Preprints in GR/QC

Victor Tapia

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: math.HO

In 1854 Riemann presented his Habilitationsvortrag {\it Über die Hypothesen welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen} to the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Göttingen. The lecture does not contain analytical developments and Riemann never explained the reason for this choice. According to Dedekind this choice was done in order to make the lecture understandable to the non-mathematician professors of the Faculty. This is the suppression thesis. Nevertheless, in 1851, three years before, Riemann has presented his Inauguraldissertation {\it Grundlagen für eine allgemeine Theorie der Functionen einer veränderlichen complexen Grösse} to the same professors of the Faculty of Philosophy. The Inauguraldissertation contains many analytical developments but, on that occasion, they were not suppressed. Therefore, the presence of non-mathematician professors is unrelated with the presence or absence of analytical developments in the lectures. The ideas contained in Riemann's Habilitationsvortrag --manifold, line element, curvature-- were so new at the time that there was not even a proper language to express them. Therefore, Riemann was forced to adopt a non-technical expository style. This explanation for the absence of analytical developments in Riemann's Habilitationsvortrag is more credible than the suppression thesis.

Andrés Lueiza-Colipí, Nikolaos Dimakis, Genly Leon, Andronikos Paliathanasis

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: gr-qc

We investigate a family of $k$-essence cosmological models selected by the requirement that the field equations admit a nontrivial variational symmetry. For the $k$-essence theory with Lagrangian function $F(R,X,φ)=f_{1}R+f_{2}(φ,X)$, where $f_{2}(φ,X)=αX+β\exp\left((n-1)φ\right)X^{n}$, the existence of a scaling symmetry introduces a conservation law which we use to obtain an exact vacuum solution. We generalize our analysis and investigate the structure of the phase-space of the cosmological field equations by performing a dynamical systems analysis, both in the absence and the presence of a pressureless matter source. We employ Hubble-normalized variables and the Poincaré compactification, so as to determine the asymptotic behavior of the model and identify all admissible cosmological epochs, from early-time to late-time behavior. We discuss in detail the existence and stability conditions of each fixed point as functions of the free parameters, and characterize the full asymptotic structure of the cosmological history as provided by this symmetry-driven $k$-essence model. We explore the conditions under which the model can describe cosmic acceleration. We find that the symmetry driven $k$-essence model can describe the inflationary epoch with a natural exit to the matter dominated era, where the $k$-essence mimics the pressureless matter component.

Mathias Braun, Xue-Mei Li

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: math.DG

We introduce a codimension one construction of coarse Ricci curvature in Lorentzian geometry. Using the $1$-Lorentz-Wasserstein distance $\ell_1$, we compare probability measures supported on small spacelike hypersurfaces through nearby events and recover, in a precise asymptotic regime, the ambient Ricci curvature in future-directed unit timelike directions, with a universal dimensional prefactor reflecting this codimension one construction. The construction echoes the Raychaudhuri equation, which relates the evolution of spatial volume expansion along timelike geodesics to Ricci curvature. Our quantitative estimates rely on transport maps with controlled displacement, constructed through a Moser-type flow. At leading order, the slice construction is insensitive to smooth weights. By smearing the spacelike slices into thin timelike tubes and calibrating the temporal and spatial scales, we recover the timelike Bakry-Émery tensor $\mathrm{Ric}+\mathrm{Hess}\,V$ associated with the weighted reference measure $\smash{\mathfrak{m}=\mathrm{e}^{-V}\,\mathrm{vol}_g}$.

Beyhan Puliçe, Ali Övgün, Yosef Verbin

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: gr-qc

We study the optical properties of electrically charged black holes sourced by generalized Heisenberg-Euler nonlinear electrodynamics (NLED) in the second-order formalism. Using the exact parametric form of the static spherically symmetric solution, we analyze the photon sphere, the black hole shadow, and the light deflection angle, and compare the results with those of the Reissner-Nordström and Schwarzschild cases. We find that the photon sphere and shadow radii decrease with increasing charge and increase with black hole mass, while NLED effects become significant mainly near extremality. By confronting the dimensionless shadow radius with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) bounds from Sgr A* and M87*, we derive phenomenological upper limits on the charge, with Sgr A* providing the stronger constraint. We further show that, for fixed impact parameter and charge, the deflection angle is systematically larger than in the corresponding Reissner-Nordström spacetime, and that the critical impact parameter is shifted to larger values. Our results show that NLED corrections produce observable modifications in the optical properties of charged black holes, especially close to extremality.

Cheng Hu, Huan Ye, Hong Lei, Zi-Chao Lin

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: gr-qc

Recent EHT polarimetric observations provide a powerful probe of near-horizon physics and modified gravity. We investigate the shadow and polarization images of a static Schwarzschild-MOG black hole illuminated by geometrically thick, optically thin accretion flows. Adopting a phenomenological model and the Hou disk model, and solving null geodesics and relativistic radiative transfer, we study how the MOG parameter, inclination angle, anisotropic synchrotron emission, and flow geometry affect the total intensity and linear polarization. It is found that the MOG parameter mainly enlarges and brightens higher-order photon rings and broadens the shadow, while the inclination angle breaks axial symmetry and enhances polarized emission inside the shadow. The Hou disk model suppresses off-equatorial radiative interference and localizes polarization signals within higher-order rings. Electric vector position angle (EVPA) patterns are mostly azimuthal but vary rapidly near lensed images. These results provide theoretical diagnostics for constraining MOG with EHT/ngEHT polarimetric observations.

Chiang-Mei Chen, Kimet Jusufi, Douglas Singleton

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: hep-th

We study the near-horizon charged-scalar instability associated with Schwinger pair production in the charged regular black hole geometry of the zero-point-length T-duality prescription. Using the same effective geometry and regularized gauge potential, we construct the extremal branch, its ${\rm AdS}_2 \times S^2$ near-horizon throat, and the charged-scalar instability threshold for a general form factor. For the explicit T-duality form factor the extremal branch terminates at $r_\mathrm{ext} = \sqrt2 \, l_0$, where the extremal charge and the near-horizon electric field vanish while the ${\rm AdS}_2$ radius remains finite at $\sqrt3 \, l_0$. At this endpoint the exact near-horizon instability parameter is negative. In the semiclassical regime the corresponding charge-to-mass threshold diverges as the endpoint is approached. Thus, for each fixed massive species with finite $q/m$, a sufficiently near-endpoint portion of the extremal branch is free of the local charged-scalar instability. For comparison, the Ayón-Beato-García (ABG) Einstein-nonlinear-electrodynamics solution has a nonvanishing extremal near-horizon electric field. For an additional minimally coupled charged-scalar probe, the corresponding local Schwinger threshold remains finite. Thus the divergent near-endpoint Schwinger barrier found in the T-duality branch is not a generic consequence of regularity.

Sardor Murodov, Bekzod Rahmatov, Javlon Rayimbaev, Bobomurat Ahmedov

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: gr-qc

We investigate slowly rotating traversable wormholes in Einstein--scalar--Gauss--Bonnet gravity beyond the linear rotation regime. The static backgrounds are obtained without expanding in the Gauss--Bonnet coupling, while rotational effects are treated perturbatively up to second order. Both monopolar and quadrupolar deformations are included, allowing us to determine the spin-induced changes in the asymptotic charges, throat geometry, energy-condition behavior, and mass quadrupole. The quadrupolar equations develop an internal regular singular point, which is handled by selecting the regular local solution through a Frobenius analysis. The rotation-induced response of the throat source is incorporated consistently through the junction conditions. Independent shooting and collocation calculations of the quadrupolar sector give mutually consistent solutions. The rotating throat remains oblate throughout the fixed-coupling family, while at $χ=0.15$ the smooth-bulk near-throat radial null-energy-condition violation persists but its radial extent becomes latitude dependent. These results provide a self-consistent second-order description of rotating Einstein--scalar--Gauss--Bonnet wormholes.

Hassan Hassanabadi, Orlando Luongo

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: gr-qc

We investigate a stationary and axisymmetric power law Kalb-Ramond geometry, obtained as a rotating extension of the asymptotically flat static solution. We reconstruct the exact inverse Einstein source supporting the geometry and determine its energy conditions and curvature properties. We characterize the horizon and stationary limit configurations and quantify the outer ergoregion through its angular dependent radial thickness plus its coordinate and proper spatial volumes. We derive the unstable spherical photon region and show that the Kalb-Ramond deformation shifts the prograde photon orbit into the ergoregion at lower spin, while the retrograde region remains outside throughout the entire domain. From the unstable photon region, we construct the exact vacuum critical curve and analyze its area equivalent diameter and displacement, including comparisons with M87$^\ast$ and Sgr~A$^\ast$ within the asymptotically admissible domain. We further examine the fixed-$J$ geometric behavior and rotational energy extraction, with emphasis to rotating weak deflection and two dimensional weak lensing, commenting the physical consequences of our solution in terms of observable outcomes.

Jian-Wei Luo, Yun-Song Piao

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: gr-qc

Current methods for the gravitational-wave (GW) echo searches generally require substantial computational time and resources. Recent advances in group equivariant neural posterior estimation (GNPE) have demonstrated the potential to substantially accelerate posterior inference. In this work, we adopt this framework and train a GNPE model to perform echo searches, significantly improving computational efficiency while maintaining comparable inference accuracy. We apply it to the O4a events and find no significant evidence for the GW echo.

Miguel A. Sabogal, Sunny Vagnozzi, Eleonora Di Valentino

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: astro-ph.CO

Interacting dark energy (IDE) models, featuring interactions between dark matter (DM) and dark energy (DE), have received significant renewed interest. However, little attention has been devoted to understanding their genuine cosmological signatures, with comparisons against $Λ$CDM often carried out at fixed cosmological parameters. Considering the widely studied model with energy exchange rate proportional to the DE density, we carry out a three-level sequence of comparisons, starting from the naïve fixed-parameter comparison, then compensating for shifts in $θ_s$ and $z_{\text{eq}}$, and then removing effects due to the modified background. We show that fixing $θ_s$ and $z_{\text{eq}}$ leads to pre-recombination evolutions of the Weyl potential, photon monopole, and baryon velocity which are nearly identical to their $Λ$CDM counterparts, and hence virtually indistinguishable Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature power spectra. Comparing IDE to a non-interacting $w$CDM model with the same background, we find small scale-dependent signatures in CMB lensing. We find larger differences in the matter power spectrum, reflecting the different values of $Ω_m$ resulting from the different partition of the dark sector into DM and DE, with only percent-level differences remaining once we compare $Ω_m^2P_m(k)$, indicating the importance of high-fidelity determinations of $Ω_m$. Our controlled comparison strategy can be a powerful tool for a wide range of models beyond $Λ$CDM.

Yong-Tao Lu, Heng Guo, Qun Wei, Bing Wei

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: hep-th

In this paper, we investigate the localization of various $q$-form fields on a codimension-two brane. In particular, the $0$-form scalar field, the $1$-form $U(1)$ gauge vector field, and the $2$-form Kalb-Ramond field are considered with gravitational coupling, where a coupling function $F(R)$ is introduced into the six-dimensional actions of these fields. The function $F(R)$ depends on the scalar curvature of the bulk. Within this framework, we find that the massless modes of different $q$-form fields can be localized on the thick brane for positive values of the coupling parameters $t_1$ and $t_2$. For the massive modes, the different $q$-form fields exhibit similar localization properties determined by the coupling parameter $t_2$. When $0<t_2<v^2/24$, the massive modes of these fields cannot be localized on the brane, while they may exist as the resonant modes. In the case $t_2=v^2/24$, a finite number of massive modes can be localized on the thick brane, and the number of localized modes increases with the coupling parameter $t_1$. Finally, when $t_2>v^2/24$, the effective potentials associated with the Kaluza-Klein modes of these $q$-form fields form infinitely deep potential wells, so that all massive modes can be localized on the brane. Moreover, the tachyonic massive modes can always be excluded for different $q$-form fields.

Yevgeny V. Stadnik

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: hep-ph

We explore a class of Lorentz-violating scalar-field models where the effects of the scalar field on antimatter can be strongly enhanced compared to matter. Non-trivial differences in phenomenology arise for spectroscopy measurements depending on whether the scalar field changes slowly or rapidly on the atomic scale. We highlight opportunities for precision tests in the laboratory including dark matter searches, in particular with spectroscopy and interferometry measurements, as well as certain types of antimatter experiments.

Takanori Anegawa, Akihiro Miyata, Shota Suzuki, Kotaro Tamaoka

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: hep-th

Can quantum entanglement continue to grow even after the entanglement entropies of subsystems have saturated? We address this question using genuine multi-entropy, which probes multi-partite entanglement structure beyond bipartite entanglement. In a two-sided BTZ black hole, this quantity grows linearly with time after every subsystem entropy of a fixed tripartition has saturated, extending the interval in which entanglement detects Einstein-Rosen bridge growth. The result refines the ER=EPR relation by identifying multi-partite structure invisible to ordinary entanglement entropies. Some spin-chain models and the spatially partitioned Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model exhibit distinct transients, while the late-time plateau values in holography, the SYK model, and Haar-random states share a universal behaviour.

Deyou Chen, Chuang Yang, Kangqiao Liu

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: gr-qc

In this paper, we investigate the chaos bound through the local radial instability of charged spinning test particles on unstable circular orbits in the black-bounce--Kerr--Newman spacetime. Our results show that violation of the bound is governed by the competition between the local orbital-instability scale and the surface gravity scale, with variations of the black hole background and the particle dynamics providing two complementary routes to the same threshold crossing. Background variations affect both scales and can drive the system into the bound-violating regime when the surface gravity is suppressed more strongly than the orbital instability. At fixed background, by contrast, the surface gravity remains unchanged, and the transition across the threshold is driven by changes in the unstable orbit dynamics induced by the particle parameters. The background-controlled and probe-dynamics-controlled routes therefore represent two realizations of a unified horizon--orbit scale competition rather than independent mechanisms. Among the particle parameters considered, the total angular momentum plays the leading role in controlling the local radial instability, while the spin and charge further modify the instability strength and shift the threshold for chaos bound violation.

Han-Wen Hu, Chen Lan, Zong-Kuan Guo, Rong-Gen Cai

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: gr-qc

We establish a general relation between symmetries of gravitational theories and black hole (BH) quasinormal mode (QNM) spectra. We show that a symmetry implies isospectrality when it induces a bijection between the corresponding QNM boundary value problems. However, conformally related BHs have been reported to exhibit both conformal factor dependent and independent QNM spectra. To resolve this issue, we develop a reduction scheme for higher order perturbation equations. Applied to pure Weyl gravity, it yields the complete axial spectrum of Schwarzschild, including Regge-Wheeler and spin-1 branches. Our results show that these seemingly contradictory conclusions result from differences in the perturbation dynamics or in the boundary conditions.

Xu Ye, Shan-Ping Wu, Yu-Kun Zhang, Shao-Wen Wei

Published: 2026-09-16

Categories: hep-th

The Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, proportional to one quarter of the horizon area, is fundamental in black hole thermodynamics and can also be understood via the AdS/CFT correspondence, such as the 3D BTZ black hole and 2D CFT. In this work, we adopt the Kerr/CFT approach to analyze the central charge and black hole entropy for regular extremal black-bounce spacetimes, including the counterparts of the Kerr, Kerr-Newman, and Reissner-Nordström black holes. These spacetimes are free of curvature singularities at $r=0$. We derive the near horizon geometries of these spacetimes and find that they exhibit enhanced symmetry, namely SL$(2,\mathbb{R})\times \mathrm{U}(1)$ or SL$(2,\mathbb{R}) \times \mathrm{SO}(3)$. By imposing appropriate boundary conditions, we analyze their asymptotic symmetry groups, which contain diffeomorphisms as well as the $\mathrm{U}(1)_{\rm gauge}$ symmetry arising from the electromagnetic field. We then extract the central charge from the charge algebra and evaluate the left-moving temperature of the Frolov-Thorne vacuum. It is worth emphasizing that in the black-bounce Kerr-Newman case, the central charge from the electromagnetic contribution vanishes. Furthermore, in the black-bounce Reissner-Nordström case, we uplift the 4D geometry to a 5D configuration by incorporating a $\mathrm{U}(1)$ gauge fiber. Our results show that the microscopic entropy calculated from the Cardy formula is consistent with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. This agreement suggests that the Kerr/CFT approach remains valid for certain regular spacetimes without curvature singularities, thereby providing a microscopic statistical understanding of black hole entropy.

Chen Yuan

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: astro-ph.CO

Primordial black hole dark matter is formed from the collapse of enhanced primordial density fluctuations. The formation of primordial black holes is accompanied by scalar induced gravitational waves whose infrared scaling only depends on the equation of state, $w$, of the background at leading order. Establishing whether this characteristic scaling remains robust under corrections of arbitrary perturbative order, including in the presence of non-Gaussianities, requires a physical understanding of the infrared scaling. In this work, we provide such a physical interpretation. We find that the stress of sound waves with nearly equal frequencies produces a slow beat. Although the incoming waves oscillate rapidly, this slow beat continues to source the long wavelength tensor perturbation before its horizon entry, thus generating an infrared scaling that only depends on the expanding background. We show that higher order interactions generate freely propagating waves that finally lead to the same slow beat deep inside the horizon. Since non-Gaussianities would not change the speed of the freely propagating waves, they do not modify the infrared scaling. As the source with a slow beat has enough time to accumulate before the horizon entry of the infrared tensor mode, it records the background expansion and thus the infrared scaling could provide a robust probe of the cosmological equation of state.

Francisco S. N. Lobo, Manuel E. Rodrigues

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We develop an effective stochastic and semiclassical framework for dynamical thin-shell wormholes connecting two asymptotic spacetime regions. The Israel junction geometry is separated from the phenomenological open-system description: stochastic dynamics is formulated in the radial phase space $(a,\dot a)$, whereas $σ$, $P$, and the effective temperature scales are induced observables. A one-dimensional Langevin--Fokker--Planck model is obtained only after an explicit overdamped/adiabatic approximation. Local acceleration scales are interpreted as reservoir temperatures only under additional KMS and detailed-balance assumptions. For a symmetric Schwarzschild--Schwarzschild wormhole, the transparent conservative shell defines the reference potential and restoring frequency, while dissipation and noise are introduced as open-system corrections. The stable linear response is closed by the constitutive slope $β_0^2=(dP/dσ)_0$. For $2M<a_0<3M$, stability requires a lower bound on $β_0^2$ that diverges as $a_0\to2M^+$. Moreover, the derivative along the family of static configurations equals the marginal-stability slope and must not be identified with the constitutive derivative of a stable stochastic shell. The reduced model determines stationary distributions, fluctuations, correlations, Markovian and non-Markovian spectra, and entropy production. Near the horizon, the junction conditions yield $T_{\rm stress}=T_{\rm acc}+O(\hbarγ/a)$, with equality at leading order under a specified dominance condition. A peeling temperature participates only if the ray-tracing map satisfies generalized Unruh/peeling and adiabaticity conditions. Thus, the three-temperature correspondence is conditional, while the stochastic coefficients remain phenomenological pending a microscopic shell--reservoir model.

Stefan Kremminger, Andrew J. Tolley

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: hep-th

The systematic generalisation of the well-established $S$-matrix positivity and bootstrap bounds from $2 \to 2$ scattering processes to higher-point amplitudes has, to date, remained elusive. To address this, we consider a large class of tree-level UV-completions of a single-scalar EFT. Specifically, we consider the most general renormalisable $N$-scalar theory in $D=4$. By explicitly computing tree-level amplitudes for four-, five- and six-point scattering and expanding at low energies, we can search for positivity relations among the expansion coefficients. We find that quite generally positivity bounds are unavailable due to contamination from a specific class of Feynman diagrams that are linear in sign-indefinite cubic couplings. However, by isolating a sector of the full crossing-symmetric low-energy amplitude that is unaffected by these sign-indefinite cubic couplings, we find that selected six-, five- and four-point Wilson coefficients organise into positive semi-definite matrices. While a violation of these positivity statements only implies that a given EFT is inconsistent with our class of UV completions, the result helps to guide towards what more general positivity bounds for higher-point interactions could, and could not, look like.

E. Rodrigues, F. Dahia, I. P. Lobo, C. Romero

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We investigate the extremization of Perlick's proper time in non-integrable Weyl geometry. We derive the corresponding generalized Euler--Lagrange equations and show that the resulting extremals do not, in general, coincide with the autoparallels of the Weyl connection, their difference being governed by the Weyl length curvature and vanishing in the integrable case. A distinctive feature of the extremal equation is its nonlocal character: in the Weyl proper-time parametrization, the acceleration depends explicitly on the remaining proper time to the endpoint of the variational interval. We illustrate this behavior for a weak constant Weyl field and show that a local Lorentz-force dynamics emerges in a double-scaling limit in which the Weyl field vanishes and the terminal proper time diverges while their product remains finite. These results uncover a nontrivial relation between proper-time extremization, Weyl non-integrability, and local force dynamics.

Danilo S. Ferreira, Luis B. Castro

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We study the quasinormal-mode and quasibound-state spectra of a massless scalar field in weakly magnetized Ernst--Schwarzschild spacetime. In the separated $O(B_0^2)$ regime, the Klein--Gordon equation reduces to a radial confluent-Heun equation. We construct an endpoint-selected spectral Wronskian directly from the canonical confluent-Heun recurrence and its regular-to-irregular connection limit. Quasinormal modes and quasibound states are then obtained as zeros of the same analytic spectral function on the radiative and bound sheets, respectively, providing a unified treatment of the two spectral sectors within the separated weak-field problem. The resulting QNM and QBS frequencies agree with independent weak-field Ernst and massive-Schwarzschild benchmarks available in the literature. We further show, for representative cases, that the frequencies selected by the local Heun-series termination relation examined here do not satisfy the endpoint-selected quasibound-state condition. The construction therefore provides a direct horizon-to-infinity spectral condition for both radiative and bound states within the weak-field Ernst problem.

Tianhao Wu

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We construct exact hairy black holes in Lovelock--Horndeski gravity and establish a relation between horizon topology, scalar hair and covariant charges. Rooted in the dimensional reduction of higher-curvature gravity, this framework connects scalar--tensor dynamics to the low-energy description of heterotic strings. In five dimensions, a single fixed theory admits a continuous planar family and two isolated hyperbolic black holes. The hyperbolic solutions share a locally AdS metric with distinct scalar dressings, while the planar family is Weyl curved and has a freely varying horizon scale. Both branches carry scalar hair regular on the future horizon. The hyperbolic construction extends above four dimensions; compatibility of the displayed planar profile selects five and seven dimensions. Time translations of the scalar act through a global shift, which enters the complete covariant charge balance. Along the planar family, a changing bulk shift-charge density supplies this balance despite zero radial flux and vanishing horizon charge variation. The hyperbolic roots admit no horizon-scale variation at fixed couplings.

Gabriele Demasi, Walter Del Pozzo

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Transdimensional Bayesian inference is becoming a key ingredient in gravitational-wave astronomy. In many relevant applications, the number of components needed to describe the data is not known a priori and must be inferred jointly with their parameters. We present a transdimensional Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) framework designed to exploit massive parallelism. The method evolves a population of particles through a sequence of tempered distributions and uses the No-U-Turn Sampler for the exploration of fixed-dimensional parameter space while reversible-jump birth and death moves allow the number of components to vary. The same SMC construction also enables posterior samples obtained from a shorter data segment to be updated as additional data become available, enhancing the overall efficiency of the analysis. We validate the approach on two proof-of-concept problems: the recovery of a sequence of Gaussian pulses and a simplified LISA Galactic-binary inference problem. In both cases, the method recovers the injected number of components and produces consistent posterior estimates. These results indicate that the proposed method is a promising avenue toward scalable and parallel Bayesian transdimensional inference for current and future gravitational-wave astronomy.

Vincent S. H. Lee

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: hep-ph

Pulsar timing arrays are a powerful tool for probing low-frequency gravitational phenomena and physics beyond the Standard Model. We establish a general, gauge-invariant framework for the timing residual by identifying the measurable quantity as the proper time interval between consecutive pulse arrivals at Earth. In linearized general relativity, we derive a general expression for this proper time shift and show that it decomposes into Doppler, Shapiro, and Einstein delay contributions whose sum is gauge invariant, similar to frameworks that have been developed for other gravitational-wave detectors such as laser and atom interferometers. We also provide a recipe for computing the resulting timing residual for any specified perturbation, and we illustrate the method with several physically well-motivated sources, recovering known results where they exist in the literature. This recipe can be directly applied to search for new physics from real pulsar timing data using existing numerical software.

Lucas Pouw, Lorenzo Speri, Niccolò Veronesi, Elena Maria Rossi

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: astro-ph.HE

The origin of the stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) observed in gravitational wave (GW) events by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) detectors remains uncertain. One promising formation pathway is the active galactic nucleus (AGN) channel, in which BBHs embedded in AGN accretion discs experience enhanced merger rates and may produce rapidly spinning black holes in the upper mass gap. Previous constraints on the AGN contribution to the LVK merger population have relied either on spatial correlations between GW localisations and AGN catalogues or on modelling the intrinsic properties of GW sources. We develop a hierarchical Bayesian framework that unifies these approaches within a single likelihood for the fraction of AGN-hosted GW events, $f_{\rm agn}$. This framework, combined with the latest gravitational wave transient catalogue GWTC-5.0 and the electromagnetic Quaia AGN catalogue, cannot exclude an AGN contribution to the observed merger rate. For unobscured AGN in the optical and infrared bands with bolometric luminosities $L_{\rm bol}\geq\{10^{44.5},10^{45.5},10^{46.5}\}\,\mathrm{erg\,s^{-1}}$, we exclude $f_{\rm agn} \geq \{0.52,0.41, 0.61\}$ at the 95 percent credible level under our fiducial model. The methodology and results presented in this work lay down the pathway for combining the full GW posterior with electromagnetic observations to infer the properties of GW populations and AGN discs.

Robert Penna

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: hep-th

Noether charges in gravity are always defined with respect to a reference metric, but the near-horizon extremal Kerr (NHEK) solution does not come with an obvious choice of reference metric (it is not asymptotically flat, for example). We discuss a one parameter generalization of the NHEK solution due to Kinnersley and Kelley which interpolates between NHEK and an analytically continued version of Minkowski spacetime. We use this interpolating family of solutions to compute the conformal energy of NHEK above the Minkowski reference metric. We find an interesting order of limits issue when computing the conformal energy of the Minkowski vacuum and we discuss a few natural prescriptions for fixing it, including one motivated by the Kerr/CFT correspondence.

Felix M. Heinze, Gerhard Schäfer, Bernd Brügmann

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We present a complete analytic expression for the $N$-body Hamiltonian of nonspinning point particles at second post-Newtonian (2PN) order in the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) gauge. Recent work reduced the general $N$-body Hamiltonian to a form containing a single unresolved integral term, which prevented a fully explicit closed-form representation. Here, we evaluate this integral analytically and thereby obtain a fully explicit closed-form expression for the general 2PN $N$-body Hamiltonian. We outline the main steps of the derivation and validate the analytic expression through direct numerical comparisons with the original integral representation.

Hideo Furugori, Naotaka Kubo, Hayato Motohashi, Daisuke Yoshida

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We study quasinormal modes governed by the Teukolsky equation in Kerr-Newman-de Sitter spacetime, formally treating the spin weight and field charge as arbitrary parameters. We use exact Heun connection formulae expressed through classical conformal blocks. We analytically derive the quasinormal mode spectra in the small cosmological constant, near-extremal, and near-Nariai limits. In the small cosmological constant limit, we obtain the leading charged de Sitter spectrum together with its subleading corrections. In both the small cosmological constant and near-extremal limits, solving the full connection condition beyond the leading pole approximation gives rise to generically noninteger-power corrections to the quasinormal mode frequencies, whereas no analogous correction appears in the near-Nariai limit. We also analyze the angular eigenvalue problem as an illustration of the same connection-formula method.

Yurev Ivan Ross B. Carag, Allan L. Alinea

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Scalar-Tensor theories extend General Relativity (GR) by including both a scalar field and a metric tensor in describing gravity. Although the matter sector is minimally coupled to the metric in GR, the scalar field coupling to matter may be adjusted by means of Disformal Transformations. One of the most general of these transformations, formulated by Takahashi, Motohashi, and Minamitsuji, include arbitrarily high-order derivatives of the scalar field and are designed to map between two ghost-free Higher-order Scalar-Tensor theories. We used these transformations to determine the most general conditions for the disformal form-invariance of the Klein-Gordon equation for the scalar field. In the second-order case, we identified a family of disformally-related metrics that result in the same propagation solutions. Additionally, higher-order cases could comply with theoretical and phenomenological constraints alongside KG-invariance. Finally, we investigated the notion of disformal transformations as ``deformations'' of the spacetime manifold.

Zi-Qing Xiao, Jun Nian, Li Li

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: hep-th

The high-overtone quasinormal-mode spectrum encodes the near-singularity Kasner scaling of black-hole interiors. We show that distinct structures in this spectrum independently determine the temporal and spatial Kasner grades, allowing the corresponding metric exponents to be reconstructed without imposing Kasner constraints or invoking holography. We demonstrate this independent reconstruction at the fixed Kasner point of five-dimensional asymptotically flat Schwarzschild and planar Schwarzschild--AdS$_5$, and then extend it to a continuously varying Gibbons--Maeda black-hole family. The reconstructed exponents satisfy the Kasner relation a posteriori, providing a nontrivial geometric consistency check. More generally, the high-overtone spectrum separates into global spectral data and local algebraic corrections whose fractional powers are fixed by the near-singularity Kasner geometry. These fractional corrections therefore provide a direct spectral probe of the local geometry behind the horizon.

Puskar Mondal, Shing-Tung Yau

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: math.DG

We prove a purely quasi-local positivity theorem for the Wang--Yau mass for a class of initial data whose Jang deformation, after a boundary-preserving conformal reduction to zero scalar curvature, lies in a sufficiently small transverse--traceless (TT) perturbative neighborhood of a strictly convex Euclidean fill-in.We explicitly construct a nontrivial class of physical initial data whose admissible Jang reductions realize this TT-generated sector. The argument reduces the Wang--Yau energy to the Brown--York mass of the resulting scalar-flat compact metric, together with nonnegative bulk terms determined by the Jang deformation, and establishes strict positivity by computing the second variation of the Brown--York functional at the Euclidean metric in transverse--traceless directions. The proof is entirely confined to the compact fill-in and uses neither an asymptotically flat extension nor the positive mass theorem. This gives a partial answer to a question of R. Schoen concerning a genuinely quasi-local proof of positivity for quasi-local mass.

Ruopu Sun, Xiaofen Huang

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: quant-ph

Quantum imaginarity, as a critical resource metric for quantifying intrinsic nonreal coherence encoded in quantum states, exhibits nontrivial evolutionary behaviors in curved spacetime backgrounds. This work focuses on bipartite Dirac field reduced states in the quantum atmosphere of a static Schwarzschild black hole, aiming to explore the modulation of three mainstream imaginarity measures by Hawking thermal radiation. We reveal that the relative-entropy imaginarity, the geometric imaginarity and robustness of imaginarity, the fully accessible state presents a valley-shaped radial profile with a local minimum inside the quantum atmosphere, while the cross-coupling and fully inaccessible states follow opposite peak-shaped trends. Further analysis demonstrates that the Hartle-Hawking constant significantly strengthens the redistribution effect of imaginarity across both regions, whereas an increase in the event horizon radius weakens such redistribution and flattens the extremum features. These findings offer a new perspective for decoding the information structure of black hole quantum atmospheres and the intrinsic quantum nature of Hawking radiation.

Saurabh Verma, Manish Yadav, Archana Dixit, Anirudh Pradhan, M. S. Barak

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Late-time cosmic acceleration is conventionally ascribed to a cosmological constant, though $Λ$CDM continues to face several theoretical difficulties that keep alternative gravity models under active consideration. This work examines the Hu-Sawicki $f(R)$ model in a spatially non-flat background, with the modified-gravity parameter $b$ and the curvature density $Ω_k$ both treated as free parameters, constrained using DESI-DR2 BAO, BBN, and four Type Ia supernova compilations -- PantheonPlus, PantheonPlus+SH0ES, Union3, and DESY5yr. Across all four combinations, $H_0$ and $Ω_m$ stay close to their $Λ$CDM values, with a noticeable shift in $H_0$ appearing only for the SH0ES-calibrated dataset. The parameter $b$ departs from zero at better than $2σ$ in three of the four fits, most prominently for DESY5yr, whereas the SH0ES-calibrated combination alone prefers $b<0$. A strong positive correlation among $b$, $H_0$, and $Ω_k$ underlies this shift, suggesting that curvature signatures obtained under $Λ$CDM can be reabsorbed into the modified-gravity sector once this additional freedom is allowed. Statistical model comparison via AIC and BIC gives a mixed picture: AIC leans toward the Hu-Sawicki model in three of the four combinations, while BIC's heavier penalty on the extra parameter favors $Λ$CDM in most cases, and only DESY5yr is preferred under both criteria. These findings show that the Hu-Sawicki $f(R)$ scenario with unconstrained curvature is nonetheless a statistically feasible, if not obviously preferred, alternative to $Λ$CDM, and that curvature restrictions generated inside $Λ$CDM cannot be viewed as independent of the underlying gravity model.

Satwik Mittal, Carsten Gundlach, Laetitia Martel

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We numerically investigate the gravitational collapse of a charged scalar field coupled to the Einstein and Maxwell equations in spherical symmetry, in 4+1 spacetime dimensions. At the threshold of collapse we find type-II critical phenomena very similar to what is seen in 3+1 dimensions, including self-similarity of the critical solution and power-law scaling of the black hole mass and charge. Well inside the collapse region, we also identify initial data that collapse to an extremal black hole. By varying all parameters of the initial data by up to $\sim0.5\%$, we give evidence that there is a small neighbourhood in the space of initial data where an exactly extremal charged black hole is formed in the evolution of a codimension-1 set of initial data. We believe this is the first such evidence for scalar field collapse from regular initial data.

Simon Pekar

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: hep-th

The conformal boundary of asymptotically flat spacetime is null and therefore carries a Carrollian rather than Lorentzian geometry. This changes the relation between symmetry, variational principles and evolution equations in an essential way: unlike a Lorentzian Levi-Civita connection, a torsion-free Carrollian connection compatible with the conformal structure contains genuine independent data. We develop a metric-affine formulation of conformal dynamics that keeps track of these connection degrees of freedom through hypermomenta. Local Carroll boosts, rotations, Weyl transformations and diffeomorphisms then imply a set of covariant evolution equations. We apply this framework to Einstein gravity in four-dimensional asymptotically flat spacetimes. Penrose's conformal compactification identifies null infinity as a conformal Carrollian manifold; the undetermined transverse symmetric part of its compatible connection is the asymptotic Bondi shear. After fixing a Bondi-van der Burg-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) frame and identifying the Carrollian momenta and hypermomenta with the Bondi data, the general Carrollian evolution equations reproduce the standard evolution equations for the mass and angular-momentum aspects. The result provides a boundary-intrinsic derivation of the gravitational evolution equations and a geometric realization of radiative degrees of freedom in flat-space holography. This is a proceedings contribution to the "Athens Workshop in Theoretical Physics: 10th Anniversary", held at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens on December 17-19 2025.

Hai-Long Jia, Wen-Di Guo, Yun-Tao Gu, Yu-Xiao Liu

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Pseudospectral analysis provides a powerful way to probe the spectral stability of non-self-adjoint operators and has been widely used in black hole physics, but its application to braneworld scenarios has not yet been explored. In this work, we apply this method to tensor gravitational perturbations in a representative scalar-field-generated thick brane background. To the best of our knowledge, we provide the first hyperboloidal formulation of braneworld perturbations and propose a height-function gauge adapted to the warped geometry. This construction converts the outgoing boundary conditions of quasinormal modes into regularity conditions at finite compactified boundaries and recasts the perturbation equation as a first-order system generated by a non-self-adjoint hyperboloidal evolution operator. With the corresponding energy norm, we compute the condition numbers and pseudospectra of the localized graviton zero mode and the quasinormal-mode spectrum. We find that the condition numbers grow rapidly along the overtone sequence and that the corresponding pseudospectral contours develop broad, connected structures in the high-overtone region. These results show a strongly mode-dependent spectral sensitivity: among the damped modes analyzed, the higher overtones are less robust than the fundamental mode. The zero mode also has a larger condition number than the fundamental mode, indicating stronger local first-order sensitivity. These diagnostics characterize sensitivity to generic norm-bounded operator perturbations. Relating that sensitivity to a specific braneworld deformation requires the corresponding self-consistent perturbation constraints.

Uddeepta Deka, Apratim Ganguly, Soham Bhattacharyya, Parameswaran Ajith

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Gravitational-wave (GW) microlensing occurs when an intervening compact object causes diffraction of the GW, imprinting characteristic frequency-dependent modulations on the observed signal. Current searches for microlensing signatures in the detected GW events, including those used to constrain the fraction of dark matter in the form of compact objects, assume an isolated point mass lens (PML) model. However, astrophysical compact objects are typically embedded within larger structures, such as galaxies, whose potentials introduce additional convergence and tidal shear, thereby perturbing the lensed signal. In this work, we study the impact of the background galaxy in the search for microlensing by compact objects using a PML model. We distribute the compact objects inside a galaxy following the Navarro-Frenk-White density profile. We model the microlensing effects using the potential of a PML embedded in a constant convergence and shear, which are, in turn, calculated from a singular isothermal sphere model of the galaxy lens. We demonstrate that neglecting the galaxy's effects can systematically reduce sensitivity in microlensing searches, particularly for high microlens masses. Thus, future searches may need to incorporate the additional effect of the lens galaxy, particularly those aimed at placing robust constraints on the abundance of compact dark matter.

Zi-Hao Li, Run-Qiu Yang

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: hep-th

A central question in bottom-up holography is whether a given bulk effective theory admits a consistent holographic dual. In this work, we explore whether the near-singularity Kasner scaling of planar AdS black hole interiors can serve as a useful diagnostic based on interior-sensitive holographic probes. By examining the metric combinations that control interior-sensitive observables, including Complexity=Volume (CV), the bulk contribution to Complexity=Action (CA), Hartman-Maldacena (HM) entropy, and the thermal $a$-function, we derive algebraic bounds on the Kasner exponents $(p_t,p_s)$ for the relevant semi-classical regimes: finite-radius late-time branches of CV and HM, finite CA complexity, and a finite near-singularity thermal $a$-function. The resulting inequalities delineate the corresponding regions of Kasner space in which the terminal scaling alone is sufficient to realize these behaviors. Furthermore, we demonstrate that classical energy conditions, specifically the null and dominant energy conditions, provide simple sufficient criteria ensuring that the Kasner exponents fall within these holographically allowed regions. These results establish a direct connection between classical bulk energy conditions and the interior geometry selected by holographic probes, and suggest that Kasner scaling can provide a complementary diagnostic in bottom-up holography.

Daniele Gregoris

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We examine the exact propagation of light in a McVittie spacetime to quantify the observational bias introduced on the inferred Hubble constant $H_0$ by a localized central mass embedded in an expanding asymptotically de Sitter background. By integrating the Sachs optical equations for radial null geodesics, we derive linearized analytical expressions for the areal and luminosity distances to first order in the dimensionless Hawking-Hayward coupling parameter $μ= H_{\text{dS}} m_H$. We evaluate the magnitude of this local gravitational field effect across realistic astrophysical scales, ranging from supermassive black holes ($\text{Sgr A}^*$) to galaxy cluster halos. We show that while a McVittie central mass induces a coordinate-invariant path-focusing effect on incoming photons, the quantitative correction for local galactic parameters ($μ\sim 10^{-16}$) is negligible ($\sim 10^{-15}\%$), proving that a localized galactic mass alone cannot resolve the $\sim 8\%$ Hubble tension. We establish strict upper bounds on the extent to which local spacetime inhomogeneity can bias low-redshift distance ladder measurements.

Fabio Cavalletti, Davide Manini, Andrea Mondino

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We survey recent developments on the null energy condition (NEC) from the perspective of optimal transport, with emphasis on non-smooth Lorentzian geometry. After recalling the role of classical energy conditions in general relativity, we discuss the relation between Ricci curvature and entropy convexity in optimal transport. The main focus is the authors' optimal-transport characterization of the NEC. In the smooth setting, the NEC is equivalent to displacement concavity of the Shannon entropy power along suitable null-geodesic transport plans supported on null hypersurfaces and measured with respect to rigged measures. We review the geometric ingredients of this characterization and applications, including a weighted Hawking area theorem. We then turn to the synthetic theory introduced in a second paper of the authors. Synthetic null hypersurfaces are defined using achronal boundaries, gauge functions, and reference measures in topological causal spaces. In this framework, the displacement-concavity characterization becomes a synthetic curvature condition, $\mathsf{NC}^{e}(N)$, meaningful without differentiable structure. We discuss compatibility with the smooth theory, invariance under natural changes of gauge and reference measure, and stability under convergence. Finally, we present a synthetic version of Penrose's singularity theorem for continuous Lorentzian metrics. These results indicate that geometric and causal consequences of the NEC persist beyond the smooth setting and highlight optimal transport as a framework connecting curvature, causality, and singularity formation in Lorentzian geometry.

Xikai Shan, Yi-Fan Wang, Shude Mao, Huan Yang, Miguel Zumalacárregui

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: astro-ph.GA

Strongly lensed gravitational waves (GWs) are commonly searched for using population priors, including time-delay and magnification-ratio distributions, to suppress false alarms. Current LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA (LVK) searches mainly adopt priors calibrated with galaxy-scale lenses; however, these may penalize the longer time delays produced by galaxy clusters, which could contribute 10%--20% of lensed events. Cluster member galaxies may also perturb the macro-lens potential and alter image magnifications. We investigate the time-delay and magnification-ratio distributions of binary black hole GWs lensed by galaxy clusters, together with microlensing systematics. In the full lensed sample, the median time delay is about 76 days for cluster lenses, compared with 6.9 days for galaxy lenses. After imposing an SNR threshold of $ρ>8$ at LVK O4 sensitivity, the medians are 15.4 and 0.24 days. The detected cluster sample retains a long-delay tail, with 9.1% of image pairs delayed by more than 365 days and 3.3% by more than 1000 days, so galaxy-based time-delay priors can suppress cluster-lensed pairs. By contrast, although cluster member galaxies broaden the magnification-ratio distribution of the full cluster sample, the detected cluster- and galaxy-lensing samples are very similar at O4 sensitivity, suggesting little bias in candidate selection. Cluster lenses also generally produce weak microlensing distortions: only about 0.8% of single-image mismatches exceed ${\cal M}=0.03$, while 4.8% exceed the parameter-estimation threshold $1.35/ρ^2$. Thus, microlensing is subdominant for most cluster-lensed events, mainly because images often form far from the brightest cluster galaxy, where the stellar density is low and dominated by intracluster light, although nearby satellites can locally enhance it. These results motivate a dedicated cluster-lensing pipeline for GW lensing searches.

Aniruddha Ghosh, Ujjal Debnath

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We develop an inverse lensing formalism for reconstructing the metric function of a static, spherically symmetric spacetime directly from the gravitational deflection angle of light. By formulating the inverse problem through an Abel transformation, we derive an integro-differential relation connecting the observable deflection profile to the underlying spacetime geometry. As a consistency check, we consider the case of vanishing deflection, \(α(b)=0\), and recover \(A(r)=1\), corresponding to flat Minkowski spacetime. We then apply the formalism to the gravitational deflection of light by the Sun using the observationally motivated leading-order expression $α(b)=\frac{2(1+γ)GM_{\odot}}{c^{2}b}.$The resulting metric function is shown to recover the Schwarzschild form in the weak-field limit \(r\gg M\). We further consider the higher-order correction to the solar deflection angle and reconstruct the corresponding metric beyond the leading-order approximation. Interestingly, the \((M/r)^2\) term vanishes in the resulting weak-field expansion, yielding an improved approximation compared with the metric reconstructed from the leading-order deflection angle. Our results demonstrate that gravitational lensing observations can provide a direct route to reconstructing the underlying spacetime geometry without assuming a specific metric a priori. This formalism therefore, offers a novel framework for connecting observational light propagation with spacetime geometry.

Jing-Peng Ye, Yu-Xuan Li, Run-Qiu Yang, Li Li

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Stationary-axisymmetric black holes are the standard theoretical framework for astrophysical black holes, yet their interiors remain largely inaccessible: the absence of a hypersurface-orthogonal timelike Killing vector renders the metric non-diagonal, and frame dragging obstructs the usual techniques for probing the interior. We prove that any stationary-axisymmetric black hole satisfying the classical energy conditions contains at most one nondegenerate inner Killing horizon per connected interior branch, irrespective of its matter content. For compact horizon sections, we apply the Raychaudhuri equation to the congruence normal to constant-time hypersurfaces: the strong energy condition makes the squared lapse subharmonic, and the maximum principle excludes a second inner horizon. For noncompact planar and hyperbolic sections central to holography, the null energy condition instead yields a monotonicity obstruction through a geometric flow we introduce here, the ``inverse lapse flow,'' whose weak continuation via viscosity solutions we also construct. The attractive nature of gravity, encoded in these energy conditions, thus both drives horizon formation and caps the number of inner horizons, revealing a striking dual role of the same focusing mechanism.

Yang Deng, Jia-Zhou Liu, Wen-Di Guo

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

A dark matter density profile alone does not determine the spacetime around a black hole; the radial stress must be prescribed separately and governs the strong-field orbital response. We study a Bardeen black hole in a Hernquist halo through three spherical models sharing the same density, mass function, and cutoff but differing in radial stress: a halo with $p_r^{\mathrm{DM}}=-ρ_{\mathrm{DM}}$, its truncated form, and a truncated Einstein cluster with $p_r^{\mathrm{DM}}=0$. Treating the halo as a small perturbation, we derive a first-order criterion for the leading innermost stable circular orbit shift, $C_λ=C_ρ+λC_p$. The two truncated closures shift this orbit in opposite directions for the Hernquist profile, and unexpanded calculations for five density profiles confirm the predicted signs. Checks using a Hayward background and a published Dehnen-halo result show that the criterion is not restricted to the Bardeen-Hernquist system. A continuous stress interpolation identifies a critical closure at which the leading shift vanishes. For a representative four-year extreme-mass-ratio inspiral, changing the radial stress at fixed density and cutoff produces a phase difference of several radians in a leading-order adiabatic treatment.

Gunn Kim

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Thermodynamic rewritings of horizon equations depend on which relations are varied and which have already been imposed. We formulate a differential rank criterion that makes these choices explicit. The construction uses a stationary metric family together with an independently marked radial surface, physical charges determined by the metric parameters, and specified extensions of the horizon thermodynamic quantities. A first-law covector is pointwise representable by selected constraints precisely when it lies in the span of their differentials. We distinguish this algebraic condition from a smooth identity in a neighborhood. If regular constraints already define the complete physical family, pointwise representability follows from the first law itself; a neighborhood identity additionally depends on the chosen extensions. With explicit prescriptions, Kerr--Newman, rotating BTZ black holes in new massive gravity, and the new-type NMG black hole all exhibit exact alignment with their horizon constraints. By contrast, substituting an exact metric family into a field-equation component can annihilate that residual before any horizon condition is tested. We also give an explicit entropy--volume comparison and specify the role of fixed ensemble data in free-energy variations. The framework separates consequences of the established first law from additional claims about selected constraints and their extensions.

Peng Zhao, Yu-Die Wan, Zheng-Wen Long

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

In this work, we investigate the thermodynamic topological classification of slowly rotating Kerr black holes with magnetic charge in nonlinear electrodynamics (NLED) using a reduced grand-canonical off-shell prescription. By constructing the generalized off-shell free energy and the associated topological vector field, we determine the local winding numbers and the global topological charge of the NLED-Kerr black hole in both de Sitter (dS) and anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetimes. The inverse-temperature curve starts from a finite nonzero value at the lower radial endpoint and diverges at large horizon radius. Together with the single zero of winding number $w=-1$, this behavior identifies the black hole as a realization of the predicted \(\overline{W}^{1-}\) subclass, with global topological number $W=-1$ and a single unstable branch. The classification remains unchanged over the sampled rotation, NLED, and magnetic-charge parameters. Within the same prescription, comparison with the two-branch $W^{0-}$ Kerr-AdS result associates the NLED effective mass function with the changed endpoint behavior and the absence of a stable large-black-hole branch. Thus, the physical novelty is an explicit rotating NLED realization of the predicted \(\overline{W}^{1-}\) subclass for both signs of the cosmological constant.

Suvodip Mukherjee

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Black holes in the Universe span nearly ten orders of magnitude in mass over a large cosmic timescale, dating back to at least the Universe's early history, when it was only a few hundred million years old. The formation and evolution of these objects remain a mystery because no direct probe can trace each black hole across the full mass range and cosmic time. This work shows, for the first time, a statistical mechanical description of black hole evolution. I show that though each black hole and its evolution are governed by stochastic processes, one can make a macroscopic description of the distribution function of black holes in the Universe, and its evolution over the entire mass range and cosmic time can be expressed in terms of the Kramers-Moyal expansion. This bridging between statistical mechanics and black hole evolution in terms of the Kramers-Moyal expansion enables the discovery of the underlying physical processes that play a role in the evolution of black holes. In the future, the application of this technique to data accessible from different messengers, such as gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves, which probe black holes in the Universe, can lead to a data-driven understanding of the underlying physical processes by this statistical mechanics technique despite the ignorance of the underlying microscopic stochastic processes.

Minghui Du, Peng Xu, Ziren Luo

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

The millihertz gravitational-wave sky is expected to be observed by a network of space-based detectors (LISA, Taiji, and TianQin) in the 2030s. A dominant noise in this band is the confusion foreground produced by O(10^7) unresolved Galactic binaries (GBs). Because the same population projects onto the time-delay interferometry (TDI) channels of the different detectors, the foreground is necessarily correlated across the network. We construct the full foreground noise covariance matrix for the LISA-Taiji-TianQin network from a catalogue of ~3 x 10^7 GBs through numerical simulation, and we derive an analytic model of the cross-detector foreground coherence that provides a cross-check and physical interpretation of the numerical results. We derive the overall sensitivity of the detector network based on this covariance matrix, and further characterize the frequency- and time-dependent cross-detector foreground correlations. Taking massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) and GBs as representative transient and continuous sources, we further compare the block-diagonal (i.e., neglecting the cross-detector foreground correlation) and full-covariance noise models in terms of their impacts on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), parameter uncertainties, and Bayesian posteriors. The impact is confined to specific signal regimes, affecting primarily high-mass (M_c ~ 10^7 M_sun) MBHBs and low-frequency (f_0 <~ 2 mHz) GBs, with SNR relative differences of up to ~30% and ~10%, respectively. No statistically significant parameter bias arises under either noise model, as verified by probability-probability tests. Parameter estimations for MBHBs and GBs are performed using the network analysis pipelines implemented in the Triangle-BBH and Triangle-GB codes. Both repositories, together with the simulated foreground data and network sensitivities, are publicly released for diverse scientific investigations.

P. A. González, Marco Olivares, Eleftherios Papantonopoulos, Yerko Vásquez

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

We investigate null geodesics and their stability in four-dimensional charged Kalb-Ramond black holes with a cosmological constant. The non-vanishing vacuum expectation value of the background antisymmetric tensor field induces spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking, controlled by a dimensionless parameter $l$, and deforms the Reissner-Nordström-(A)dS geometry. We derive the effective potential for massless particles and obtain analytic expressions for the photon-sphere radius, critical impact parameter, capture cross section, and deflection trajectories. The limiting cases $l\rightarrow0$ recover the RN, RN-dS and RN-AdS geodesic structures, while finite values of $l$ shift the turning points, modify the bending of light and deform both first-kind and second-kind photon trajectories. In the AdS branch, we find a special limiting limaçon-type null geodesic whose angular structure is modified by the Kalb-Ramond parameter. We also compute the Lyapunov exponent of the unstable circular null orbit and show that the cosmological constant changes the instability timescale, whereas the Lorentz-violating parameter produces a non-trivial deformation of the photon-sphere instability. Our results identify null geodesics as sensitive probes of Lorentz-violating effects in charged black hole spacetimes.

Fiona H. Panther, Jordan W. N. Moncrieff, Mac L. Button

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

In 2025, the 4th Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog reported the discovery of over 200 gravitational wave events since 2015. These gravitational waves (GWs) are emitted by compact binary coalescenses (CBCs) between neutron stars and black holes, and detected with a global network of ground-based laser interferometers. GWs represent a new `messenger' -- ripples in spacetime that propagate across cosmological distances, and carry information about the physical properties of compact objects and their location in the Universe. In this review, we consider what information we can learn about black holes and neutron stars using GWs as a messenger. We explore how the GW observation process allows us to transform the outputs of laser interferometers like LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA into knowledge about black holes and neutron stars. We show that the GW source population acts as a messenger that can lead us to breakthroughs in our understanding of stellar evolution, how the Universe has changed across cosmic time, and fundamental physics. Finally, we discuss three key opportunities to learn more about our Universe using GWs as a messenger in the coming decades.

Martin Kološ, Farukh Abdulkhamidov, Arman Tursunov, Jorge A. Rueda, Benoît Cerutti

Published: 2026-09-15

Categories: gr-qc

Whether a rotating black hole (BH) immersed in an external magnetic field charges up to the Wald value $Q_{\rm W}=2aMB$, where $M$ and $a$ are the BH mass and spin parameter, and $B$ is the strength of the external field, is a long-standing open question in BH electrodynamics, with consequences for charge separation, particle acceleration and the structure of BH magnetospheres. We address it with axisymmetric general-relativistic particle-in-cell simulations performed with GRZeltron, including self-consistent pair creation. For representative values of the BH spin, we evolve the same asymptotically uniform Wald field from two opposite initial horizon charges, $Q_{0}=0$ and $Q_{0}=Q_{\rm W}$, and track the accumulated charge through the BH horizon. We find that both branches relax within a few tens of gravitational times to the same saturated charge value. Thus, the equilibrium is a dynamical attractor of the kinetic magnetosphere rather than a memory of the initial data. The attractor lies well below $Q_{\rm W}$, at $ξ_{\rm eq}\equiv Q_{\rm eq}/Q_{\rm W}\approx 0.3$ for $a\lesssim0.7$, then falling almost to $ξ_{\rm eq}\approx0$ for large spins $a\approx1$. We derive an analytic expression for $ξ_{\rm eq}$ by requiring equal magnetic fluxes through the horizon associated with positive and negative charges, and find its spin dependence to be in agreement with the simulations. The charge state of an astrophysical BH is therefore driven by kinetic plasma processes, and the Wald charge is an upper bound, not a general equilibrium value. Since $ξ_{\rm eq}<1$, charging does not quench the horizon-infinity potential drop that powers energy-extraction processes such as the Blandford-Znajek mechanism.

J. Félix Salazar, Ana Laura García-Perciante, Olivier Sarbach

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

In this work we establish general constitutive equations for a relativistic plasma composed of an arbitrary number of classical, charged, and chemically non-reacting species in the presence of a background electromagnetic field. The intensity of the electromagnetic force acting on either species is assumed to be comparable with the gradients of the state variables and is thus considered as a first-order driving force for dissipation within the gradient expansion. Assuming that the species share the same temperature and velocity flow when in equilibrium, we determine the entropy production and establish constitutive equations in terms of first-order frame invariant quantities. Conditions on the corresponding transport coefficients are given in order to comply with Onsager's reciprocal relations and the second law of thermodynamics. In particular, we discuss cross effects for the binary mixture which may be relevant for astrophysical and cosmological applications. Finally, we derive a complete set of evolution equations governing the dynamics of a binary mixture propagating on an arbitrary spacetime background.

Sizheng Ma, Douglas N. C. Lin, David A. Velasco-Romero

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: astro-ph.HE

Stars embedded in the disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) can grow to hundreds of solar masses, and the same disks are expected to host a population of stellar-mass black holes. A star may therefore capture passing black holes, turning its interior into a potential factory for forming compact binary black hole systems and, ultimately, for the gravitational-wave events seen by our detectors. We test how readily this channel operates using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of black hole--star encounters. As a proof of principle, we adopt a star-to-black-hole mass ratio of $34\!:\!1$, and find that the capture does not disrupt the structure of the star: it heats the star by $10$--$30\%$, and the star loses only $\lesssim1\%$ of its mass throughout. The captured black hole loses its orbital angular momentum rapidly to dynamical friction, sinking to the stellar center within a stellar dynamical time $\lesssim10^{4}\,$s. If the star already harbors a black hole at its center, the two form a bound binary whose gravitational-wave coalescence time falls below $10^{4}\,$yr. Depending on the geometry and speed of the encounter, the resulting orbit may be nearly circular or retain substantial eccentricity. Our calculations confirm that black hole--star encounters in AGN disks are indeed a viable channel for assembling stellar-mass black hole binaries and supplying sources for gravitational-wave detectors.

Flavio Rosales-Infante, Iván Álvarez-Rios, Francisco S. Guzmán

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

We study the relaxation of a complex massive scalar field around a supermassive black hole, modeling the near-horizon dynamics of Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) with spatial granularity. The field is initialized as a broadband, anisotropic multi-mode random field in momentum space with various spectral widths $σ$, decomposed into spherical harmonics up to $\ell_{\max}=100$, and numerically evolved on a finite domain using a specialized radial basis adapted to the background spatial geometry. We track the evolution of each multipole and calculate its Noether flux across both the event horizon and the outer boundary. Since angular momentum barriers suppress the horizon absorption of high-$\ell$ modes, while high-frequency radial components and fine-scale angular structures dissipate via outward radiation and horizon accretion, the Schwarzschild spacetime acts as an effective low-pass filter. Regardless of the initial spectral width, all configurations converge toward a universal late-time relaxation state dominated almost exclusively by low multipoles ($\ell \le 2$) and small radial wavenumbers, with the initial bandwidth $σ$ determining the timescale of global charge depletion. For concrete physical estimates, we set the boson mass to $m_b=10^{-22}\,\mathrm{eV}/c^2$ and the black hole mass to $M_{\mathrm{BH}}=6.5\times10^9 M_\odot$.

Andrew L. Miller

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

Gravitational-wave searches for subsolar-mass compact binaries have left a gap between the planetary-mass regime accessible to long-duration searches and the higher masses probed by conventional compact-binary analyses. We close this gap by searching for the inspiral of ultra-compact binaries with chirp masses $10^{-2}$--$10^{-1}\,M_\odot$ in LIGO O4ab data. Using the statistically robust BinaryGFH-v2 method, a time-frequency technique to search for rapidly evolving inspirals lasting minutes to hours, we cover this previously challenging parameter space with a computational cost of only $\sim 350$ CPU-hours, and find no significant candidates. We thus set 90\% confidence upper limits on the binary merger-rate density, providing the first gravitational-wave constraints across this chirp-mass range. Assuming that primordial-black-hole binaries formed in the early Universe with no binary suppression ($f_{\rm sup}=1$), these results provide the first gravitational-wave constraints on the primordial-black-hole \dmh fraction in this mass range, yielding upper limits with $f_{\rm PBH}<1$ for equal-mass binaries with component masses $10^{-2}$--$10^{-1}\,M_\odot$ and asymmetric binaries with secondary masses $m_2=3\times10^{-4}$--$10^{-2}\,M_\odot$ for a primary mass $m_1=2.5\,M_\odot$.

Aliv Sahoo, Mayank Pathak, Banibrata Mukhopadhyay

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

We present a three-dimensional visco-magnetoacoustic framework for analog gravity in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows. While standard fluid dissipation typically breaks the Lorentzian signature of acoustic metrics, we demonstrate that evaluating wave perturbations in the eikonal limit alongside the Shakura-Sunyaev $α$-viscosity prescription preserves a well-defined effective spacetime geometry for the fast magnetoacoustic mode. The slow-magnetoacoustic mode and Alfvén mode do not admit a non-degenerate metric. To investigate analog horizon thermodynamics, we utilize astrophysical accretion disks as background media, specifically modeling numerical magnetized advective accretion flows around rotating black holes and analytical advection-dominated inflow-outflow solutions (ADIOS). Standard self-similar ADIOS models strictly enforce a constant Mach number, precluding horizon formation. We therefore introduce a magnetic field perturbation that breaks self-similarity, generates a dynamic Mach number, and enables the formation of a visco-magnetoacoustic horizon. By evaluating the spontaneous phonon emission at these horizons, we reveal that the analog Hawking temperature is highly sensitive to the magnetic field topology; the spatial orientation of the background magnetic gradients dictates whether the Hawking radiation is amplified or suppressed. Furthermore, we find that increasing the viscosity parameter leads to a monotonic increase in the analog Hawking temperature.

Mahdi Naseri, Vasileios Paschalidis

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: astro-ph.HE

A sufficiently strong hadron-to-quark first-order phase transition can give rise to a third family of stable compact stars that are commonly referred to as hybrid hadron-quark stars. Stable hybrid stars that have the same gravitational mass as neutron stars are referred to as twin stars. Although equilibrium twin stars may exist, whether they can be dynamically formed remains an open question. We investigate this problem by examining the gravitational binding energy of competing equilibrium configurations at fixed baryonic rest mass and by performing general relativistic hydrodynamical simulations of several possible transition channels. While twin stars are more gravitationally bound than neutron stars with the same rest mass, this energetic preference alone does not determine the dynamical outcome. Compression and shocks during the evolution generate thermal pressure that can prevent the system from settling on the cold twin star branch. Our simulations show that sufficiently rapid cooling can remove this thermal support and enable twin star formation, whereas slower or no cooling generally favors a neutron star remnant. Accessing the twin star branch through the formation channels considered here requires cooling on a timescale comparable to or shorter than the stellar dynamical timescale. Since realistic cooling mechanisms operate on much longer timescales, our results suggest that in channels that conserve the total rest-mass neutron stars may be dynamically favored even when a more gravitationally bound twin star configuration exists with the same rest mass. Our results demonstrate a point of principle, at least for equations of state where the quark deconfinement density does not change appreciably for temperatures up to $10-20\,\textrm{MeV}.$

Shahar Hod, Tsvi Piran

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

Kehle and Unger have recently shown that, under suitable conditions, a massless charged classical scalar field can produce an extremal black hole in finite time. This result appears to violate the third law of thermodynamics (TLT), since extremal black holes have zero temperature. However, because the TLT is intrinsically a quantum principle, a self-consistent analysis of this problem must account for quantum effects. In particular, we point out that the electric field of the system may spontaneously polarize the vacuum, thereby creating massless charged pairs that will discharge the black hole. This mechanism guarantees the {\it quantum} validity of the TLT in the regime $|eQ|\geq\hbar/2$ (here ${Q,e}$ denote, respectively, the electric charges of the black hole and the scalar field). This leaves open the question of what happens for lower values of $|eQ|/\hbar$. Recently, Schneider derived a classical bound showing that extremal black holes cannot be formed à la Kehle-Unger in the small-charge regime $|eQ|\leq\hbar/3$. His analysis leaves open the possibility that a stronger bound may exist. We conjecture here that this bound can indeed be strengthened such that classical considerations would prevent extremal (zero-temperature) charged Reissner-Nordström black holes from forming dynamically in the regime $|eQ|<\hbar/2$, where quantum polarization effects are too weak to preserve the validity of the TLT.

Hong Zhe Chen

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: hep-th

Gravitational sums over spacetime topology suggest a baby-universe field theory whose quanta are entire universes. We develop such a description from group-averaged amplitudes that impose gravitational constraints and define physical inner products in the single-universe theory. To sharpen the contrast with ordinary QFT, we start with gravity on one-dimensional worldlines, which can arise from reducing higher-dimensional cylinders. For multiple noninteracting worldlines that pair boundary components, the baby-universe Hilbert space is the symmetric Fock space over the physical one-universe Hilbert space, and the universe field expands in the on-shell modes spanning the latter. Each mode multiplies the sum of creation and annihilation operators, so the mode coefficients commute. The mode expansion thus makes explicit the field's commutativity and its Wheeler-DeWitt linear field equation. Diagonalizing the coefficients recovers a statistical description by a Gaussian path integral over on-shell field configurations labelling superselection ($α$-)sectors. We take exploratory steps toward more general topologies. Disk-like topologies coherently shift the no-boundary state, turning on the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction as a one-point function. Even with nontrivial topologies represented by interacting Feynman diagrams, we argue that group averaging near each boundary still enforces the same linear field equation, while interactions instead enter through a non-Gaussian measure over $α$-sectors. In the topological Marolf-Maxfield model, we promote a disk-and-cylinder truncation to an exact Fock-space representation of the full theory incorporating all topologies. We also relate the truncated and exact inner products by an insertion of interactions, whose perturbative expansion produces a sum over time evolutions generated by pairs of pants, evoking an analogy to group averaging.

Gabriele Di Ubaldo, Luca V. Iliesiu, Henry W. Lin, Cynthia Yan

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: hep-th

We find the necessary and sufficient conditions for the gravitational path integral (GPI) to admit an interpretation in terms of (i) an inner product in the Hilbert space of open/closed universes or (ii) a statistical average of boundary observables. The conditions needed for (i) are necessary but not sufficient for (ii). Requiring the stronger condition (ii) places additional constraints on all wormhole amplitudes, giving a concrete diagnostic of whether the GPI computes an average or merely a pseudo-average. To exemplify the difference between the two constraints, we present a class of gravitational toy models that satisfy (i) but fail the stronger condition (ii); to emphasize the power of the stronger condition, we initiate a bootstrap study of statistical ensembles based on condition (ii), finding that the resulting constraints substantially sharpen the bounds on the moments of the ensemble obtained by imposing (i). More broadly, both of these positivity conditions impose nontrivial constraints on wormhole amplitudes and thereby restrict which gravitational effective field theories can be embedded in consistent theories of quantum gravity.

M. Tsedrik, B. Bose, L. Marchetti, E. Ferreira

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: astro-ph.CO

We confront a class of dark-energy equations of state emerging from group field theory (GFT) quantum gravity with DESI Data Release 2 baryon acoustic oscillations and Pantheon+ type-Ia supernovae. We introduce sampling parametrisations that replace microscopic initial-condition parameters by combinations more directly measured by background probes. The GFT solutions separate into logarithmic, power-law and oscillatory branches, determined by the microscopic interaction parameter $m$. The logarithmic branch is constrained to lie extremely close to a cosmological constant, while the power-law branch permits a small phantom deviation. Without perturbative-theory priors, oscillatory solutions can reproduce the mild preference of the distance data for a dip in $w(z)$ near $z\simeq0.5$--$1$. Profile-likelihood constraints favour $m\sim-2$ and $m\sim-5$ from BAO and supernovae, shifting towards $m\sim-3.5$ when CMB information is included. Conservative perturbative priors strongly suppress these deviations from $Λ$CDM. The quantum-gravity scale $z_q$, related to the average number of quantum gravity atoms, remains unconstrained, although its role in the time evolution makes higher-redshift observations a promising route to probing it. We further find that strong projection effects highlight the importance of performing likelihood profiling alongside our marginal posterior constraints. Our results provide a first direct test of GFT-motivated dynamical dark energy and demonstrate the potential for cosmological observations to inform quantum-gravity model building.

Teagan A. Clarke, Sylvia Biscoveanu, Carl-Johan Haster

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

Next-generation gravitational-wave observatories like Cosmic Explorer will provide an unprecedented opportunity to probe the cosmological stochastic gravitational-wave background, providing insight into the early Universe that is inaccessible with other means. We investigate the prospects for measuring a Gaussian cosmological gravitational-wave background in Cosmic Explorer in the presence of a distinguishable, non-Gaussian foreground of binary black hole mergers, using a Bayesian search that simultaneously fits binary black hole and background parameters. We successfully recover a Gaussian cosmological background with a signal-to-noise ratio of 5 in one day of simulated data in Cosmic Explorer without contamination from unresolved signals or data exclusion. However, when introducing waveform systematic errors to our analysis, our inference on the stochastic background parameters becomes biased and can falsely infer the presence of a background when there is none. The bias is driven by signal mismatches at low frequencies (<20 Hz), especially when the recovery waveform is missing physical effects included in the injected signals. While we propose a metric for diagnosing if measurements will be strongly biased by waveform systematics, our results suggest improvements in waveform modeling or other mitigation techniques will be required to accurately recover a primordial stochastic gravitational-wave background in next-generation detectors.

Houwen Wu, Shuxuan Ying

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: hep-th

We identify the spatial projection of a conserved string charge density with a bit-thread flow. This correspondence gives bit threads a string worldsheet description and allows us to compute black hole entropy from the maximal entropy flux of a worldsheet-derived current. We first reproduce the BTZ entropy and then extend the construction to the ten-dimensional F1-NS5-P and D1-D5-P systems. Under Type IIB S-duality, the F1 current maps to the D1 current. Although the local currents, metrics, and flow norms change, the maximal physical flux remains unchanged and gives the same entropy. This provides a nontrivial check of the correspondence. Finally, we propose a D1-D5 boundary-matching conjecture. In the coarse-grained picture, each string-charge line defines an entropy-carrying tube. The boundary CFT entanglement entropy and the bulk black hole entropy both fix the product of the number of tubes and the maximum entropy carried by each tube. For a fixed tube discretization, they assign the same capacity to each tube. They therefore describe the same conserved maximal entropy flux, providing an information-flow interpretation of the equality between entanglement entropy and black hole entropy.

Somnath Saha

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

We employ the statefinder hierarchy along with the fractional growth parameter to investigate the recently proposed noninteracting Viaggiu holographic dark energy (VHDE) model with the future event horizon as the infrared cut-off. By adjusting different values of the VHDE model parameter $δ$, we illustrate the evolution trajectories of several important parameters, prticularly, the statefinder hierarchy $S_3^{(1)}$, $S_3^{(2)}$, $S_4^{(1)}$, $S_4^{(2)}$ and the fractional growth parameter $ε$ against the redshift $z$ and the fractional energy density of matter, $Ω_m$. Together with the growth rate of matter perturbations, we present the statefinder hierarchy that defines a composite null diagnostic (CND), which can differentiate dynamical dark energy from $Λ$CDM. The joint use of the statefinder hierarchy and the fractional growth parameter offers a powerful diagnostic tool for probing VHDE, effectively resolving the degeneracy between different parameter choices within the model. We find that employing a CND pair, rather than a single diagnostic, significantly enhances the diagnostic power for the VHDE model. Finally, we perform an $ω_d-ω_d'$ analysis and, in addition, assess the squared sound speed $v_{s}^{2}$ to determine the model's dynamical stability under small perturbations.

Fridolin Weber, Peter Otto Hess, Cesar Augusto Zen Vasconcellos

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

Whether classical spacetime remains welldefined at arbitrarily high curvature is a central question. In general relativity, singularities signal the breakdown of the classical description, motivating modifications of spacetime's short-distance structure. Pseudocomplex general relativity (pcGR) extends spacetime geometry to pseudo-complex coordinates, naturally introducing two metric sectors, the physical metric gμν and an auxiliary field fμν. The magnitude of the pseudo imaginary component defines the invariant acceleration scale a0, a direct consequence of the pseudo-complex structure. The simultaneity condition, requiring both idempotent sectors to satisfy the pseudo-complex Einstein equations independently, fixes the auxiliary field algebraically, with no new propagating degrees of freedom, and sets a lower bound on the lapse that regularizes curvature. The regularization is achieved through the combined effect of the lapse-gap condition eν(r) gt. a0, which ensures the radial metric component remains nondegenerate, together with the regularity conditions at the areal-radius origin, B(0) = 1 and B'(0) = 0, which emerge naturally from the pseudo-complex geometry. These conditions jointly eliminate the Schwarzschildtype curvature divergence, rather than the gap condition acting alone.

Abdolali Banihashemi, Farbod Hassani, Alessandro Casalino, David F. Mota, Emilio Bellini

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: astro-ph.CO

We study a curvature-coupled dark energy model that can modify cosmological evolution both before recombination and during the late-time accelerated era. The model belongs to the class of scalar-tensor theories, in which a quintessence field is non-minimally coupled to the Ricci scalar. We specify the model through a shifted quartic coupling, $f(\varphi)=α(\varphi^2-\varphi_{\rm today}^2)^2$, and an inverse power-law potential, $V(\varphi)=Λ\varphi^{-σ}$, where $\varphi_{\rm today}$ is a constant fixed by requiring the effective Planck mass to recover its present-day normalization. We implement the model in a modified version of $\mathtt{hi\_class}$ and compute its background and linear cosmological predictions. This specific form of non-minimal coupling allows an effective crossing of the phantom divide at late times while naturally suppressing deviations from standard gravity today and satisfying local gravity constraints. At the same time, the scalar field can modify the expansion history before recombination, shifting the acoustic scale in the direction required to alleviate the $H_0$ tension, while remaining dynamically relevant as dark energy at low redshift. For the parameter choices studied here, we find tens-of-percent deviations from $Λ$CDM in the expansion history, matter clustering, and metric-potential spectra. The modified evolution of the gravitational potentials leaves characteristic signatures in relativistic observables, with weak-lensing power suppressed by $\mathcal{O}(20$-$40\%)$ at low multipoles and order-unity changes in the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe signal. Together, these results reveal a broad, scale-dependent phenomenology that motivates both a full parameter-space analysis and an extension of the present linear treatment to a dedicated non-linear $N$-body implementation.

N. Manning, R. O'Shaughnessy

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

The interpretation of gravitational wave sources depends on the specific choice of model used to interpret signals. Previous analyses of GWTC-3 event candidates using SEOBNRv4PHM, IMRPhenomXPHM, and NRSur7dq4 have sometimes arrived at notably different conclusions about event properties. Subtle analysis settings and code differences can also produce notable differences. We revisit 60 publicly available events from the first three observing runs, released across GWTC-1, GWTC-2, GWTC-2.1, and GWTC-3, using a consistent analysis framework and three waveform models: two state-of-the-art time-domain models with higher-order modes (SEOBNRv5PHM and IMRPhenomTPHM) and one older frequency-domain model without higher-order modes (IMRPhenomPv2). The two state-of-the-art models agree well overall, although about 20\% of events have a visible difference in at least one one-dimensional marginal posterior. By contrast, the older model often arrives at qualitatively different conclusions for key events across the mass spectrum. We also identify a bug in published LVK GWTC-2.1 SEOBNRv4PHM results and in a later reprocessing of GW200105. At the adopted sampling rates, the model's Nyquist-frequency restriction excluded part of the allowed parameter space and artificially truncated the mass-ratio posterior away from equal mass for seven low-mass events. These results emphasize the need to use multiple state-of-the-art waveform models and carefully validated analysis settings to characterize uncertainty in gravitational-wave source properties.

Ke-Ming Shen, Ying Xiao, Yang Liu

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

Nonextensive Bose and Fermi state is well studied with counting near black-hole horizons in a one-function, nonextremal, static, spherically symmetric class. The calculation is organized around a $q$-deformed grand ensemble whose total partition function is a $q$-product of single-level partitions. This identifies the bosonic occupation-number sum as the primary level partition and allows us to separate two operations that are often conflated: replacing that sum by a geometric-series form and applying the ordinary reciprocal-log identity to a $q$-logarithm. A finite-energy tunneling prescription yields a leading near-horizon state-counting term controlled by the surface gravity and a horizon-response factor. Entropy matching then gives an energy scale proportional to the Hawking temperature; the geometry factor cancels from normalized nonextensive corrections and from the Bose--Fermi ratio. We derive the first-order coefficients analytically and evaluate the unexpanded $q$-integrals numerically. The linear approximation is accurate to better than one percent when $q$ lies within roughly two percent of unity. All prescriptions recover the extensive limit, but the exact bosonic level sum and the geometric approximations give opposite signs for the leading deformation of the conventional $7/8$ Bose--Fermi relation. The result isolates a robust geometry-factorized structure and quantifies a distinct $q$-algebra systematic uncertainty.

Luis Guajardo, Luis Gutiérrez Frez, Seyed Naseh Sajadi, Julio Oliva

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: hep-th

We explore the thermodynamic properties of static black holes in conformal gravities in arbitrary, even dimensions. In the spherically symmetric case, up to local Weyl rescalings, these spacetimes are static and unique, due to a Birkhoff's theorem that applies for all conformal gravities whose Lagrangians are complete contractions of $k$ Weyl tensors in dimension $D=2k$. The solutions can be chosen to be asymptotically locally (A)dS or flat, and the horizon can be extended to be a surface of arbitrary constant curvature, $γ$. We focus on the asymptotically AdS case, for which the cosmological constant at infinity is an integration constant, and compute the mass of the spacetime in terms of the diverse hair parameters which have a purely gravitational origin. We show that the first law of thermodynamics is satisfied, and study phase transitions in the canonical ensemble, showing the existence of zeroth-order black-hole/black-hole phase transitions for arbitrary dimension.

Pujian Mao, Baijun Zeng, Kai-Yu Zhang

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

In this paper, we derive the complete transformations of a generic first order perturbative metric in Schwarzschild spacetime to the Newman-Unti (NU) gauge in series expansion near null infinity. This allows us to determine the asymptotic shear, the mass aspect and the angular momentum aspect of the perturbative fields. As a direct application, we derive the corresponding asymptotic NU data for quasinormal modes (QNMs) of a Schwarzschild black hole. The total energy and angular momentum of QNMs obtained from the asymptotic NU data vanish but classical supertranslation charges are non-trivial, which can be applied to fix the BMS frame at first perturbative order.

Victor V. Braguta, Vladimir A. Goy, Jayanta Dey, Artem A. Roenko

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: hep-lat

In this paper we investigate accelerated gluodynamics for a broad intervals of temperature and acceleration. Our study is carried out within lattice simulation in the co-moving reference frame parameterized by the Rindler coordinates. We developed the renormalization prescription that allowed us to calculate renormalized Polyakov loop as a function of coordinate in the Rindler spacetime. Using the data for the renormalized local Polyakov loop, we calculated spatial dependence of the static quark free energy and effective mass of static quark. Besides the Rindler coordinates, it is believed that accelerated gluodynamics can be approximated utilizing non-accelerated gluodynamics with a properly adjusted temperature gradient in accordance with the Tolman-Ehrenfest law. We compared these approaches for the observables under study. It was found that they agree quite well close to the critical temperature and demonstrate disagreement at higher temperatures. We believe that this disagreement might be attributed to the Tolman-Ehrenfest law corrections which appear in the Rindler gluodynamics.

Tayebeh Tahamtan

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

We study slowly rotating, nonlinearly charged black holes in arbitrary spacetime dimension $d \geq 4$, using a generalized Lense--Thirring ansatz. Working to linear order in the rotation parameters, we solve the Einstein--nonlinear electrodynamics (NLE) field equations for restricted theories ${\cal L}({\cal S})$ depending on single invariant. We provide an extension of the four-dimensional "No Go theorem" proven in ArXiv:2203.01919 and demonstrate the uniqueness of Maxwell theory in $d \geq 4$. Similar to four dimensions, it is proven that the standard rotation generating trick fails to produce full rotating solutions for any nontrivial NLE in higher dimensions. We identify a family of NLE theories admitting slowly rotating solutions with vector potentials encoding rotation effect in Maxwell-like manner; in four dimensions this reproduces the previously found RegMax theory, while in $d\geq4$ we obtain the corresponding electric potential in closed form and the associated Lagrangian implicitly as a function of the radial coordinate.

Zhen Li

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

The magnetic reconnection process near a black hole can efficiently convert magnetic energy into the kinetic and thermal energy of plasma outflows, enabling the extraction of rotational energy from a spinning black hole. However, its impact on the surrounding accretion disk remains insufficiently explored. In this work, we develop a framework to investigate the 'heating' effect of magnetic reconnection outflow plasma on thin accretion disks around Kerr black holes. We incorporate the energy and angular momentum fluxes of reconnection outflow into the disk conservation laws as additional source terms, yielding a modified radiative flux. We investigate the dependence of the modified radiative flux on the black hole spin, reconnection radius, plasma magnetization, and outflow orientation. For a fixed magnetic field prescription, the contribution of the reconnection outflow plasma to the modified radiative flux decreases as the black hole spin increases. Its dependence on the reconnection radius differs inside and outside the ergosphere: inside, a smaller radius enhances disk heating through more efficient extraction of black hole rotational energy, whereas outside, a larger radius produces stronger heating due to reduced radial dilution of the outflow. The reconnection outflow plasma contribution also increases with plasma magnetization and the radial component of the outflow velocity. Our results demonstrate that magnetic reconnection can provide an additional source of energy and angular momentum for relativistic accretion disks, establishing a connection between plasma processes near rotating black holes and the observable accretion disk properties, providing a new perspective on the strong gravitational field regime.

Lorenz Zwick, Christopher Tiede, Zoltán Haiman

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: astro-ph.HE

We derive an extension of Chandrasekhar's pulsational stability criterion for relativistic stars with a pressure boundary condition at the surface. We then apply the new criterion to hylotropes, a model describing rapidly accreting supermassive stars with a core-envelope structure. We find that confinement typically stabilises stars, delaying the onset of the general relativistic instability when the external pressure at the surface is roughly $\sim10^{-3}$ of the stars' hydrostatic pressure scale. Beyond this value, the critical mass at marginal stability increases rapidly, exceeding the value of $\sim 10^5$ M$_{\odot}$ for helium burning, isolated $n=3$ polytropes by orders of magnitude. We discuss how the required pressure boundary conditions may be produced by the combined ram and magnetic pressure supplied by the accretion flow as it assembles the supermassive star, and provide a fitting formula for the final mass before collapse. As a rough estimate assuming equipartition between magnetic and thermal pressures in a standard $α$-disk, we find that the critical mass doubles at accretion rates of order $\dot M\sim100\,{\rm M_\odot}\,{\rm yr}^{-1}$, again increasing rapidly after this value. Our results show under what conditions, potentially realized in a subset of high redshift halos, non-rotating SMS may collapse into black holes beyond the typical scale of heavy seeds.

Kavitha A, Shagun Kaushal

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

We investigate the loss of coherence of a two-level Unruh--DeWitt detector coupled to massless real scalar fields in $(1+3)$-dimensional de Sitter spacetime. Treating the detector--field interaction perturbatively to second order, we derive analytic expressions for the real asymptotic coherence-decay coefficients for conformally and minimally coupled scalar fields. For the conformally coupled field, the coefficient remains finite in the small-gap limit and grows linearly with the detector energy gap in the large-gap regime. For the massless minimally coupled field, the logarithmic sector of the Wightman function produces an additional positive contribution. This provides an explicit analytic extension of the previously known infrared enhancement of detector transition responses to the asymptotic coefficient governing detector coherence. The explicitly average-time-dependent sector does not contribute to the real nonzero-frequency asymptotic coefficient under the adiabatically regulated half-line prescription adopted here, when the regulator is removed at fixed average time and fixed positive detector gap. This asymptotic result does not describe the complete finite-time dynamics, which depends on the switching function and observation interval. Within the stated prescription, the coefficients satisfy $Γ_{\rm MMC}>Γ_{\rm CC}$ for $ω>0$, with $Γ_{\rm MMC}/Γ_{\rm CC} =1+(H/ω)^2$. The distinction is most pronounced in the small-gap regime, whereas the two coefficients approach one another for large detector gaps.

Subhra Mondal, Amitava Choudhuri

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

We explore the cosmological dynamics and formation of structures within the Tsallis-Cirto modified gravity framework with a model parameter $β$ that is inspired by nonextensive statistics. By applying the gravity-thermodynamics conjecture, we modify the Friedmann equations and the evolution of the Hubble parameter. The impact of the Tsallis-Cirto entropy on different cosmographic parameters and the development of the linear matter overdensities have been analyzed by formulating perturbed field equations using the spherical collapse approach in a flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker background. We present a novel and established diagnostic approach to distinguish among distinct cosmological models compared to flat and non-flat $Λ$CDM scenarios, discovering that the Tsallis-Cirto entropy-inspired modified cosmology ($β\ne 1$) successfully withstands all tests, contradicting both the flat and non-flat $Λ$CDM models. This model also meets the conditions for the Universe to reach thermodynamic equilibrium in the far future. Additionally, we investigate the halo mass function and cluster number counts within this modified gravity framework. All findings are compared to the fiducial $Λ$CDM profile, indicating that the added entropic correction affects the history of expansion, the growth rate of structures, and the dark matter halo abundance. We find that the more massive structures are less abundant and develop at later times, which aligns with the hierarchical model of formation of large-scale structures.

Przemysław Figura, Michał Bejger

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

We present a deterministic machine-learning method for denoising candidate signals from all-sky searches for continuous gravitational waves from rotating neutron stars. Using the time-domain $F$-statistic search pipeline, we post-process the resulting $F(f,\dot{f})$ candidate patterns with iterative $α$-(de)blending, a deterministic diffusion-type generative model implemented as a U-Net, well suited to the non-Gaussian, correlated noise of the $F$-statistic output. Two models, trained on data based on simulated 6- and 12-day time-domain segments with software-injected signals similar to the LVK hardware injections, are tested by comparing deblended images to the library of expected signal patterns via the Structural Similarity Index Measure. In general the method recovers the correct sky-position-dependent pattern for signal-to-noise ratios $ρ\gtrsim 4$, moderately below typical all-sky detection thresholds, with recovery depending strongly on pattern morphology, demonstrating that deterministic diffusion-based denoising may serve as a consistency/veto tool ahead of the semi-coherent coincidence stage. We also discuss limitations and possible improvements of the method.

Jun Ke, Jie Luo, Qin Li, Yu-Jie Tan, Cheng-Gang Shao

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

Lunar laser ranging (LLR) provides a sensitive test of the equivalence principle (EP) through a possible synodic perturbation in the Earth--Moon distance. In this work, we develop an independent LLR data-reduction framework and investigate this signature in the post-fit O--C residuals obtained with the EPM21, INPOP21, and DE430 planetary and lunar ephemerides. The same observation model and parameter-adjustment procedure are applied to the three ephemerides, allowing their residual-based results to be compared within a consistent framework. To account for the nonuniform distribution of LLR observations over the synodic angle $D$, the residuals are fitted with cosine and sine harmonics up to the third order. Signal-injection tests are also performed to quantify the attenuation of a possible $\cos D$ signal during the parameter adjustment. After correcting for signal attenuation, solar radiation pressure, and the thermal response of the lunar retroreflectors, the preferred EPM21, INPOP21, and DE430 solutions yield $Δ(m_g/m_i)_{\rm EM}=(0.900\pm3.183)\times10^{-14}$, $(0.496\pm3.624)\times10^{-14}$, and $(2.669\pm7.048)\times10^{-14}$, respectively. The EPM21 and INPOP21 results are based on observations from 1970 to 2024, whereas the DE430 solution was obtained using observations up to 2016. All three estimates are consistent with zero within their uncertainties. This work demonstrates that residual-based analysis can provide an independent and transparent EP test, while also offering guidance for assessing sampling and ephemeris-dependent effects in future high-precision LLR studies.

Xuyao Gong, Zhaoyi Xu, Meirong Tang

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

Black holes in asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime whose extended-phase-space thermodynamics reproduces that of a van der Waals fluid exactly form a distinctive class, the van der Waals black holes (VBHs). The timelike geodesics of VBHs are solved, their periodic orbits are catalogued, and the gravitational waves emitted along them are computed, so as to trace how the thermodynamic pressure P and the molecular-volume parameter b shape the orbital dynamics. Integrating the geodesic equations numerically yields the energy, angular momentum and radius of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) and maps out the family of bound orbits. To delimit the parameter window in which the effective potential stays well behaved, we introduce a critical angular momentum Ls. Within the orbit-classification scheme, we compute the energies corresponding to rational q for several parameter sets and display the resulting orbits. The waveforms produced along these orbits are generated within the "Kludge" formalism, which makes it possible to quantify the imprint of b on the wave amplitude and on the period. Both the orbital architecture and the gravitational-wave signature turn out to be strongly sensitive to b. The dynamical behavior of VBHs and Schwarzschild-AdS (SAdS) black holes differs markedly, providing a new perspective for probing black hole thermodynamics via gravitational wave observations.

M. Mehraeen

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: hep-th

We uncover the quantum geometric structure of graviton Wigner functions and stress-energy tensors via quantum field theory in curved spacetime, revealing the phase-space geometry of spacetime and relativistic quantum-state manifolds. We show that the polarization mode expansion of the underlying graviton field operator is fully captured by quantum geometry, as encoded in the spinor-helicity formalism, thereby establishing the geometric framework from the outset. Applying this to a weak gravitational background, we demonstrate the roles of the quantum metric and connection in describing graviton transport beyond the chiral vortical effect. We also clarify the role of the quantum metric in normalizing the perfect-fluid graviton stress tensor within this approach. This work paves the path for explorations of multistate Hilbert-space geometry in high-energy and gravitational physics. In addition, this framework naturally encompasses lower-spin excitations, allowing for a unified quantum geometric treatment of bosonic and fermionic many-body systems in condensed matter and particle physics.

Aniruddha Ghosh, Ujjal Debnath

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

In this paper, we derive a new class of analytic black hole solutions within the framework of Hoyle--Narlikar gravity, where the black hole is surrounded by an electric charge acting as the source. After obtaining the corresponding metric, we investigate the thermodynamic properties of the resulting black hole solutions, including the Hawking temperature and entropy. Subsequently, we compute the specific heat and Gibbs free energy in order to analyse the thermodynamic stability of the black hole in Hoyle--Narlikar gravity. An interesting result of our analysis is that the black hole becomes thermodynamically stable for large values of the horizon radius within this framework.

Aniruddha Ghosh, Ujjal Debnath

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

In this literature, we derive an approximate black hole metric within the \( f(R, G, T) \) gravity framework, where the black hole is surrounded by an anisotropic fluid as the matter source. This approach allows us to study the influence of anisotropic pressures on the black hole structure. We then investigate the thermodynamic properties of the approximate solution, considering various types of matter fields. We analyze the thermodynamic quantities such as Wald's entropy, Hawking temperature, and specific heat for each case. After examining the specific heat, we find that the black holes are thermodynamically stable, with positive specific heat values indicating stability. This result suggests that the black holes under these conditions do not undergo thermal instability, ensuring their long-term viability.

M. Yousaf, Faisal Javed, Gulzoda Rakhimova, Farkhod Botirov, Farruh Atamurotov

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

In this manuscript, we develop topologically charged static and spherically symmetric wormhole (WH) configurations in Einstein gravity by employing the Einasto dark matter profile to construct an analytic shape function. The resulting spacetime satisfies the fundamental traversability conditions, while the matter sector exhibits localized violations of energy conditions near the throat, indicating confined exotic matter content. We analyze equilibrium through the TOV framework, revealing a non-equilibrium force competition in which hydrostatic and anisotropic contributions self-organize to sustain static configurations within specific parameter domains. Stability is examined via the anisotropy parameter and further extended to linearized radial perturbations of the surrounding shell, uncovering parameter-dependent stability windows that characterize the system's nonlinear response. A detailed dynamical analysis shows that the monopole charge parameter significantly restructures the effective potential landscape, modifying curvature and inducing qualitative transitions in particle motion. The coupled interplay between monopole charge, angular momentum, and particle energy governs a nonlinear transition from tightly wound quasi-bound states to unbounded scattering trajectories. This transition reflects an emergent dynamical phase structure in the WH spacetime. Furthermore, the complexity factor exhibits strong localization near the throat and vanishes asymptotically, indicating that structural complexity is confined to the inner nonlinear regime, whereas a volume integral quantifier is employed to estimate the total exotic matter content required to sustain the configuration.

Zi-Han Zhang, Wen-Hong Ruan, Tan Liu, Zong-Kuan Guo

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

Electric charges carried by compact objects can affect binary dynamics and imprint characteristic signatures on gravitational-wave signals. We derive next-to-leading-order post-Newtonian frequency-domain waveforms for charged compact binaries in both the gravitational-quadrupole and electric-dipole dominated regimes, including electromagnetic corrections beyond leading-order electric-dipole radiation that reduce the degeneracy between the component charge-to-mass ratios. Using gravitational wave events from GWTC-5.0, we place constraints on the charge-to-mass ratio and mass of each component of the binary system.

Junbin Li, Tingting Li

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

For the $k$-self-similar naked singularity solutions of Einstein--scalar field equations constructed by Christodoulou, we construct a family of interior gravitational perturbations leading to trapped surface formation that remain large but finite at the threshold Hölder regularity, while converging to zero in all regularities below the threshold. This extends the interior spherically symmetric result below the threshold in \cite{Li25} to non-spherically symmetric setting. We further construct a genuinely localized family of perturbations whose angular support shrinks to a single point, with smooth convergence to zero away from that point. This exploits the additional angular freedom available beyond spherical symmetry. Moreover, when measured instead in Sobolev regularity, such genuinely localized family of perturbations still converges to zero in all regularities below the same threshold.

Bo-Yun Zhou, Hao-Yun Ma, Jia-Hui Huang

Published: 2026-09-14

Categories: gr-qc

We apply a newly proposed bound state method to revisit the computation of gravitational and electromagnetic quasinormal modes (QNMs) for Reissner-Nordström black holes (RNBHs). It is found that the method yields QNM frequencies of high accuracy for low-lying modes with overtones $n\leq3$. The accuracy degrades for higher overtones, however, a homotopy deformation to the potential enables us to compute more high overtone modes reliably. It is known that the continued fraction method for computing QNMs of extremal RNBHs differs significantly from that used for nonextremal ones. In contrast, the bound state method demonstrates advantage of simplicity: one only need to account for the definition of tortoise coordinate in the extremal case, and the rest of the computational procedure remains exactly the same as that for the nonextremal case.

Anirudh Pradhan, K. Ghaderi, M. Zeyauddin, Ajit Kumar

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

We study whether orbital redistribution in a self consistent spherical Einstein--Vlasov environment can change the asymptotic normalization of a black hole horizon while the horizon mass, particle rest mass and ADM mass are all held fixed. The matter variable is the occupation of regular bound orbital actions, so the stress tensor, orbital energies and gravitational field are determined by the same distribution. Linearization of the spherical mass constraint gives a kinetic variation law in which orbital energy is conjugate to occupation and the inner lapse ratio multiplies the horizon mass variation. On a locally regular equilibrium branch, mixed variations imply an integrated reciprocity relation between the central mass derivative of orbital energy and the directional response of the horizon normalization. We construct finite mass populations and trace constant mass redistribution curves. For the reference rest mass ratio $0.30$, the calculated endpoint surface gravity shifts are approximately $+15.37$ and $-15.33$ parts per million. The constrained response cancels at simultaneous dilute and Newtonian order, is nonzero for exact Schwarzschild orbits, and is further modified by self gravity. Independent balance, integral, derivative and refinement tests resolve the response well below its reported magnitude.

Alana C. L. Santos, Marcos S. Melo, Roberto V. Maluf

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

In this work, we derive phenomenological constraints on a symmetric black-bounce geometry supported by an anisotropic fluid. We investigate the effects of the bounce parameter and the matter parameter on classical and strong-field observables, considering the perihelion advance, light deflection, Shapiro time delay, and black-hole shadow. In the weak-field regime, we obtain analytical corrections to the corresponding general-relativistic predictions and use Solar-System measurements to constrain the parameter space. We find that the matter parameter is generally constrained more strongly than the minimum-radius scale, reflecting the suppressed dependence of weak-field observables on the bounce parameter. In the strong-field regime, we show that the asymptotic shadow radius depends directly on the matter parameter, whereas the bounce parameter enters through the existence condition of the outer unstable photon orbit rather than through an independent correction to the shadow size. These results highlight the distinct roles played by the matter and bounce parameters in weak- and strong-field observables and provide complementary constraints on the parameter space of the symmetric black-bounce geometry.

A. V. Toporensky, P. Gusin, A. Radosz, O. B. Zaslavskii

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

We consider collisions between particles moving freely in the Schwarzschild background. We suggest classification of scenarios that lead to unbounded energy output in the center of mass frame. Although this is forbidden in the exterior of a black hole, the phenomenon becomes possible with account of white hole region and mirror universe in the complete space-time diagram. Also, we scrutinize collisions in the vicinity of the bifurcation point and reveal the role of resting observers in the inner region beyond the horizon. In some scenarios $E_{c.m.}$ not only diverges but becomes seemingly infinite that is, as a matter of fact, impossible according to the principle of so-called kinematic censorship. We resolve a corresponding paradox and argue, why this principle remains valid.

Özgür Akarsu, Cihad Kıbrıs, Burcu Öztürk, N. Merve Uzun

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

A cosmological source can have identically zero comoving energy density and still gravitate through its pressure. This differs from an energy density passing through zero at an isolated time. Maintaining zero density with nonzero pressure requires energy exchange in a nonstatic FLRW universe. We construct proportional-pressure and constant-pressure backgrounds, including steady-state, bouncing, recollapsing, and $Λ$CDM expansion histories, and relate them to creation pressure, bulk viscosity, and time-dependent vacuum descriptions. Scalar fields can realize zero density along a trajectory; imposing it as an identity on a timelike $P(X,φ)$ domain selects $P=A(φ)\sqrt{X}$, locally a signed potential-free cuscuton for nonzero $A$. We formulate linear perturbations without dividing by the vanishing background density. For a nondegenerate $P(X,φ)$ scalar with a timelike field gradient, zero density and negative pressure cannot coexist with positive kinetic and gradient coefficients when the interaction leaves its principal kinetic structure unchanged. Two models couple the scalar to number-conserving dust through a field-dependent mass. The proportional-pressure trajectory is a homogeneous saddle and has no growing power-law dust mode on its accelerating branch in the matter-sourced quasistatic subhorizon approximation. A distinct constant-pressure model reproduces the $Λ$CDM expansion history, but in the same approximation the dust mode that initially grows during matter domination reaches a maximum at low redshift and then decays. These restrictions apply to the stated scalar class and models. Exact Bianchi I solutions demonstrate separately conserved zero-density sources supported by anisotropic stress. An inverse-pressure construction distinguishes the density of an interacting constituent from an inferred dark-energy density that may cross zero.

Christian Rembe

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

Perturbative quantum gravity is ultraviolet divergent and, as shown by 't Hooft and Veltman, non-renormalizable. A recent object-relative, Lorentz-invariant weighting of internal electromagnetic modes renders selected one-loop contributions of quantum electrodynamics finite without counterterms. Here that weighting is derived rather than postulated: causality defines a mode resonator bounded by the Hubble radius and re-defined in every inertial frame, and the self-gravitation of each mode quantum deforms its spectrum. Applied to linearized gravity, the graviton self-coupling reaches order unity at the Planck wave number, so that the mode content available to a loop is suppressed beyond it. Any suppression exceeding a threshold fixed by the diagram renders the one-loop integrals finite; no cutoff is imposed and no mode structure above the Planck scale need be derived. For pure gravity the same power counting extends to every loop order, and the leading suppression already meets the resulting condition for every topology with more than one vertex; a single class of single-vertex insertions is excluded. The Bianchi identity takes the role of the Ward identity at one loop, and the transformation between the resonators of two inertial frames is unitary. The same finite mode content yields a vacuum energy density of order H^2/G, of the observed sign and magnitude, from the Planck and causal infrared wave numbers alone. A contribution tracking the instantaneous expansion rate is an exact rescaling of the gravitational constant and is excluded by primordial nucleosynthesis, so the mode basis must be frozen in any inertial system; referring it to the stationary de Sitter horizon fixes the remaining coefficient to the geometric value 6/pi and makes a value for the energy density of gravitational vacuum fluctuations possible which can be interpreted as origin of the dark-energy effect.

Yadikaer Maitiniyazi, Shinya Matsuzaki, Kin-ya Oda, Yoshiki Uchida, Masatoshi Yamada

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: hep-th

In Einstein-Cartan spinor gravity under the irreversible vierbein postulate, only the spinor among the first-order variables has a kinetic term of its own at tree level. Any nonzero background vierbein breaks the local-Lorentz (LL) symmetry spontaneously. Our previous work showed that the spinor loop generates the kinetic and mass terms of the LL gauge field, manifesting LL as a hidden local symmetry. Here we show that the spinor loop also generates the vierbein two-point function, while respecting the background gauge invariance and satisfying the Ward-Takahashi identities of the true gauge invariance, for both the general-coordinate and LL symmetries. The scheme-independent logarithmic divergence assembles the familiar induced-gravity ingredients: a cosmological constant, an Einstein-Hilbert and a Weyl-squared term for the metric sector, and a mass and a higher-derivative kinetic term for the totally antisymmetric torsion. In the vierbein sector, this torsion is carried by the derivative of the antisymmetric part of the linear vierbein fluctuation. This part is the would-be Nambu-Goldstone boson of the spontaneously broken LL symmetry, and its couplings in the minimally coupled action are all fixed by general-coordinate and LL gauge invariance. The five induced terms form a single effective action, manifestly invariant under both symmetries, completing the vierbein sector of the hidden-local-Lorentz emergent-gravity scenario.

Ye Zhou

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: hep-th

We study extremal mass branches in four-dimensional Einstein gravity coupled to one dilaton and two Maxwell fields with opposite-sign dilaton couplings. For generic couplings the extremal mass is governed by a nonlinear first-order equation with no known closed-form solution. We prove that this equation has a unique positive $C^2$ solution on the full real charge-ratio line and that the solution is real analytic, so positivity on the entire positive charge cone selects a unique global mass branch. Along this branch, any two nonproportional positive charge vectors attract for $ab>-1$, have vanishing leading force at $ab=-1$, and repel for $ab<-1$. The same transition fixes the transverse convexity of the extremal mass surface and the sign of the mass difference under arbitrary finite positive-charge partitions. The sign theorem extends to higher dimensions through the known dimensional rescaling. A radial reconstruction then shows that every point of the mass branch defines an asymptotically flat exterior with a finite-area inner endpoint, while smooth or analytic horizon extension is a separate condition that restricts the couplings and scalar flow.

Jun-Tong Zhou, Zhen-Hua Zhao

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

We study a thick braneworld model in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetime, supported by a non-topological lump-type scalar field. Unlike in boson stars, which are also non-topological solutions, the complex scalar field in our setup must have zero oscillation frequency. Consequently, the background scalar field is static and real, which breaks the global $U(1)$ symmetry. This is similar to spontaneous symmetry breaking, but it is not the same. We then investigate the localization of vector and fermion fields within this framework. By introducing a specific non-minimal coupling, we demonstrate that the zero modes of both fields can be successfully localized. Notably, this mechanism allows for the simultaneous localization of both left- and right-handed fermion zero modes.

Uktamjon Uktamov, Bakhtiyor Narzilloev, Ibrar Hussain, Bobomurat Ahmedov, Chengxun Yuan

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

We investigate the quasinormal spectra and time-domain evolution of scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational perturbations of the Einstein-Bronnikov black hole in Einstein gravity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics. The effective potentials associated with all perturbation sectors are shown to form positive potential barriers that vanish at the event horizon and spatial infinity. Their height increases with the magnetic charge, while the scalar perturbation possesses the largest potential barrier. Unlike the Reissner-Nordström black hole, axial and polar electromagnetic perturbations are characterized by distinct effective potentials, demonstrating the breaking of isospectrality due to nonlinear electrodynamics. Quasinormal frequencies are computed using the sixth-order WKB approximation and the asymptotic iteration method, yielding excellent agreement for both fundamental and higher overtone modes. The oscillation frequencies increase monotonically with the magnetic charge, whereas the damping rates exhibit only moderate variations, confirming the linear stability of the Einstein-Bronnikov black hole under all perturbations considered. Time-domain profiles display exponentially damped ringdown signals consistent with the frequency-domain analysis. These results demonstrate that nonlinear electrodynamics leaves measurable imprints on black hole perturbations and may provide observational signatures for testing regular black hole geometries through future gravitational wave observations.

Bing-Ji Ding, Hua-Chao Liu, Rong-Xin Miao

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: hep-th

This paper investigates the holographic Casimir effect in AdS/BCFT with a brane-localized scalar field. The scalar field takes different values at the strip's two boundaries, leading to mixed boundary conditions. The massive brane-localized scalar field typically breaks the boundary conformal symmetries, allowing us to study the holographic Casimir effect in non-CFTs. In two-dimensional spacetime, we apply the holographic g-theorem to prove the holographic bound on the Casimir effect for general brane-localized matter fields. In higher dimensions, we find that the brane-localized scalar field reduces the Casimir amplitude when the mass squared \(m^2=0\), but can increase it when \(m^2 < 0\). Additionally, there is a no-hair theorem for the cases where \(m^2>0\). These findings indicate that relevant boundary deformations can enhance the Casimir effect. As a byproduct, we obtain a gravitational dual of the repulsive Casimir force under mixed boundary conditions and argue that it aligns with the cosmic censorship conjecture.

Momoka Iida, Hayato Motohashi, Hirotaka Takahashi

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

Ringdown gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers can be modeled as superpositions of quasinormal modes (QNMs), whose frequencies and excitation factors encode properties of the remnant Kerr black hole. Reliable extraction of multiple QNM components is challenging because of mode overlap and noise. We develop an autoencoder-based framework for multi-component QNM analysis, in which the latent space is trained to represent the physical parameters of individual modes, enabling waveform denoising and parameter estimation within a common framework. Using controlled model waveforms constructed as finite sums of Kerr QNMs with recently established high-precision frequencies and excitation factors, including their nontrivial spin dependence near resonant excitation, we assess the method across partitioned spin intervals. The model achieves good in-domain waveform reconstruction and parameter recovery for the two longest-lived components of eight-component input waveforms, while its performance degrades when the validation spins lie far outside the training range. In a selected spin interval, the framework also recovers the 32 parameters of an eight-component waveform with good overall agreement. These results demonstrate the feasibility of physics-informed autoencoder-based inference for a prescribed multi-component ringdown waveform family and motivate further tests with progressively more realistic signals.

Chul-Moon Yoo, Albert Escrivà, Tomohiro Harada, Kazunori Kohri

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

We investigate primordial black hole (PBH) formation during an early matter-dominated era using fully nonlinear numerical relativity. The initial condition is set by a functional form of the curvature perturbation including ellipticity, which makes the configuration triaxial. Two kinds of matter descriptions are considered: dust fluid and collisionless particles. In the dust fluid description, numerical computation crashes associated with the appearance of a singularity at which the fluid density diverges, unless the singularity is hidden well inside the apparent horizon. We found that, for the dust fluid description, to observe the horizon formation before calculations crash, the initial amplitude must be larger than the previous analytic estimation by a factor of 2. On the other hand, with the particle system description, calculations do not crash, and we may observe black hole formation after subsequent evolution of the system. Then the threshold of black hole formation is significantly smaller than the previous analytic estimation by an order of magnitude.

G. Alencar, Kirill A. Bronnikov, T. M. Crispim, Diego Sáez-Chillón Gómez, Marcos V. de S. Silva

Published: 2026-09-13

Categories: gr-qc

We develop a general framework for constructing massive black bounce geometries from massless wormhole seeds by introducing a position-dependent mass function while preserving the underlying areal-radius profile. We apply this procedure to the generalized Ellis-Bronnikov wormhole and obtain a new family of generalized Bardeen-like black bounce space-times, which continuously interpolates between traversable wormholes and regular black holes. We investigate the motion of massive particles and photons and show that, in contrast with the simpler orbital structure of the massless generalized Ellis-Bronnikov geometry, the generalized Bardeen-like space-time can exhibit multiple circular orbits and a rich light ring structure, including configurations with two unstable circular photon orbits separated by a stable one. We determine the corresponding photon sphere and shadow radii and compare our predictions with Event Horizon Telescope observations of Sgr A*, deriving observational constraints on the parameter space of the model. We further investigate the optical appearance produced by a geometrically and optically thin accretion disk through ray tracing. Multiple light rings generate characteristic nested structures in the high-resolution intensity profiles, whose relative brightness is strongly affected by the mass deformation and gravitational redshift. However, after modeling the finite angular resolution of the EHT with a Gaussian beam convolution, these fine structures are largely washed out, revealing a strong observational degeneracy between these exotic compact objects and standard black hole geometries at current EHT resolution.

Xi Dong, Donald Marolf, Pratik Rath

Published: 2026-09-12

Categories: hep-th

In the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, the Jafferis-Lewkowycz-Maldacena-Suh (JLMS) formula relates the boundary modular Hamiltonian to the HRT area operator and the corresponding bulk modular Hamiltonian. In standard discussions of a holographic code built from perturbative excitations on a fixed classical background, the $A/4G$ term dominates over the bulk modular Hamiltonian in the limit $G \to 0$. However, this setup is insufficient to describe the action of boundary modular flows that change the classical background. In contrast, our recent discussion of `large' codes provides a useful framework to obtain a JLMS formula that relates bulk and boundary modular flows acting on appropriate states in the code. Here, one sees that the bulk modular Hamiltonian is not in fact subdominant when the modular flow defined by one state acts on another state peaked around a sufficiently different classical background. Instead, the bulk modular Hamiltonian can be of order $1/G$ and can dominate over the $A/4G$ term. Nevertheless, we show that if the two states have the same classical background except for data conjugate to the HRT area then, under mild assumptions and over a large range of flow parameters, the modular-flowed state is described by a classical background given by the HRT-area flow alone.