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Exotic Compact Objects and the Fate of the Light-Ring Instability

Pedro V. P. Cunha, Carlos Herdeiro, Eugen Radu, and Nicolas Sanchis-Gual
Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 061401 – Published 7 February 2023
Physics logo See synopsis: Don’t Be Sold on Black Hole Imitators
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Abstract

Ultracompact objects with light rings (LRs) but without an event horizon could mimic black holes (BHs) in their strong gravity phenomenology. But are such objects dynamically viable? Stationary and axisymmetric ultracompact objects that can form from smooth, quasi-Minkowski initial data must have at least one stable LR, which has been argued to trigger a spacetime instability; but its development and fate have been unknown. Using fully nonlinear numerical evolutions of ultracompact bosonic stars free of any other known instabilities and introducing a novel adiabatic effective potential technique, we confirm the LRs triggered instability, identifying two possible fates: migration to nonultracompact configurations or collapse to BHs. In concrete examples we show that typical migration (collapse) timescales are not larger than 103 light-crossing times, unless the stable LR potential well is very shallow. Our results show that the LR instability is effective in destroying horizonless ultracompact objects that could be plausible BH imitators.

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  • Received 12 August 2022
  • Accepted 6 December 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.061401

© 2023 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
  1. Physical Systems
Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

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Don’t Be Sold on Black Hole Imitators

Published 7 February 2023

The results of new simulations negate the argument that some objects thought to be black holes are instead hypothetical exotic systems called bosonic stars.  

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Authors & Affiliations

Pedro V. P. Cunha1, Carlos Herdeiro1, Eugen Radu1, and Nicolas Sanchis-Gual2,1

  • 1Departamento de Matemática da Universidade de Aveiro and Centre for Research and Development in Mathematics and Applications (CIDMA), Campus de Santiago, 3810-183 Aveiro, Portugal
  • 2Departamento de Astronomía y Astrofísica, Universitat de València, Dr. Moliner 50, 46100 Burjassot (València), Spain

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Issue

Vol. 130, Iss. 6 — 10 February 2023

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