Weighing the cusp at the Galactic Centre

As stars close to the galactic centre have short orbital periods it has been possible to trace large fractions of their orbits in the recent years. Previously the data of the orbit of the star S2 have been fitted with Keplerian orbits corresponding to a massive black hole (MBH) with a mass of M_BH = 3–4 × 10⁶M_⊙ implying an insignificant cusp mass. However, it has also been shown that the central black hole resides in a ∼1″ diameter stellar cluster of a priori unknown mass. In a spherical potential which is neither Keplerian nor harmonic, orbits will precess resulting in inclined rosetta shaped trajectories on the sky. In this case, the assumption of non‐Keplerian orbits is a more physical approach. It is also the only approach through which cusp mass information can be obtained via stellar dynamics of the cusp members. This paper presents the first exemplary modelling efforts in this direction. Using positional and radial data of star S2, we find that there could exist an unobserved extended mass component of several 10⁵M_⊙ forming a so‐called ‘cusp’ centered on the black hole position. Considering only the fraction of the cusp mass Mequation/tex2gif-inf-4.gif within the apo‐center of the S2 orbit we find as an upper limit that Mequation/tex2gif-inf-6.gif/(M_BH + Mequation/tex2gif-inf-9.gif) ≤ 0.05. A large extended cusp mass, if present, is unlikely to be composed of sub‐solar mass constituents, but could be explained rather well by a cluster of high M/L stellar remnants, which we find to form a stable configuration. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Isofrequency pairing of circular orbits in Schwarzschild spacetime in the presence of magnetic field

We study isofrequency pairing of the circular non-geodesic orbits in the vicinity of the Schwarzschild black hole immersed in external asymptotically uniform magnetic field. The dependence of the isofrequency pairing of non-geodesic orbits from the special quantities, such as radius of the innermost stable circular orbits (ISCO), radius of the circular orbits (r _b ) at the limit e(eccentricity)→0, and from the value of the small quantity ξ=(r _b ?r _ISCO) of the particles moving around the Schwarzschild black hole in the presence of the magnetic field has been found. It is shown that presence of the magnetic field gives rise to the r _ISCO and r _b of the particles to be slightly shifted from black hole and the contribution of the quantity ξ decreases the amount of isofrequency pairing of non-geodesic orbits due to the reduction of the surface of the region between the separatrix and circular-orbit duals (COD). We study the dependence of surface of region where particles can move and isofrequency pairing of non-geodesic orbits occur around the Schwarzschild black hole from the magnetic field. We find a decrease of nearly (7–10) % for the maximal values of the magnetic field B～10⁶–10⁷ Gauss in the surface of region where isofrequency pairing occurs around central object with compare to the one around Schwarzschild black hole without magnetic field. This result implies that it makes easier to identify signals through the astrophysical observations of compact objects in the presence of magnetic field.     

A new model for QPOs in accreting black holes: application to the microquasar GRS 1915+105

In this paper we extend the idea suggested previously by Pétri (Astron. Astrophys. 439:L27, 2005a; 443:777, 2005b) (papers I and II) that the high frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HF-QPOs) observed in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) may be explained as a resonant oscillation of the accretion disk with a rotating asymmetric background (gravitational or magnetic) field imposed by the compact object. Here, we apply this general idea to black hole binaries. It is assumed that a test particle experiences a similar parametric resonance mechanism such as the one described in paper I and II but now the resonance is induced by the interaction between a spiral density wave in the accretion disk, excited close to the innermost stable circular orbit, and vertical epicyclic oscillations. We use the Kerr spacetime geometry to deduce the characteristic frequencies of this test particle. The response of the test particle is maximal when the frequency ratio of the two strongest resonances is equal to 3:2 as observed in black hole candidates. Finally, applying our model to the microquasar GRS 1915+105, we reproduce the correct value of several HF-QPOs. Indeed the presence of the 168/113/56/42/28 Hz features in the power spectrum time analysis is predicted. Moreover, based only on the two HF-QPO frequencies, our model is able to constrain the mass M _BH and angular momentum a _BH of the accreting black hole. We show the relation between M _BH and a _BH for several black hole binaries. For instance, assuming a black hole weakly or mildly rotating, i.e. a _BH≤0.5?G? M _BH/c ², we find that for GRS 1915+105 its mass satisfies 13?M _⊙≤M _BH≤20?M _⊙. The same model applied to two other well-known BHCs gives for GRO J1655-40 a mass 5?M _⊙≤M _BH≤7?M _⊙ and for XTE J1550-564 a mass 8?M _⊙≤M _BH≤11?M _⊙. This is consistent with other independent estimations of the black hole mass. Finally for H1743-322, we found the following bounds, 9?M _⊙≤M _BH≤13?M _⊙.     

Dark matter density spikes around primordial black holes

We show that density spikes begin to form from dark matter particles around primordial black holes immediately after their formation at the radiation-dominated cosmological stage. This stems from the fact that in the thermal velocity distribution of particles there are particles with low velocities that remain in finite orbits around black holes and are not involved in the cosmological expansion. The accumulation of such particles near black holes gives rise to density spikes. These spikes are considerably denser than those that are formed later by the mechanism of secondary accretion. The density spikes must be bright gamma-ray sources. Comparison of the calculated signal from particle annihilation with the Fermi-LAT data constrains the present-day cosmological density parameter for primordial black holes with masses M _BH ≥ 10^?8 M _⊙ from above by values from Ω_BH ≤ 1 to Ω_BH ≤ 10?8, depending on MBH. These constraints are several orders of magnitude more stringent than other known constraints.     

String black holes as particle accelerators to arbitrarily high energy

We show that an extremal Gibbons-Maeda-Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger black hole may act as a particle accelerator with arbitrarily high energy when two uncharged particles falling freely from rest to infinity on the near horizon. We show that the center of mass energy of collision is independent of the extreme fine tuning of the angular momentum of the colliding particles. We further show that the center of mass energy of collisions of particles at the ISCO (r _ISCO ) or at the photon orbit (r _ph ) or at the marginally bound circular orbit (r _mb ) i.e. at r≡r _ISCO =r _ph =r _mb =2M could be arbitrarily large for the aforementioned space-time, which is quite different from the Schwarzschild and the Reissner-Nordstrøm space-time. For non-extremal GMGHS space-time the CM energy is finite and depends upon the asymptotic value of the dilation field (? ₀).     

Chaotic Motions in The Field of Two Fixed Black Holes

We study the chaotic motions in the field of two fixed black holes M₁, M₂ by calculating (a) the asymptotic curves from the main unstable periodic orbits, (b) the asymptotic orbits, with particular emphasis οn the homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits, and (c) the basins of attraction of the two black holes. The orbits falling on M₁and M₂form fractal sets. The asymptotic curves consist of many arcs, separated by gaps. Every gap contains orbits falling on a black hole. The sizes of various arcs decrease as the mass ofM₁ increases. The basins of attraction of the black holes M₁, M₂consist of large compact regions and of thin filaments. The relative area of the basin M₂ tends to 100 as M₁ → 0, and it decreases as M₁ increases. The total area of the basins is found analytically, while the relative area of the basin M₂ is given by an empirical formula. Further empirical formulae give the exponential decrease of the number of asymptotic orbits that have not yet reached a black hole after n iterations.     

The external field of a rotating and charged body in the vector graviton metric theory

We discuss certain properties of the external field of a rotating and charged body in the frame of the vector graviton metric field theory. We find: 1) a black hole cannot have angular momentum or charge, that is, a rotating body whether charged or not, cannot be a black hole. The Kerr black hole and the Kerr-Newman black hole do not exist. 2) For a rotating and charged axisymmetric body, there exists a latitude-dependent critical distance r_k(θ), such that the radial force acting on a test particle is attractive or repulsive according as the particle is outside or inside the critical distance. The repulsive force means that a massive object cannot collapse indefinitely. Maximum redshift in this case comes from sources on the equator. 3) A test particle also experiences a force along the meridian.     

Vaidya black hole in non-stationary de Sitter space: Hawking’s temperature

In this paper we present a class of non-stationary solutions of Einstein’s field equations describing embedded Vaidya-de Sitter black holes with a cosmological variable function Λ(u). The Vaidya-de Sitter black hole is interpreted as the radiating Vaidya black hole is embedded into the non-stationary de Sitter space with variable Λ(u). The energy-momentum tensor of the Vaidya-de Sitter black hole is expressed as the sum of the energy-momentum tensors of the Vaidya null fluid and that of the non-stationary de Sitter field, and satisfies the energy conservation law. We study the energy conditions (like weak, strong and dominant conditions) for the energy-momentum tensor. We find the violation of the strong energy condition due to the negative pressure and leading to a repulsive gravitational force of the matter field associated with Λ(u) in the space-time. We also find that the time-like vector field for an observer in the Vaidya-de Sitter space is expanding, accelerating, shearing and non-rotating. It is also found that the space-time geometry of non-stationary Vaidya-de Sitter solution with variable Λ(u) is Petrov type D in the classification of space-times. We also find the Vaidya-de Sitter black hole radiating with a thermal temperature proportional to the surface gravity and entropy also proportional to the area of the cosmological black hole horizon.     

Artificial Martian frozen orbits and Sun-Synchronous orbits using continuous low-thrust control

This paper analyses three types of artificial orbits around Mars pushed by continuous low-thrust control: artificial frozen orbits, artificial Sun-Synchronous orbits and artificial Sun-Synchronous frozen orbits. These artificial orbits have similar characteristics to natural frozen orbits and Sun-Synchronous orbits, and their orbital parameters can be selected arbitrarily by using continuous low-thrust control. One control strategy to achieve the artificial frozen orbit is using both the transverse and radial continuous low-thrust control, and another to achieve the artificial Sun-Synchronous orbit is using the normal continuous low-thrust control. These continuous low-thrust control strategies consider J ₂, J ₃, and J ₄ perturbations of Mars. It is proved that both control strategies can minimize characteristic velocity. Relevant formulas are derived, and numerical results are presented. Given the same initial orbital parameters, the control acceleration and characteristic velocity taking into account J ₂, J ₃, and J ₄ perturbations are similar to those taking into account J ₂ perturbations for both Mars and the Earth. The control thrust of the orbit around Mars is smaller than that around the Earth. The magnitude of the control acceleration of ASFOM-4 (named as Artificial Sun-Synchronous Frozen Orbit Method 4) is the lowest among these strategies and the characteristic velocity within one orbital period is only 0.5219 m/s for the artificial Sun-Synchronous frozen orbit around Mars. It is evident that the relationship among the control thrusts and the primary orbital parameters of Martian artificial orbits is always similar to that of the Earth. Simulation shows that the control scheme extends the orbital parameters’ selection range of three types of orbits around Mars, compared with the natural frozen orbit and Sun-Synchronous orbit.     

Relativistic modeling of the neutron star in Vela X-1 via Bardeen space-time satisfying the embedding condition

In this paper, we present two new exact and analytic solutions of the Einstein–Maxwell field equations describing compact anisotropic charged stars satisfying the Karmarkar condition in the background of Bardeen black hole geometry. The solutions are composed of two parts: The inner region of the star is described by class I Karmarkar space-time, while exterior of the star is characterized by both the Bardeen and the Reissner–Nordstrom space-times. Physical analysis of the matter and thermodynamical variables show that the models are well-behaved. For our parametric set of values, we conclude that the Bardeen black hole metric can be used as an alternate to the exterior Reissner–Nordstrom metric.     

Orbital stability of systems of closely-spaced planets

An investigation of the stability of systems of 1 M_⊕ (Earth-mass) bodies orbiting a Sun-like star has been conducted for virtual times reaching 10 billion years. For the majority of the tests, a symplectic integrator with a fixed timestep of between 1 and 10 days was employed; however, smaller timesteps and a Bulirsch-Stoer integrator were also selectively utilized to increase confidence in the results. In most cases, the planets were started on initially coplanar, circular orbits, and the longitudinal initial positions of neighboring planets were widely separated. The ratio of the semimajor axes of consecutive planets in each system was approximately uniform (so the spacing between consecutive planets increased slowly in terms of distance from the star). The stability time for a system was taken to be the time at which the orbits of two or more planets crossed. Our results show that, for a given class of system (e.g., three 1 M_⊕ planets), orbit crossing times vary with planetary spacing approximately as a power law over a wide range of separation in semimajor axis. Chaos tests indicate that deviations from this power law persist for changed initial longitudes and also for small but non-trivial changes in orbital spacing. We find that the stability time increases more rapidly at large initial orbital separations than the power-law dependence predicted from moderate initial orbital separations. Systems of five planets are less stable than systems of three planets for a specified semimajor axis spacing. Furthermore, systems of less massive planets can be packed more closely, being about as stable as 1 M_⊕ planets when the radial separation between planets is scaled using the mutual Hill radius. Finally, systems with retrograde planets can be packed substantially more closely than prograde systems with equal numbers of planets.     

Formation of black holes through BSW effect and black hole–black hole collisions

We study mechanism of formation of black holes (BHs) from collisions of particles in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole acting as a particle accelerator trough BSW (Banados-Silk-West) effect. Moreover, we also investigate BH-BH collision, in which stellar black holes colliding near the horizon of a rotating supermassive black hole can reach large values of the center-of-mass energy. This result implies that high arbitrary energy of collisions causes to be transformed into radiation energy and particles, which might bring possible visible signals through the astrophysical observations. We study the radiation energy from a collision of two accelerating stellar black holes and find a maximal value of the radiation energy to be nearly E _rad ≈2.5?10⁵⁶ erg for the ultrarelativistic value of v/c=0.99 from BH-BH collisions.     

On the rotation of a moonlet embedded in planetary rings

We examine the rotation of a small moonlet embedded in planetary rings caused by impacts of ring particles, using analytic calculation and numerical orbital integration for the three-body problem. Taking into account the Rayleigh distribution of particles' orbital eccentricities and inclinations, we evaluate both systematic and random components of rotation, where the former arises from an average of a large number of small impacts and the latter is contribution from large impacts. Calculations for parameter values corresponding to inner parts of Saturn's rings show that a moonlet would spin slowly in the prograde direction if most impactors are small particles whose velocity dispersion is comparable to or smaller than the moonlet's escape velocity. However, we also find that the effect of the random component can be significant, if the velocity dispersion of particles is larger and/or impacts of large particles comparable to the moonlet's size are common: in this case, both prograde and retrograde rotations can be expected. In the case of a small moonlet embedded in planetary rings of equal-sized particles, we find that the systematic component dominates the moonlet rotation when m/M?0.1 (m and M are the mass of a particle and a moonlet, respectively), while the random component is dominant when m/M?0.3. We derive the condition for the random component to dominate moonlet rotation on the basis of our results of three-body orbital integration, and confirm agreement with N-body simulation.     

Chaos in Relativity and Cosmology

Chaos appears in various problems of Relativity and Cosmology. Here we discuss (a) the Mixmaster Universe model, and (b) the motions around two fixed black holes. (a) The Mixmaster equations have a general solution (i.e. a solution depending on 6 arbitrary constants) of Painlevé type, but there is a second general solution which is not Painlevé. Thus the system does not pass the Painlevé test, and cannot be integrable. The Mixmaster model is not ergodic and does not have any periodic orbits. This is due to the fact that the sum of the three variables of the system (α + β + γ) has only one maximum for τ = τ_m and decreases continuously for larger and for smaller τ. The various Kasner periods increase exponentially for large τ. Thus the Lyapunov Characteristic Number (LCN) is zero. The "finite time LCN" is positive for finite τ and tends to zero when τ → ∞. Chaos is introduced mainly near the maximum of (α + β + γ). No appreciable chaos is introduced at the successive Kasner periods, or eras. We conclude that in the Belinskii-Khalatnikov time, τ, the Mixmaster model has the basic characteristics of a chaotic scattering problem. (b) In the case of two fixed black holes M₁ and M₂ the orbits of photons are separated into three types: orbits falling into M₁ (type I), or M₂ (type II), or escaping to infinity (type III). Chaos appears because between any two orbits of different types there are orbits of the third type. This is a typical chaotic scattering problem. The various types of orbits are separated by orbits asymptotic to 3 simple unstable orbits. In the case of particles of nonzero rest mass we have intervals where some periodic orbits are stable. Near such orbits we have order. The transition from order to chaos is made through an infinite sequence of period doubling bifurcations. The bifurcation ratio is the same as in classical conservative systems. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Change in entropy of non-spinning black holes w.r.t. the radius of event horizon in XRBs

The present research paper discusses the derivation for the change in entropy of Non- spinning black holes with respect to the change in the radius of event horizon applying the first law of black hole mechanics ( $\delta M = \frac{\kappa}{8\pi} \delta A + \varOmega\delta J - \upsilon\delta Q$ ) with the relation for the change in entropy δS=8πMδM. When the work is further extended with proper operation, the entropy of black hole is obtained almost the same as the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of black hole. This is the entirely new method to obtain the change in entropy of Non-spinning black holes w.r.t. the radius of event horizon and Hawking entropy of black hole. We have also calculated their values for different types of test non-spinning black holes having masses 5–20M _⊙ found in X-ray binaries (Narayan, gr-qc/0506078v1, 2005).     

Shaping the relation between the mass of supermassive black holes and the velocity dispersion of galactic bulges

I use the fact that the radiation emitted by the accretion disk of supermassive black hole can heat up the surrounding gas in the protogalaxy to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium during the galaxy formation. The correlation between the black hole mass M _BH and velocity dispersion σ thus naturally arises. The result generally agrees with empirical fittings from observational data, even with M _BH ≤10⁶ M _⊙. This model provides a clear picture on how the properties of the galactic supermassive black holes are connected with the kinetic properties of the galactic bulges.     

Schwarzschild black hole in dark energy background

In this paper we present an exact solution of Einstein’s field equations describing the Schwarzschild black hole in dark energy background. It is also regarded as an embedded solution that the Schwarzschild black hole is embedded into the dark energy space producing Schwarzschild-dark energy black hole. It is found that the space-time geometry of Schwarzschild-dark energy solution is non-vacuum Petrov type D in the classification of space-times. We study the energy conditions (like weak, strong and dominant conditions) for the energy-momentum tensor of the Schwarzschild-dark energy solution. We also find that the energy-momentum tensor of the Schwarzschild-dark energy solution violates the strong energy condition due to the negative pressure leading to a repulsive gravitational force of the matter field in the space-time. It is shown that the time-like vector field for an observer in the Schwarzschild-dark energy space is expanding, accelerating, shearing and non-rotating. We investigate the surface gravity and the area of the horizons for the Schwarzschild-dark energy black hole.     

Unification of Radio Galaxies and their Accretion Jet Properties

We investigate the relation between black hole mass, M _bh, and jet power, Q _jet, for a sample of BL Lacs and radio quasars. We find that BL Lacs are separated from radio quasars by the FR I/II dividing line in M _bh–Q _jet plane, which strongly supports the unification scheme of FR I/BL Lac and FR II/radio quasar. The Eddington ratio distribution of BL Lacs and radio quasars exhibits a bimodal nature with a rough division at L _bol/L _Edd~0.01, which imply that they may have different accretion modes. We calculate the jet power extracted from advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF), and find that it requires dimensionless angular momentum of black hole j???0.9???0.99 to reproduce the dividing line between FR I/II or BL Lac/radio quasar if dimensionless accretion rate $\dot{m}=0.01$ is adopted, which is required by the above bimodal distribution of Eddington ratios. Our results suggest that black holes in radio galaxies are rapidly spinning.     

Magnetized particle capture cross section for braneworld black hole

Capture cross section of magnetized particle (with nonzero magnetic moment) by braneworld black hole in uniform magnetic field is studied. The magnetic moment of particle was chosen as it was done by de Felice and Sorge (Class. Quantum Gravity 20:469, 2003) and for the simplicity particle with zero electric charge is chosen. It is shown that the spin of particle as well as the brane parameter are to sustain the stability of particles circularly orbiting around the black hole in braneworld i.e. spin of particles and brane parameter try to prevent the capture by black hole.     

Chaos in cuspy triaxial galaxies with a supermassive black hole: a simple toy model

This paper summarises an investigation of chaos in a toy potential which mimics much of the behaviour observed for the more realistic triaxial generalisations of the Dehnen potentials, which have been used to model cuspy triaxial galaxies both with and without a supermassive black hole. The potential is the sum of an anisotropic harmonic oscillator potential, ${\text{V}}_{\text{0}} = \frac{1}{2}\left( {a^2 x^2 + b^2 y^2 + c^2 z^2 } \right)$ , and aspherical Plummer potential, ${\text{V}}_{\text{P}} = M_{BH} /\sqrt {r^2 + \varepsilon ^2 } $ , with $r^2 = x^2 + y^2 + z^2$ . Attention focuses on three issues related tothe properties of ensembles of chaotic orbits which impact on chaotic mixing and the possibility of constructing self-consistent equilibria:(1) What fraction of the orbits are chaotic? (2) How sensitive are the chaotic orbits, that is, how large are their largest (short time) Lyapunov exponents? (3) To what extent is the motion of chaotic orbits impeded by Arnold webs, that is, how 'sticky' are the chaotic orbits? These questions are explored as functions of the axis ratio a: b: c, black hole mass M _BH, softening length ε, and energy E with the aims of understanding how the manifestations of chaos depend onthe shape of the system and why the black hole generates chaos. The simplicity of the model makes it amenable to a perturbative analysis. That it mimics the behaviour of more complicated potentials suggests that much of this behaviour should be generic.