arXiv subjects

Frederic H. Vincent

Publications and source records attributed to Frederic H. Vincent.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Effects of a disk structure on stellar motion at the Galactic Center

Stellar orbits are key for probing the environment of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center, Sagittarius A$^*$. So far, the mass around SgrA$^*$ has been assumed to be spherically distributed. However, the extended mass may instead be flattened, creating disk-like structures. We investigate the effects that a thin disk structure would have on stars at the Galactic Center, focusing on star S2 and S301 and the clockwise stellar disk. We derive analytically the acceleration exerted by a disk with power law density $Σ\propto r^{-γ}$. We use this acceleration to compute the osculating equations and the variations of the orbital elements, showing how the latter depend on the orientation of the disk with respect to the orbital plane. We find that the disk structure induces a secular shift in the semi-latus rectum, an extra in-plane precession and an out-of-plane precession. The former is neither present at the low-order post Newtonian description that we use for the black hole, nor when a spherical mass distribution is considered. The latter can be competitive with the Lense-Thirring precession induced by the spin of SgrA$^*$ on S301 motion, depending on the mass, the radial extent and the orientation of the disk. Since the Lense-Thirring precession is negligible in S2 motion, the out-of-plane precession can be used to place upper limits on the non luminous mass of disk-like structures at the Galactic Center. The limits might significantly differ from those obtained for spherical distributions and depend on the disk parameters. These results highlight the importance of constraining disk-like structures when using stellar orbits to probe the central black hole, in particular its spin. Once mass estimates are at hand, one can quantify the disk's effect on S301 motion and the resulting degeneracy with a future measurement of SgrA$^*$ spin.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

A Four-Dimensional Gaussian Random Field Generator for Modeling Spatiotemporal Variability in Astrophysical Sources

Semi-analytic models of black-hole movies require both an emitting flow prescription and a time-dependent source variability. Existing prescriptions are often limited to either equatorial emission or time-independent sources. In this work we present a unified model for these two ingredients. First, we prescribe an off-equatorial, nongeodesic Kerr fluid rotation law by lifting an equatorial specific-angular-momentum profile to cylindrical surfaces, setting the polar component of the four-velocity to zero, normalizing the flow with the full Kerr metric at the spacetime point, and retaining the option to recover a geodesic-like plunging prescription when needed. Second, we use this velocity as the disk advection field in a four-dimensional inhomogeneous, anisotropic Matérn-like Gaussian random field. We provide a parametrized model for a torus-like disk and a central jet through a single composite correlation tensor. The resulting effective model is an implementation-ready prescription for time-dependent thick-disk and disk-jet emission for relativistic studies.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Images and photon ring signatures of thick disks around black holes

High-frequency very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations can now resolve the horizon-scale emission from sources in the immediate vicinity of nearby supermassive black holes. Future space-VLBI observations will access highly lensed features of black hole images -- photon rings -- that will provide particularly sharp probes of strong-field gravity. Focusing on the particular case of the supermassive black hole M87*, our goal is to explore a wide variety of accretion flows onto a Kerr black hole and to understand their corresponding images and visibilities. We are particularly interested in the visibility on baselines to space, which encodes the photon ring shape and whose measurement could provide a stringent test of the Kerr hypothesis. We develop a fully analytical model of stationary, axisymmetric accretion flows with a variable disk thickness and a matter four-velocity that can smoothly interpolate between purely azimuthal rotation and purely radial infall. We then determine the observational appearance of such flows, taking care to include the effects of thermal synchrotron emission and absorption. Our images generically display a "wedding cake" structure composed of discrete, narrow photon rings (n=1,2,...) stacked on top of broader primary emission that surrounds a central brightness depression of model-dependent size. We find that the "black hole shadow" is a model-dependent phenomenon -- even for diffuse, optically thin sources -- and should not be regarded as a generic prediction of general relativity. At 230 GHz, the n=1 ring is always visible, but the n=2 ring is sometimes suppressed due to absorption. At 345 GHz, the medium is optically thinner and the n=2 ring displays clear signatures in both the image and visibility domains, identifying this frequency as more promising for future space-VLBI measurements of the photon ring shape.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Equatorial orbits and imaging of hairy cubic Galileon black holes

Null and timelike equatorial orbits are investigated in a family of hairy black holes in the cubic Galileon theory. These include rotating generalizations of static black hole metrics supporting a time-dependent scalar field. Depending on the coupling and rotation, the properties of the geodesics expectedly deviate from general relativity. In particular, it is found that stable circular geodesics only exist below a critical coupling, which is related to the existence of an outermost stable circular orbit. Focusing on the strong-field region, images of an accretion disk are also produced to highlight tendencies that would constrain the model given further accurate observations of supermassive black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Gravitational waves from bodies orbiting the Galactic Center black hole and their detectability by LISA

We present the first fully relativistic study of gravitational radiation from bodies in circular equatorial orbits around the massive black hole at the Galactic Center, Sgr A* and we assess the detectability of various kinds of objects by the gravitational wave detector LISA. Our computations are based on the theory of perturbations of the Kerr spacetime and take into account the Roche limit induced by tidal forces in the Kerr metric. The signal-to-noise ratio in the LISA detector, as well as the time spent in LISA band, are evaluated. We have implemented all the computational tools in an open-source SageMath package, within the Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit framework. We find that white dwarfs, neutrons stars, stellar black holes, primordial black holes of mass larger than $10^{-4} M_\odot$, main-sequence stars of mass lower than $\sim 2.5\, M_\odot$ and brown dwarfs orbiting Sgr A* are all detectable in one year of LISA data with a signal-to-noise ratio above 10 during at least $10^5$ years in the slow inspiral towards either the innermost stable circular orbit (compact objects) or the Roche limit (main-sequence stars and brown dwarfs). The longest times in-band, of the order of $10^6$ years, are achieved for primordial black holes of mass $\sim 10^{-3} M_\odot$ down to $10^{-5} M_\odot$, depending on the spin of Sgr A*, as well as for brown dwarfs, just followed by white dwarfs and low mass main-sequence stars. The long time in-band of these objects makes Sgr A* a valuable target for LISA. We also consider bodies on close circular orbits around the massive black hole in the nucleus of the nearby galaxy M32 and find that, among them, compact objects and brown dwarfs stay for $10^3$ to $10^4$ years in LISA band with a 1-year signal-to-noise ratio above 10.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Twin peak HF QPOs as a spectral imprint of dual oscillation modes of accretion tori

High frequency (millisecond) quasi-periodic oscillations (HF QPOs) are observed in the X-ray power-density spectra of several microquasars and low mass X-ray binaries. Two distinct QPO peaks, so-called twin peak QPOs, are often detected simultaneously exhibiting their frequency ratio close or equal to 3/2. Following the analytic theory and previous studies of observable spectral signatures, we aim to model the twin peak QPOs as a spectral imprint of specific dual oscillation regime defined by a combination of the lowest radial and vertical oscillation mode of optically thick slender tori with constant specific angular momentum. We examined power spectra and fluorescent K$α$ iron line profiles for two different simulation setups with the mode frequency relations corresponding to the epicyclic resonance HF QPOs model and modified relativistic precession QPOs model. We use relativistic ray-tracing implemented in parallel simulation code LSDplus. In the background of the Kerr spacetime geometry, we analyze the influence of the distant observer inclination and the spin of the central compact object. Relativistic optical projection of the oscillating slender torus is illustrated by images in false colours related to the frequency shift. We show that performed simulations yield power spectra with the pair of dominant peaks corresponding to the frequencies of radial and vertical oscillation modes with the proper ratio equal to 3/2 on a wide range of inclinations and spin values. We also discuss exceptional cases of a very small and very high inclination as well as unstable high spin relativistic precession-like configuration predicting constant frequency ratio equal to 1/2. We demonstrate signifiant dependency of broadened K$α$ iron line profiles on the inclination of the distant observer.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Simulations of flux variability of oscillating accretion fluid tori around Kerr black holes

High frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HF QPOs) are observed in the X-ray power-density spectra (PDS) of several microquasars and low mass X-ray binaries. Many proposed QPO models are based on oscillations of accretion toroidal fluid structures orbiting in the vicinity of a compact object. We study oscillating accretion tori orbiting in the vicinity of a Kerr black hole. We demonstrate that significant variation of the observed flux can be caused by the combination of radial and vertical oscillation modes of a slender, polytropic, perfect fluid, non-self-graviting torus with constant specific angular momentum. We investigate two combinations of the oscillating modes corresponding to the direct resonance QPO model and the modified relativistic precession QPO model.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Cosmic background radiation in the vicinity of a Schwarzschild black hole: no classic firewall

The Cosmic Blackbody Background Radiation pervades the entire Universe, and so falls into every astrophysical black hole. The blueshift of the infalling photons, measured by a static observer, is infinite at the event horizon. This raises a question as to whether a "firewall" of high energy density may form just outside the horizon, or whether the effect can be attributed exclusively to a singular behavior of the static observer's frame at the horizon. In principle, the presence of such firewall may alter the motion of the infalling matter, influence the black hole evolution, or even invalidate the {\it vacuum} Einstein field equation solution as a realistic approximation for black holes. In this paper we show by means of analytic calculations that all these effects indeed exist, but their magnitude is typically negligibly small, even though the matter stress tensor is divergent in the static frame at $r=2M$. That is not surprising because of the divergent relation of that frame to a freely falling frame as $r \rightarrow 2M$; however it represents a kind of classical analogue for the Black Hole Complementarity principle that has been proposed for quantum effects near a black hole. What is perhaps more surprising is the divergence of the radiation stress tensor for massive particles moving on circular geodesic orbits for values of $r$ approaching $r = 3M$. However such orbits will not occur for infalling matter in realistic accretion discs.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

3+1 geodesic equation and images in numerical spacetimes

The equations governing null and timelike geodesics are derived within the 3+1 formalism of general relativity. In addition to the particle's position, they encompass an evolution equation for the particle's energy leading to a 3+1 expression of the redshift factor for photons. An important application is the computation of images and spectra in spacetimes arising from numerical relativity, via the ray-tracing technique. This is illustrated here by images of numerically computed stationary neutron stars and dynamical neutron stars collapsing to a black hole.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Modelling the black hole silhouette in Sgr A* with ion tori

We calculate the "observed at infinity" image and spectrum of the accretion structure in Sgr A*, by modelling it as an optically thin, constant angular momentum ion torus in hydrodynamic equilibrium. The physics we consider includes a two-temperature plasma, a toroidal magnetic field, as well as radiative cooling by bremsstrahlung, synchrotron and inverse Compton processes. Our relativistic model has the virtue of being fully analytic and very simple, depending only on eight tunable parameters: the black hole spin and the inclination of the spin axis to our line of sight, the torus angular momentum, the polytropic index, the magnetic to total pressure ratio, the central values of density and electron temperature and the ratio of electron to ion temperatures. The observed image and spectrum are calculated numerically using the ray-tracing code GYOTO. Our results demonstrate that the ion torus model is able to account for the main features of the accretion structure surrounding Sgr A*.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2011

GYOTO: a new general relativistic ray-tracing code

GYOTO, a general relativistic ray-tracing code, is presented. It aims at computing images of astronomical bodies in the vicinity of compact objects, as well as trajectories of massive bodies in relativistic environments. This code is capable of integrating the null and timelike geodesic equations not only in the Kerr metric, but also in any metric computed numerically within the 3+1 formalism of general relativity. Simulated images and spectra have been computed for a variety of astronomical targets, such as a moving star or a toroidal accretion structure. The underlying code is open source and freely available. It is user-friendly, quickly handled and very modular so that extensions are easy to integrate. Custom analytical metrics and astronomical targets can be implemented in C++ plug-in extensions independent from the main code.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2009

CFHTLS weak-lensing constraints on the neutrino masses

We use measurements of cosmic shear from CFHTLS, combined with WMAP-5 cosmic microwave background anisotropy data, baryonic acoustic oscillations from SDSS and 2dFGRS and supernovae data from SNLS and Gold-set, to constrain the neutrino mass. We obtain a 95% confidence level upper limit of 0.54 eV for the sum of the neutrino masses, and a lower limit of 0.03 eV. The preference for massive neutrinos vanishes when shear-measurement systematics are included in the analysis.

astro-ph↗