paolo Pani,4;1 1 CENTRA, Departamento de F´ısica, Instituto Superior T´ecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049 Lisboa, Portugal. 2 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9, Canada. 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA. 4 Dipartimento di Fisica, \Sapienza" Universit`adi Roma & Sezione INFN Roma1, P.A. Moro 5, 00185, Roma, Italy [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract Superradiance is a radiation enhancement process that involves dissipative systems. With a 60 year-old history, superradiance has played a prominent role in optics, quantum mechanics and especially in relativity and astrophysics. In General Relativity, black-hole superradiance is permitted by dissipation at the event horizon, that allows for energy, charge and angular momentum extraction from the vacuum, even at the classical level. Black-hole superradiance is intimately connected to the black-hole area theorem, Penrose process, tidal forces and even Hawking radiation, which can be interpreted as a quantum version of black-hole super- radiance. Various mechanisms (as diverse as massive fields, magnetic fields, anti-de Sitter boundaries, nonlinear interactions, etc...) can confine the amplified radiation and give rise to strong instabilities. These \black-hole bombs" have applications in searches of dark matter arXiv:1501.06570v3 [gr-qc] 4 Sep 2015 and of physics beyond the Standard Model, are associated to the threshold of formation of new black hole solutions that evade the no-hair theorems, can be studied in the laboratory by devising analog models of gravity, and might even provide a holographic description of spontaneous symmetry breaking and superfluidity through the gauge-gravity duality.
    [Show full text]