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arXiv · 2607.21713

Viscosity effects on the shadow of a non-rotating black hole

Sayantani Lahiri·Sergio Gimeno-Soler·Alejandro Cruz-Osorio·José A. Font·Ziri Younsi
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Abstract

We study the effect of shear viscosity in stationary magnetized accretion tori on synthetic images of non-rotating black hole shadows. Shear viscosity and spacetime-curvature contributions are introduced perturbatively in the tori through first and second-order transport coefficients within a second-order causal theory of non-ideal relativistic hydrodynamics. Synthetic black hole shadow images at 230\,GHz are obtained via general relativistic radiative transfer computations assuming thermal synchrotron emission and for a wide range of plasma magnetization parameters, viewing inclination angles, electron-temperature prescriptions, and viscosity parameters. A comparative pixel-by-pixel analysis using two normalized metrics shows that the largest image differences occur for strongly magnetized tori. While shear viscosity induces only minor changes in the overall shadow morphology, its combined effects with spacetime curvature are more evident in localized modifications of the synchrotron emission and pixel-wise flux distribution. These effects become increasingly pronounced at higher inclination angles, with the largest brightness differences between viscous and non-viscous configurations occurring for larger values of the electron-temperature parameter. Overall, our results indicate that shear viscosity and spacetime curvature leave only modest imprints on black hole shadow images produced by stationary thick disks, with differences remaining at the level of a few $\mu$Jy. Since our analysis is limited to stationary tori, the effects of shear viscosity might however be more significant in fully dynamical accretion systems.

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Sayantani Lahiri, Sergio Gimeno-Soler, Alejandro Cruz-Osorio, José A. Font, Ziri Younsi. 2026-07-23. Viscosity effects on the shadow of a non-rotating black hole. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.21713

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