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Gonzalo J. Olmo

Publications and source records attributed to Gonzalo J. Olmo.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Thin-Shell Black Bounce

A recently proposed class of black-bounce solutions sourced by anisotropic fluids, whose exterior reproduces the Reissner-Nordström geometry all the way down to a minimal-area bounce, was put forward by Lessa and Olmo. In this work, we show that this solution conceals a thin-shell structure precisely at the bounce. Motivated by this observation, we construct a new class of black-bounce solutions with static, spherical symmetry featuring the emergence of a minimal-area bounce supported by a thin shell. This nontrivial topological structure is shown to arise from the degeneracy of the metric at the bounce, where the inverse metric becomes ill-defined, leading to curvature tensors with distributional discontinuities precisely at that point. As a consequence, a delta-function thin shell of energy-condition-violating matter is necessarily present at the bounce. To generate such solutions, we draw on proposals from quantum gravity that predict the existence of a fundamental minimum length scale, employing energy density profiles that encode these quantum-gravitational effects in an effective manner, replacing the point-like description of matter at minimal-length scales with a smeared one. We consider two well-motivated profiles, of Lorentzian and Gaussian type, to generate a novel class of solutions exhibiting the features of either regular black holes or wormholes, whose center conceals a thin-shell bounce. In addition, we investigate the thermodynamics of these compact objects.

gr-qc↗

Conformally Interacting Dark Energy with Early and Late-Time Measurements

The conformal interacting dark energy (CIDE) model is investigated by introducing a scalar field representing dark energy (DE) coupled to dark matter (DM) via a conformal transformation, thereby yielding a class of scalar-tensor theories. The interaction term ${Q}$, that indicts the flow of energy between the dark sectors is proportional to the trace of the energy momentum tensor of the DM fluid, $T^{\mathrm{DM}}_{μν}$, as ${Q}=\frac{C'(ϕ)}{2C(ϕ)}g^{μν}T^{\mathrm{DM}}_{μν}$, where $C(ϕ)$ is the conformal function of a scalar potential (coupling) field. We assume the power-law parametrization $C(ϕ)\propto (1+ϕ)^m$, with $m$ a coupling parameter, and determine the direction and magnitude of the energy flow between the DM and DE components. The dynamical nature of DE is modeled by the two conformal interacting scenarios, CIDE and $w$CIDE, with $w$ the DE equation of state parameter. To test the viability of each model, we constrain them using a combination of early- and late-time cosmological data, namely: CMB measurements from the South Pole Telescope, Planck 2018, and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (DR6) (\texttt{CMB SPA}); BAO data from the Dark Energy Survey (\texttt{DESI DR2 BAO}); and Supernova Type Ia distance compilations (\texttt{PantheonPlus, PantheonPlus + SH0ES, Union3}, and \texttt{DES Dovekie}). Parameter inference is performed with Monte Carlo Markov Chain (\texttt{MCMC}) simulations using \texttt{COBAYA} and a modified \texttt{CLASS}. Further statistical analysis using the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) is summarized to assess the viability of the model in comparison with the standard cosmological model, investigating the model's potential to alleviate the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions.

astro-ph.CO↗

Shadows and gravitational perturbations of black bounces

We investigate axial gravitational perturbations and shadow formation in black-bounce geometries supported by anisotropic fluids within general relativity. Two distinct classes of solutions are analyzed: a symmetric Simpson--Visser-like black bounce and an asymmetric deformation of the Reissner--Nordström metric, which can feature either a bounded interior region or an unbounded wormhole-like extension. Our findings indicate that configurations with horizons, whether symmetric or asymmetric, exhibit single-barrier effective potentials and quasinormal frequencies nearly indistinguishable from those of standard black holes. In contrast, horizonless symmetric configurations may develop multiple potential barriers, giving rise to gravitational-wave echoes whose amplitude and separation depend sensitively on the bounce parameter $a$ and the density parameter $ρ_0$. Horizonless asymmetric solutions, on the other hand, exhibit regularized effective potentials that do not produce echoes and remain phenomenologically close to the Reissner--Nordström case. From the optical perspective, both classes of solutions with horizons exhibit a single relevant photon sphere and shadow profiles nearly indistinguishable from those of their black-hole counterparts, while horizonless symmetric configurations can sustain multiple photon rings. Horizonless asymmetric configurations may instead support either a single photon ring or none. Finally, we recover the standard eikonal correspondence between quasinormal modes and the instability of circular null geodesics for configurations with horizons. For horizonless geometries, however, the emergence of multiple potential barriers prevents a straightforward extension of this relation, although the strong similarity between the wave and optical sectors suggests that a meaningful phenomenological correspondence may still persist.

gr-qc↗

Black bounce sourced by non-minimally coupled linear electrodynamics and a canonical scalar field through a thin shell at the throat

We construct a novel class of black bounce solutions within General Relativity, sourced by a canonical scalar field non-minimally coupled to linear electrodynamics, establishing a self-consistent framework in which regular black holes and traversable wormholes are supported by ordinary bulk matter, with the necessary exoticity confined to an infinitesimally thin defect at the bounce.

gr-qc↗

Light propagation and intensity transport in metric-affine geometry

We study electromagnetic wave propagation in metric--affine geometries, where torsion and non-metricity may be present and the coupling between electromagnetism and spacetime is no longer unique. Rather than choosing a particular coupling prescription a priori, we construct electromagnetic sectors that preserve standard $U(1)$ gauge invariance and projective invariance of the affine connection as guiding symmetry principles. We introduce two representative models, one in which the Maxwell term is dressed by a scalar prefactor built from non-Riemannian invariants, and another in which the kinetic term is modified by a rank--four constitutive tensor acting as an anisotropic medium. We derive their geometric--optics limits and show that their couplings can modify the effective light cone, change the relation between field amplitude and intensity, induce polarization-dependent propagation, and generate birefringence and mode mixing. These results thus provide the formal basis for a broader phenomenological study connecting torsion and non-metricity with electromagnetic observables in concrete metric--affine backgrounds, including black-hole imaging, birefringent lensing, polarization observables, and departures from photon-number conservation.

gr-qc↗

Dynamical dark energy in the Bianchi Type-V Universe with DESI DR2 BAO, SNIa compilation and RSD measurements

We investigate the cosmological implications of dynamical dark energy (DDE) models within an anisotropic, spatially homogeneous Bianchi Type-V spacetime framework using a $1+3$ covariant thermodynamics approach. By implementing both constant ($w$) and time-varying ($w_0, w_a$) parameterized equations of state, we evaluate the background expansion history and track linear matter perturbations via the quasi-static approximation. We confront these scenarios with the latest cosmological datasets, including the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) DR2 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), the Union3 and Dark Energy Survey 5-year (DESY5) Type Ia Supernovae compilations, Cosmic Chronometers (CC), and Redshift-Space Distortion (RSD) measurements. Our joint statistical analyses reveal that the introduction of spatial anisotropy coupled with DDE efficiently accommodates recent late-time measurements and provides a viable mechanism to mitigate the persistent $H_0$ and $S_8$ cosmological tensions. Model selection metrics show that while Akaike criteria strongly support the extended Bianchi Type-V scenarios across most joint data combinations, Bayesian criteria continue to favor the simpler standard $Λ$CDM baseline due to its lower dimensionality. Finally, we establish tight constraints on the current matter density parameter $Ω_{m,0}$, the shear parameter $Ω_{σ,0}$, and the dark energy evolution parameters, confirming that anisotropic extensions remain viable and testable frameworks for modern precision cosmology.

physics.gen-ph↗

Tidal forces around the Letelier-Alencar cloud of strings black hole

In this work, we investigate relativistic tidal forces around a black hole sourced by a cloud of strings, described by the generalized Letelier-Alencar solution. We first review the original Letelier spacetime and its recent generalization, computing the Kretschmann scalar and showing that the generalized model exhibits a stronger curvature divergence at $r \to 0$ than both Letelier and Schwarzschild cases. We then analyze geodesic motion in this background. For massless particles, we focus on circular photon orbits, while for massive particles, we consider both radial infall and circular motion. We find that the radii of the photon sphere and of the innermost stable circular orbit increase with the cloud of strings parameter $g_s$ and decrease with the length scale $l_s$, and circular orbits cease to exist in certain regions of the parameter space. For radial motion, we compute the radial acceleration and the corresponding tidal forces. In this case, we show that an inversion between stretching and compression may occur, although this regime is typically hidden inside the event horizon. Once the tidal forces are known, we computed the behavior of the displacement vector in order to verify whether the usual stretching behavior induced by tidal forces is preserved. Finally, we study tidal forces for observers in circular motion, showing that the cloud of strings modifies the Keplerian frequency and the tidal force profile even at large distances, and that in this case there is no sign change of the tidal components.

gr-qc↗

Circular stable orbits in $f(R)$ realistic static and spherically-symmetric spacetimes

We investigate the geodesic structure of realistic static and spherically symmetric spacetimes embedding neutron stars in metric $f(R)$ gravity, focusing on the quadratic Starobinsky model $f(R)=aR^2$ with $a<0$. Neutron-star solutions are obtained by numerically solving the modified Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff system for several realistic equations of state. Such solutions are then matched consistently to the exterior vacuum geometry by enforcing the full set of junction conditions required in metric $f(R)$ theories. Using an effective potential approach, we show that stable circular orbits appear in discrete radial bands separated by forbidden regions, with a dominant principal band of stability that depends sensitively on the stellar central pressure, the equation of state, and the magnitude of the parameter $|a|$. Outside the stable bands, massive particles can have bound but unstable precessing trajectories as well as unbounded motions. On the other hand, for null geodesics, we find no evidence for photon spheres outside the neutron star within the parameter range studied.

gr-qc↗

Slowly rotating charged BTZ black hole solutions in Palatini Chern-Simons gravity

We consider a metric-affine formulation of Chern-Simons modified gravity in 2 + 1 dimensions. The theory is built requiring projective invariance, and the structure of the equations is analyzed using a decomposition in terms of scalar, vectorial, and purely tensorial objects. This approach allows us to implement a perturbative approach to study the corrections that emerge around a given background solution, for which we consider a BTZ charged, non-rotating metric. We show that conditions on model parameters are necessary to keep perturbations under control, yielding a rotating solution with a constant angular momentum and magnetic field at the horizon, and a smooth decay further away. We comment on the possibility of going beyond the leading order in perturbations and on its dynamical implications.

gr-qc↗

A novel nonlocal spin-1/2 theory: classical and quantum aspects

We propose a novel nonlocal spin-1/2 theory in which the form factor depends on the Dirac operator rather than on the d'Alembert operator. In this scenario, we explore some classical and quantum aspects of this new theory. At the classical level, we investigate the dispersion relation of free spin-1/2 particles and find that it increasingly deviates from the standard case as the nonlocal effects become relevant. At the quantum level, we compute the fermionic one-loop effective action for the nonlocal spin-1/2 theory with Yukawa coupling and show that the contributions of nonlocal effects are significant in the UV limit, while in the IR they are suppressed by a UV cutoff scale, which has been chosen to coincide with the nonlocality scale $Λ$. We minimally couple a $U(1)$ gauge field to the nonlocal spin-1/2 field theory and explicitly demonstrate that this theory is gauge invariant. Finally, we obtain a nonlocal version of the Pauli equation and the impact of the nonlocality in the $g$-factor of massive particles.

hep-th↗

Quasi-normal modes and shadows of scale-dependent regular black holes

In this paper we investigate how a regular scale-dependent black hole, characterized by a single extra parameter $ε$, behaves under perturbations by a test field (quasi-normal modes) and under light imaging (shadows) in a four-dimensional space-time background. On the quasi-normal modes side, we study how it responds to scalar and Dirac perturbations. To do this, we implement the well known WKB semi-analytic method of 6th order for obtaining the quasi-normal frequencies. We discuss the behavior of the real and imaginary parts of the quasi-normal modes for different values of the parameter $ε$ and the overtone $n$ and multipole $\ell$ numbers. On the black hole imaging side, we ray-trace the geometry and illuminate it with a thin-accretion disk. Choosing $ε=1.0$ we compute the size of the central brightness depression and generate full images of the black hole. We discuss the features (i.e. luminosity) of successive photon rings through the Lyapunov exponent of nearly-bound, unstable geodesics. Furthermore we use the correspondence (in the limit $\ell \gg n$) between quasi-normal mode frequencies and unstable bound light orbits to infer the numerical values of the latter using the former and find a remarkable accuracy of the correspondence in providing the right numbers. Our results support the usefulness of this correspondence in order to perform cross-tests of black holes using these two messengers.

gr-qc↗

On energy-momentum conservation in non-minimal geometry-matter coupling theories

In this work, we discuss the conditions that allow the establishment of an equivalence between $f(R,T)=R+λh(T)$ gravity models and General Relativity (GR) coupled to a modified matter sector. We do so by considering a $D$-dimensional spacetime and the matter sector to be described by nonlinear electrodynamics and/or a scalar field. We find that, for this particular family of models, the action and field equations can indeed be written in terms of a modified matter source within GR. However, when several matter sources are combined, this interpretation is no longer possible if $h(T)$ is a nonlinear function, due to the emergence of crossed terms that mix together the scalar and vector sectors.

gr-qc↗

Shadows from thin accretion disks of parametrized black hole solutions

We discuss the optical appearance from thin accretion disks in parametrized black holes, namely, solutions characterized by an arbitrarily large number of parameters without any regards to the theory of the gravitational and matter fields they come from. More precisely, we consider the leading-order terms of the spherically symmetric Johanssen-Psaltis (JP) and Konoplya-Rezzolla-Zhidenko (KRZ) parametrizations after imposing constraints from asymptotic flatness and solar system observations. Furthermore, we use the inferred correlation, by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, between the size of the bright ring (which is directly observable) and the size of the central brightness depression (which is not) of M87 and Sgr A$^*$ central supermassive objects, to constrain the parameters of the leading-order JP and KRZ solutions. Using ten samples of the Standard Unbound distribution previously employed in the literature to reproduce certain scenarios of General Relativistic HydroDynamical simulations, we produce images of four samples of JP and KRZ geometries enhancing and diminishing the shadow's size, respectively. Via a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the features of the corresponding photon rings and, in particular, of their relative brightness, we argue that it should be possible to distinguish between such parametrized solutions and the Schwarzschild geometry via future upgrades of very long baseline interferometry. We furthermore consider images of some naked objects within these parametrizations, and also discuss the role of inclination in comparing images of different black holes.

gr-qc↗

Metric-affine bumblebee gravity: classical aspects

We consider the metric-affine formulation of bumblebee gravity, derive the field equations, and show that the connection can be written as Levi-Civita of a disformally related metric in which the bumblebee field determines the disformal part. As a consequence, the bumblebee field gets coupled to all the other matter fields present in the theory, potentially leading to nontrivial phenomenological effects. To explore this issue we compute the weak-field, post-Minkowskian limit and study the resulting effective theory. In this scenario, we couple scalar and spinorial matter to the effective metric, and then we explore the physical properties of the VEV of the bumblebee field, focusing mainly on the dispersion relations and the stability of the resulting effective theory.

hep-th↗

Gravitational waves in Palatini gravity for a non-minimal geometry-matter coupling

We discuss the propagation of gravitational waves over a non-Riemannian spacetime, when a non-minimal coupling between the geometry and matter is considered in the form of contractions of the energy momentum tensor with the Ricci and co-Ricci curvature tensors. We focus our analysis on perturbations on a Minkowski background, elucidating how derivatives of the energy momentum tensor can sustain non-trivial torsion and non-metricity excitations, eventually resulting in additional source terms for the metric field. These can be reorganized in the form of D'Alembert operator acting on the energy momentum tensor and the equivalence principle can be reinforced at the linear level by a suitable choice of the parameters of the model. We show how tensor polarizations can exhibit a subluminal phase velocity in matter, evading the constraints found in General Relativity, and how this allows for the kinematic damping in specific configurations of the medium and of the geometry-matter coupling. These in turn define regions in the wavenumber space where propagation is forbidden, leading to the appearance of typical cut-off scale in the frequency spectrum.

gr-qc↗

Echoes and quasinormal modes of asymmetric black bounces

We study quasinormal modes and echoes of symmetric and asymmetric black bounce solutions generated by anisotropic fluids within the framework of general relativity. We derive the effective potential governing massless scalar fields and compute the corresponding quasinormal mode spectra using three independent methods: sixth-order WKB, Pöschl-Teller and time-domain evolution. Our results show that symmetric black bounce configurations with horizons yield a standard single-barrier potential, while horizonless solutions may exhibit multiple potential barriers that generate gravitational wave echoes. These echoes are sensitive to model parameters such as the fluid energy density and the regularizing parameter $a$ that defines the minimal $2$-sphere. The asymmetric models considered recover the Reissner-Nordström solution in their external region but can be bounded or unbounded in the inside, depending on the sign of a parameter. Both cases have similar qualitative properties as far as wave emission is concerned but show no echoes. This makes it very difficult to distinguish them from standard Reissner-Nordström configurations.

gr-qc↗

Regular black hole solutions in $(2 + 1)$-dimensional $f(R,T)$ gravity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics

In this paper, we investigate regular black hole solutions in the (2+1)-dimensional versions of General Relativity and $f(R, T)$ gravity, both coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics. By admitting that the matter content that generates such geometries satisfies the Maxwell limit condition, we obtain a class of regular black holes that give rise to new solutions and successfully reproduce particular cases found in earlier studies of (2+1)-dimensional General Relativity. Moreover, we discover the first regular black hole solutions in (2+1)-dimensional $f(R, T)$ gravity and explore both qualitatively and quantitatively the non-conservation of the energy-momentum tensor present in those solutions.

gr-qc↗

Resolving space-time singularities in spherically symmetric black holes: geodesic completeness, curvature scalars, and tidal forces

The existence of black holes in the Universe is nowadays established on the grounds of a blench of astrophysical observations, most notably those of gravitational waves from binary mergers and the imaging of supermassive objects at the heart of M87 and Milky Way galaxies. However, this success of Einstein's General Relativity~(GR) to connect theory of black holes with observations is also the source of its doom, since Penrose's theorem proves that, under physically sensible conditions, the development of a space-time singularity (as defined by the existence of a focal point for some geodesic paths in finite affine time) within black holes as described by GR is unavoidable. In this work, we thoroughly study how to resolve space-time singularities in spherically symmetric black holes. To do it so we find the conditions on the metric functions required for the restoration of geodesic completeness without any regards to the specific theory of the gravitational and matter fields supporting the amended metric. Our discussion considers both the usual trivial radial coordinate case and the bouncing radial function case and arrives to two mechanisms for this restoration: either the focal point is displaced to infinite affine distance or a bounce prevents the focusing of geodesics. Several explicit examples of well known (in)complete space-times are given. Furthermore, we consider the connection of geodesic (in)completeness with another criterion frequently used in the literature to monitor singular space-times: the blow up of (some sets of) curvature scalars and the infinite tidal forces they could bring with them, and discuss the conditions required for the harmlessness upon physical observers according to each criterion.

gr-qc↗