Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2603.07168

Periodic Orbits and Gravitational Radiation from Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals as Probes of Black Hole Quantum Hair

Yiru Zhang·Meirong Tang·Zhaoyi Xu
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The classical no-hair theorem states that stationary black holes in general relativity can be completely described by only a small set of global parameters. Within this framework, no additional geometric structures are expected to persist outside the event horizon. However, quantum vacuum polarization may introduce small modifications to the near-horizon geometry, effectively giving rise to what is known as quantum hair. Such corrections may provide a possible window into the microscopic structure and thermodynamic properties of black holes. In this work, we examine how the quantum hair parameter {\gamma} influences the periodic orbital dynamics of test bodies in extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) and their associated gravitational-wave emission. We find that {\gamma} significantly modifies the characteristic radii and angular momenta of two important circular orbits, namely the marginally bound orbit (MBO) and the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO), leading to a shift in the allowed region of the energy-angular momentum (E-L) phase space. Based on the rational number q classification, we further show that quantum corrections tend to enhance the zoom-whirl orbital behavior.Gravitational-wave calculations using the Numerical Kludge approach indicate that quantum hair alters the effective spacetime potential, produces small drifts in the fundamental orbital frequencies, and consequently leads to observable phase dephasing in longduration signals. These results provide a dynamical signature for distinguishing quantum-corrected black holes from classical Schwarzschild ones and offer theoretical motivation for testing quantum gravity effects with future space-based gravitational-wave observatories.

Explore related subjects

gr-qc

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Yiru Zhang, Meirong Tang, Zhaoyi Xu. 2026-03-07. Periodic Orbits and Gravitational Radiation from Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals as Probes of Black Hole Quantum Hair. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07168

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2026

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc↗