Starting from a recently constructed stealth Kerr solution of higher order scalar tensor theory involving scalar hair, we analytically construct disforma
Vacuum perturbations of the Kerr metric can be reconstructed from the corresponding perturbation in either of the two Weyl scalars $psi_0$ or $psi_4$, using a procedure described by Chrzanowski and others in the 1970s. More recent work, motivated within the context of self-force physics, extends the procedure to metric perturbations sourced by a particle in a bound geodesic orbit. However, the existing procedure leaves undetermined a certain stationary, axially-symmetric piece of the metric perturbation. In the vacuum region away from the particle, this completion piece corresponds simply to mass and angular-momentum perturbations of the Kerr background, with amplitudes that are, however, a priori unknown. Here we present and implement a rigorous method for finding the completion piece. The key idea is to impose continuity, off the particle, of certain gauge-invariant fields constructed from the full (completed) perturbation, in order to determine the unknown amplitude parameters of the completion piece. We implement this method in full for bound (eccentric) geodesic orbits in the equatorial plane of the Kerr black hole. Our results provide a rigorous underpinning of recent results by Friedman {it et al.} for circular orbits, and extend them to non-circular orbits.
Einsteins theory of General Relativity implies that energy, i.e. matter, curves space-time and thus deforms lightlike geodesics, giving rise to gravitational lensing. This phenomenon is well understood in the case of the Schwarzschild metric, and has been accurately described in the past; however, lensing in the Kerr space-time has received less attention in the literature despite potential practical observational applications. In particular, lensing in such space is not expressible as the gradient of a scalar potential and as such is a source of curl-like signatures and an asymmetric shear pattern. In this paper, we develop a differentiable lensing map in the Kerr metric, reworking and extending previous approaches. By using standard tools of weak gravitational lensing, we isolate and quantify the distortion that is uniquely induced by the presence of angular momentum in the metric. We apply this framework to the distortion induced by a Kerr-like foreground object on a distribution of background of sources. We verify that the new unique lensing signature is orders of magnitude below current observational bounds for a range of lens configurations.
The open question of whether a Kerr black hole can become tidally deformed or not has profound implications for fundamental physics and gravitational-wave astronomy. We consider a Kerr black hole embedded in a weak and slowly varying, but otherwise arbitrary, multipolar tidal environment. By solving the static Teukolsky equation for the gauge-invariant Weyl scalar $psi_0$, and by reconstructing the corresponding metric perturbation in an ingoing radiation gauge, for a general harmonic index $ell$, we compute the linear response of a Kerr black hole to the tidal field. This linear response vanishes identically for a Schwarzschild black hole and for an axisymmetric perturbation of a spinning black hole. For a nonaxisymmetric perturbation of a spinning black hole, however, the linear response does not vanish, and it contributes to the Geroch-Hansen multipole moments of the perturbed Kerr geometry. As an application, we compute explicitly the rotational black hole tidal Love numbers that couple the induced quadrupole moments to the quadrupolar tidal fields, to linear order in the black hole spin, and we introduce the corresponding notion of tidal Love tensor. Finally, we show that those induced quadrupole moments are closely related to the well-known physical phenomenon of tidal torquing of a spinning body interacting with a tidal gravitational environment.
We determine the complete space-time metric from the bootstrapped Newtonian potential generated by a static spherically symmetric source in the surrounding vacuum. This metric contains post-Newtonian parameters which can be further used to constrain the complete underlying dynamical theory. For values of the post-Newtonian parameters within experimental bounds, the reconstructed metric appears very close to the Schwarzschild solution of General Relativity in the whole region outside the event horizon. The latter is however larger in size for the same value of the mass compared to the Schwarzschild case.
We make a critical comparison between ultra-high energy particle collisions around an extremal Kerr black hole and that around an over-spinning Kerr singularity, mainly focusing on the issue of the timescale of collisions. We show that the time required for two massive particles with the proton mass or two massless particles of GeV energies to collide around the Kerr black hole with Planck energy is several orders of magnitude longer than the age of the Universe for astro-physically relevant masses of black holes, whereas time required in the over-spinning case is of the order of ten million years which is much shorter than the age of the Universe. Thus from the point of view of observation of Planck scale collisions, the over-spinning Kerr geometry, subject to their occurrence, has distinct advantage over their black hole counterparts.