Absorption of electromagnetic and gravitational waves by Kerr black holes: Shadows, superradiance and the spin-helicity effect

We discuss the conditions under which plane electromagnetic and gravitational waves can be amplified by a rotating black hole due to superradiant scattering. We show, in particular, that amplification can occur for low-frequency waves with an incidence angle parametrically close to 0 (or $\pi$) with respect to the black hole spin axis and with a parametrically small left (or right) polarization. This is the case of the radiation emitted by a spinning electric/magnetic dipole ...

When the the shadow image of a supermassive black hole in the center of M87 was obtained a new era in the observational astrophysics began. The resolution improvement would allow to test extended gravity models at event horizon scales. We develop the method allowing to take into account the black hole rotation in black hole shadow modelling. It is demonstrated that the shadow of a black hole with a diameter smaller than $4R_{Sw}$ ($R_{Sw} = 2M$) cannot be represented in the t...

We investigate the absorption cross section of planar scalar massless waves impinging on spherically symmetric black holes which are solutions of the novel 4D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity. Besides the mass of the black hole, the solution depends also on the Gauss-Bonnet constant coupling. Using the partial waves approach, we show that the absorption cross section depends on the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant. Our numerical results present excellent agreement with t...

I present evidence of a novel guise of superradiance that arises in black hole binary spacetimes. Given the right initial conditions, a wave will be amplified as it scatters off the binary. This process, which extracts energy from the orbital motion, is driven by absorption across the horizons and is most pronounced when the individual black holes are not spinning. Focusing on real scalar fields, I demonstrate how modern effective field theory (EFT) techniques enable the comp...

This paper studies the black hole shadow, absorption cross section, and Hawking radiation of a massless scalar field in the background of a static spherically symmetric black hole spacetime that is surrounded by a cloud of strings in Rastall gravity. Specifically, the effects of the parameters $a$ and $\beta$ on the photon sphere and shadow radii are investigated. The results show that as the negative parameter $\beta$ decreases, the photon sphere and shadow radii change in a...

Aims. In order to understand the anisotropic properties of local radiation field in the curved spacetime around a rotating black hole, we investigate the appearance of a black hole seen by an observer located near the black hole. When the black hole is in front of a source of illumination the black hole cast shadow in the illumination. Accordingly, the appearance of the black hole is called the black hole shadow. Methods. We first analytically describe the shape of the shad...

We calculate the secular changes of the orbital parameters of a point particle orbiting a Kerr black hole, due to the gravitational radiation reaction. For this purpose, we use the post-Newtonian (PN) approximation in the first order black hole perturbation theory, with the expansion with respect to the orbital eccentricity. In this work, the calculation is done up to the fourth post-Newtonian (4PN) order and to the sixth order of the eccentricity, including the effect of the...

The warped conformal symmetries have been found in the covariant phase space of a set of non-trivial diffeomorphism near the Kerr black hole horizon. In this paper, we consider the retarded Green's function and the absorption probability for the scalar and higher spin perturbations on a generic non-extreme Kerr black hole background, and perform their holographic calculations in terms of the warped CFT. This provide further evidence on the conjecture that the warped CFT is re...

We study the scattering of massless scalar waves by a Kerr black hole by letting plane monochromatic waves impinge on the black hole. We calculate the relevant scattering phase-shifts using the Pruefer phase-function method, which is computationally efficient and reliable also for high frequencies and/or large values of the angular multipole indices (l,m). We use the obtained phase-shifts and the partial-wave approach to determine differential cross sections and deflection ...

Propagation of coherent light in a Kerr nonlinear medium can be mapped onto a flow of an equivalent fluid. Here we use this mapping to model the conditions in the vicinity of a rotating black hole as a Laguerre-Gauss vortex beam. We describe weak fluctuations of the phase and amplitude of the electric field by wave equations in curved space, with a metric that is similar to the Kerr metric. We find the positions of event horizons and ergoregion boundaries, and the conditions ...