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arXiv · 2605.20493

Electromagnetic duality degeneracy in dynamical black hole mergers

José Ferreira·Gabriele Bozzola·Carlos A. R. Herdeiro·Vasileios Paschalidis·Miguel Zilhão
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Abstract

Electromagnetic duality is a symmetry of the source-free Einstein-Maxwell equations that rotates electric and magnetic fields while leaving the stress-energy tensor invariant. We present the first fully nonlinear realization of this symmetry in dynamical strong-gravity regimes by performing numerical relativity simulations of charged black hole mergers across a continuous duality family. Starting from electrically charged binaries, we generate dyonic and magnetically charged configurations via duality rotations and evolve them within a common numerical framework. We find that all dual configurations exhibit identical spacetime dynamics, while the emitted electromagnetic radiation is related by a rotation of its polarization equal to the duality angle. Our results demonstrate a degeneracy of gravitational observables under electromagnetic duality and provide a concrete mapping between dual configurations at the level of radiation, establishing electromagnetic duality as an organizing principle for dynamical Einstein-Maxwell solutions.

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José Ferreira, Gabriele Bozzola, Carlos A. R. Herdeiro, Vasileios Paschalidis, Miguel Zilhão. 2026-05-19. Electromagnetic duality degeneracy in dynamical black hole mergers. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.20493

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