Universal interferometric signatures of a black hole's photon ring

Michael D. Johnson; Alexandru Lupsasca; Andrew Strominger; George N. Wong; Shahar Hadar; Daniel Kapec; Ramesh Narayan; Andrew Chael; Charles F. Gammie; Peter Galison; Daniel C.M. Palumbo; Sheperd S. Doeleman; Lindy Blackburn; Maciek Wielgus; Dominic W. Pesce; Joseph R. Farah; James M. Moran

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz1310

Universal interferometric signatures of a black hole's photon ring

Michael D. Johnson, Alexandru Lupsasca, Andrew Strominger, George N. Wong, Shahar Hadar, Daniel Kapec, Ramesh Narayan, Andrew Chael, Charles F. Gammie, Peter Galison, Daniel C.M. Palumbo, Sheperd S. Doeleman, Lindy Blackburn, Maciek Wielgus, Dominic W. Pesce, Joseph R. Farah, James M. Moran

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The Event Horizon Telescope image of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87 is dominated by a bright, unresolved ring. General relativity predicts that embedded within this image lies a thin “photon ring,” which is composed of an infinite sequence of self-similar subrings that are indexed by the number of photon orbits around the black hole. The subrings approach the edge of the black hole “shadow,” becoming exponentially narrower but weaker with increasing orbit number, with seemingly negligible contributions from high-order subrings. Here, we show that these subrings produce strong and universal signatures on long interferometric baselines. These signatures offer the possibility of precise measurements of black hole mass and spin, as well as tests of general relativity, using only a sparse interferometric array.

Original language	English
Article number	eaaz1310
Journal	Science advances
Volume	6
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1310
State	Published - Mar 2020
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

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Johnson, M. D., Lupsasca, A., Strominger, A., Wong, G. N., Hadar, S., Kapec, D., Narayan, R., Chael, A., Gammie, C. F., Galison, P., Palumbo, D. C. M., Doeleman, S. S., Blackburn, L., Wielgus, M., Pesce, D. W., Farah, J. R., & Moran, J. M. (2020). Universal interferometric signatures of a black hole's photon ring. Science advances, 6(12), Article eaaz1310. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1310

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title = "Universal interferometric signatures of a black hole's photon ring",

abstract = "The Event Horizon Telescope image of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87 is dominated by a bright, unresolved ring. General relativity predicts that embedded within this image lies a thin “photon ring,” which is composed of an infinite sequence of self-similar subrings that are indexed by the number of photon orbits around the black hole. The subrings approach the edge of the black hole “shadow,” becoming exponentially narrower but weaker with increasing orbit number, with seemingly negligible contributions from high-order subrings. Here, we show that these subrings produce strong and universal signatures on long interferometric baselines. These signatures offer the possibility of precise measurements of black hole mass and spin, as well as tests of general relativity, using only a sparse interferometric array.",

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note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).",

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doi = "10.1126/sciadv.aaz1310",

language = "English",

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AU - Johnson, Michael D.

AU - Lupsasca, Alexandru

AU - Strominger, Andrew

AU - Wong, George N.

AU - Hadar, Shahar

AU - Kapec, Daniel

AU - Narayan, Ramesh

AU - Chael, Andrew

AU - Gammie, Charles F.

AU - Galison, Peter

AU - Palumbo, Daniel C.M.

AU - Doeleman, Sheperd S.

AU - Blackburn, Lindy

AU - Wielgus, Maciek

AU - Pesce, Dominic W.

AU - Farah, Joseph R.

AU - Moran, James M.

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N2 - The Event Horizon Telescope image of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87 is dominated by a bright, unresolved ring. General relativity predicts that embedded within this image lies a thin “photon ring,” which is composed of an infinite sequence of self-similar subrings that are indexed by the number of photon orbits around the black hole. The subrings approach the edge of the black hole “shadow,” becoming exponentially narrower but weaker with increasing orbit number, with seemingly negligible contributions from high-order subrings. Here, we show that these subrings produce strong and universal signatures on long interferometric baselines. These signatures offer the possibility of precise measurements of black hole mass and spin, as well as tests of general relativity, using only a sparse interferometric array.

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Universal interferometric signatures of a black hole's photon ring

Abstract

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