arXiv subjects

Lia Medeiros

Publications and source records attributed to Lia Medeiros.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Prospects for Improving the Theoretical Uncertainty for Tests of General Relativity with the EHT

We characterize the relationship between the size of the bright ring observed in simulated black hole images and the size of the analytic black hole shadow. Calibrating this relationship is crucial for mass measurements and, when independent mass measurements are available, for tests of general relativity using Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) images. We perform this calibration using a large set of high-resolution simulated images generated with different accretion-flow modeling approaches and spanning a wide range of system parameters and initial conditions. We show that the theoretical uncertainty in this relationship can be reduced significantly through future observations, improved imaging techniques, and the application of astrophysical or model-based constraints. In particular, the uncertainty decreases compared to existing measurements when (i) observing at 345 GHz, (ii) applying geometric image constraints, such as the ring width inference from the PRIMO image reconstruction algorithm, (iii) incorporating astrophysical constraints such as the black hole spin axis in M87 being aligned (or anti-aligned) with the large-scale jet observed at longer radio wavelengths, and (iv) assuming that the accretion flow can be described by a magnetically arrested field configuration. Finally, we quantify how the uncertainty is expected to decrease as additional observations are obtained in subsequent years and identify dwell-time filtering, i.e., evaluating the persistence of a geometric measurement over time, as a promising avenue for improving the precision of the calibration.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Is plasmoid-mediated reconnection really important in accretion flows to drive flares in AGNs?

Based on very high-resolution resistive 2D and 3D magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of current sheets, our findings suggest that the answer to this question is likely no. In contrast, turbulence-mediated reconnection yields significantly faster reconnection rates - about an order of magnitude higher than the so-called universal rate for plasmoid-mediated reconnection in MHD flows ($V_\text{rec}/V_A \sim 0.01$). We conclude that turbulence-driven reconnection is the dominant mechanism responsible for fast reconnection and flares in systems such as accretion flows and relativistic jets in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). In these environments, turbulence is driven by instabilities such as the magneto-rotational instability (MRI), Parker-Rayleigh-Taylor instability (PRTI), and current-driven kink instability (CDKI). Finally, we present 3D General Relativistic MHD simulations of accretion flows that confirm the crucial role of turbulence-mediated reconnection in AGN systems. These findings have important implications for understanding the origin of flares, particle acceleration, and the production of polarized radiation in these extreme environments.

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arXiv2025

Characterizing Power Spectra of Density Fluctuations in GRMHD Simulations of Black Hole Accretion Using Taylor's Frozen-in Hypothesis

We characterize the spatial power spectrum of density fluctuations in magnetohydrodynamic flows in a suite of high-resolution, long-time-span general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations. Extracting the local spatial power spectrum in curved spacetime directly from GRMHD simulations can be challenging for several conceptual and mechanical reasons, including choices of the reference frame, the non-uniform co-ordinate grid of the outputs and limited resolution. Taylor's frozen-in hypothesis describes a mapping between the temporal and spatial power spectrum of turbulence, which we apply to density fluctuations. We explore the validity of the assumptions underlying Taylor's hypothesis and evaluate its applicability in extracting spatial power spectra of density fluctuations of black hole accretion flows. Using outputs from the GRMHD code KORAL, we explore models with strong and ordered magnetic fields (MAD, Magnetically Arrested Disks) as well as weak and disordered magnetic fields (SANE, Standard and Normal Evolution). We explore the effects of black hole spin on the power spectra and characterize their spectral properties as a function of distance from the black hole. The observed power spectra follow a broken power law with two slopes separated by a break frequency. Our analysis shows a decrease in break frequency with increasing radius, with distinct trends between SANE and MAD flows. We also observe the first slope to be steeper for SANE flows and some notable distinctions between prograde and retrograde spins.

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arXiv2025

Mass Transport, Turbulent Mixing, and Inflow in Black Hole Accretion

We investigate mass transport, mixing, and disk evolution in non-radiative black hole accretion flows using Lagrangian tracer particles embedded in general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations. Our simulation suite spans magnetically arrested disk (MAD) and standard and normal evolution (SANE) states across a range of black hole spins. By tracking tracer trajectories, we directly measure both advective inflow and stochastic spreading of fluid elements. The tracer distributions are well described by a combination of coherent inward drift and Gaussian-like broadening, consistent with an advection-diffusion picture. MADs exhibit systematically faster inflow than SANEs, with retrograde flows showing the most rapid infall; the innermost stable circular orbit leaves little imprint in MADs but remains more visible in SANEs. Turbulent fluctuations drive strong radial dispersion in all cases, with a superdiffusive scaling of sigma ~ t^0.95 in MADs and sigma ~ t^0.75 in SANEs for high-spin prograde disks. Mixing times decrease toward the event horizon and are consistently shorter in MADs and retrograde configurations. Tracers also reveal how accretion sources shift over time: turbulence draws inflow from a broad range of initial radii, with rapid torus depletion in MADs driving the mean source radius outward as r ~ t^(2/3), while SANEs evolve more gradually with r ~ t^(1/2). We show that the finite mass of the initial torus has a strong influence on late-time behavior, especially in MADs, where imprints of differently sized initial conditions may be accessible as early as t ~ 10000 GM/c^3.

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arXiv2025

Mahakala: a Python-based Modular Ray-tracing and Radiative Transfer Algorithm for Curved Space-times

We introduce Mahakala, a Python-based, modular, radiative ray-tracing code for curved space-times. We employ Google's JAX framework for accelerated automatic differentiation, which can efficiently compute Christoffel symbols directly from the metric, allowing the user to easily and quickly simulate photon trajectories through non-Kerr spacetimes. JAX also enables Mahakala to run in parallel on both CPUs and GPUs. Mahakala natively uses the Cartesian Kerr-Schild coordinate system, which avoids numerical issues caused by the pole in spherical coordinate systems. We demonstrate Mahakala's capabilities by simulating 1.3 mm wavelength images (the wavelength of Event Horizon Telescope observations) of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of low-accretion rate supermassive black holes. The modular nature of Mahakala allows us to quantitatively explore how different regions of the flow influence different image features. We show that most of the emission seen in 1.3 mm images originates close to the black hole and peaks near the photon orbit. We also quantify the relative contribution of the disk, forward jet, and counter jet to 1.3 mm images.

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arXiv2025

Black hole mimickers: from theory to observation

The black hole paradigm, while remarkably successful, raises fundamental questions-both classical and quantum-about the nature of spacetime, horizons, and singularities. Black hole mimickers, horizonless ultra-compact objects, have emerged as potential alternatives that seek to resolve some of these puzzles while remaining consistent with current observational constraints. Recent breakthroughs in gravitational-wave astronomy and horizon-scale electromagnetic imaging have opened new avenues to test this paradigm-making this an opportune moment to systematically investigate such alternatives. This vision document presents a snapshot of the field as discussed at the Black Hole Mimickers: From Theory to Observation workshop, where experts from gravitational wave astronomy, very long baseline interferometry, numerical and mathematical relativity, and high-energy physics converged to assess the current frontiers. By highlighting key open questions and proposing concrete pathways forward, this document aims to guide future efforts to probe the nature of compact objects. As the field stands at the crossroads of theoretical innovation and observational breakthroughs, we outline strategies to harness upcoming observational capabilities to fundamentally test the black hole paradigm.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Measuring Black Hole Light Echoes with Very Long Baseline Interferometry

Light passing near a black hole can follow multiple paths from an emission source to an observer due to strong gravitational lensing. Photons following different paths take different amounts of time to reach the observer, which produces an echo signature in the image. The characteristic echo delay is determined primarily by the mass of the black hole, but it is also influenced by the black hole spin and inclination to the observer. In the Kerr geometry, echo images are demagnified, rotated, and sheared copies of the direct image and lie within a restricted region of the image. Echo images have exponentially suppressed flux, and temporal correlations within the flow make it challenging to directly detect light echoes from the total light curve. In this paper, we propose a novel method to search for light echoes by correlating the total light curve with the interferometric signal at high spatial frequencies, which is a proxy for indirect emission. We explore the viability of our method using numerical general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a near-face-on accretion system scaled to M87-like parameters. We demonstrate that our method can be used to directly infer the echo delay period in simulated data. An echo detection would be clear evidence that we have captured photons that have circled the black hole, and a high-fidelity echo measurement would provide an independent measure of fundamental black hole parameters. Our results suggest that detecting echoes may be achievable through interferometric observations with a modest space-based very long baseline interferometry mission.

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arXiv2024

Theoretical Foundation of Black Hole Image Reconstruction using PRIMO

A new image-reconstruction algorithm, PRIMO, applied to the interferometric data of the M87 black hole collected with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), resulted in an image that reached the native resolution of the telescope array. PRIMO is based on learning a compact set of image building blocks obtained from a large library of high-fidelity, physics-based simulations of black hole images. It uses these building blocks to fill the sparse Fourier coverage of the data that results from the small number of telescopes in the array. In this paper, we show that this approach is readily justified. Since the angular extent of the image of the black hole and of its inner accretion flow is finite, the Fourier space domain is heavily smoothed, with a correlation scale that is at most comparable to the sizes of the data gaps in the coverage of Fourier space with the EHT. Consequently, PRIMO or other machine-learning algorithms can faithfully reconstruct the images without the need to generate information that is unconstrained by the data within the resolution of the array. We also address the completeness of the eigenimages and the compactness of the resulting representation. We show that PRIMO provides a compact set of eigenimages that have sufficient complexity to recreate a broad set of images well beyond those in the training set.

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arXiv2023

The Image of the M87 Black Hole Reconstructed with PRIMO

We present a new reconstruction of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) image of the M87 black hole from the 2017 data set. We use PRIMO, a novel dictionary-learning based algorithm that uses high-fidelity simulations of accreting black holes as a training set. By learning the correlations between the different regions of the space of interferometric data, this approach allows us to recover high-fidelity images even in the presence of sparse coverage and reach the nominal resolution of the EHT array. The black hole image comprises a thin bright ring with a diameter of $41.5\pm0.6\,μ$as and a fractional width that is at least a factor of two smaller than previously reported. This improvement has important implications for measuring the mass of the central black hole in M87 based on the EHT images.

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arXiv2022

Principal-Component Interferometric Modeling (PRIMO), an Algorithm for EHT Data I: Reconstructing Images from Simulated EHT Observations

The sparse interferometric coverage of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) poses a significant challenge for both reconstruction and model fitting of black-hole images. PRIMO is a new principal components analysis-based algorithm for image reconstruction that uses the results of high-fidelity general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic simulations of low-luminosity accretion flows as a training set. This allows the reconstruction of images that are both consistent with the interferometric data and that live in the space of images that is spanned by the simulations. PRIMO follows Monte Carlo Markov Chains to fit a linear combination of principal components derived from an ensemble of simulated images to interferometric data. We show that PRIMO can efficiently and accurately reconstruct synthetic EHT data sets for several simulated images, even when the simulation parameters are significantly different from those of the image ensemble that was used to generate the principal components. The resulting reconstructions achieve resolution that is consistent with the performance of the array and do not introduce significant biases in image features such as the diameter of the ring of emission.

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arXiv2021

The Variability of the Black-Hole Image in M87 at the Dynamical Time Scale

The black-hole images obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) are expected to be variable at the dynamical timescale near their horizons. For the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, this timescale (5-61 days) is comparable to the 6-day extent of the 2017 EHT observations. Closure phases along baseline triangles are robust interferometric observables that are sensitive to the expected structural changes of the images but are free of station-based atmospheric and instrumental errors. We explored the day-to-day variability in closure phase measurements on all six linearly independent non-trivial baseline triangles that can be formed from the 2017 observations. We showed that three triangles exhibit very low day-to-day variability, with a dispersion of $\sim3-5^\circ$. The only triangles that exhibit substantially higher variability ($\sim90-180^\circ$) are the ones with baselines that cross visibility amplitude minima on the $u-v$ plane, as expected from theoretical modeling. We used two sets of General Relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations to explore the dependence of the predicted variability on various black-hole and accretion-flow parameters. We found that changing the magnetic field configuration, electron temperature model, or black-hole spin has a marginal effect on the model consistency with the observed level of variability. On the other hand, the most discriminating image characteristic of models is the fractional width of the bright ring of emission. Models that best reproduce the observed small level of variability are characterized by thin ring-like images with structures dominated by gravitational lensing effects and thus least affected by turbulence in the accreting plasmas.

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arXiv2021

A Red-Noise Eigenbasis for the Reconstruction of Blobby Images

We demonstrate the use of an eigenbasis that is derived from principal component analysis (PCA) applied on an ensemble of random-noise images that have a "red" power spectrum; i.e., a spectrum that decreases smoothly from large to small spatial scales. The pattern of the resulting eigenbasis allows for the reconstruction of images with a broad range of image morphologies. In particular, we show that this general eigen basis can be used to efficiently reconstruct images that resemble possible astronomical sources for interferometric observations; even though the images in the original ensemble used to generate the PCA basis are significantly different from the astronomical images. We further show that the efficiency and fidelity of the image reconstructions depends only weakly on the particular parameters of the red-noise power spectrum used to generate the ensemble of images.

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arXiv2021

Brightness Asymmetry of Black Hole Images as a Probe of Observer Inclination

The Event Horizon Telescope recently captured images of the supermassive black hole in the center of the M87 galaxy, which show a ring-like emission structure with the South side only slightly brighter than the North side. This relatively weak asymmetry in the brightness profile along the ring has been interpreted as a consequence of the low inclination of the observer (around 17 deg for M87), which suppresses the Doppler beaming and boosting effects that might otherwise be expected due to the nearly relativistic velocities of the orbiting plasma. In this work, we use a large suite of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations to reassess the validity of this argument. By constructing explicit counter examples, we show that low-inclination is a sufficient but not necessary condition for images to have low brightness asymmetry. Accretion flow models with high accumulated magnetic flux close to the black hole horizon (the so-called magnetically arrested disks) and low black-hole spins have angular velocities that are substantially smaller than the orbital velocities of test particles at the same location. As a result, such models can produce images with low brightness asymmetry even when viewed edge on.

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arXiv2020

Gravitational Test Beyond the First Post-Newtonian Order with the Shadow of the M87 Black Hole

The 2017 Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of the central source in M87 have led to the first measurement of the size of a black-hole shadow. This observation offers a new and clean gravitational test of the black-hole metric in the strong-field regime. We show analytically that spacetimes that deviate from the Kerr metric but satisfy weak-field tests can lead to large deviations in the predicted black-hole shadows that are inconsistent with even the current EHT measurements. We use numerical calculations of regular, parametric, non-Kerr metrics to identify the common characteristic among these different parametrizations that control the predicted shadow size. We show that the shadow-size measurements place significant constraints on deviation parameters that control the second post-Newtonian and higher orders of each metric and are, therefore, inaccessible to weak-field tests. The new constraints are complementary to those imposed by observations of gravitational waves from stellar-mass sources.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Markov Chains for Horizons (MARCH). I. Identifying Biases in Fitting Theoretical Models to Event Horizon Telescope Observations

We introduce a new Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm with parallel tempering for fitting theoretical models of horizon-scale images of black holes to the interferometric data from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The algorithm implements forms of the noise distribution in the data that are accurate for all signal-to-noise ratios. In addition to being trivially parallelizable, the algorithm is optimized for high performance, achieving 1 million MCMC chain steps in under 20 seconds on a single processor. We use synthetic data for the 2017 EHT coverage of M87 that are generated based on analytic as well as General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) model images to explore several potential sources of biases in fitting models to sparse interferometric data. We demonstrate that a very small number of data points that lie near salient features of the interferometric data exert disproportionate influence on the inferred model parameters. We also show that the preferred orientations of the EHT baselines introduce significant biases in the inference of the orientation of the model images. Finally, we discuss strategies that help identify the presence and severity of such biases in realistic applications.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2020

A Parametric model for the shapes of black-hole shadows in non-Kerr spacetimes

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is taking the first images of black holes resolved at horizon scales to measure their shadows and probe accretion physics. A promising avenue for testing the hypothesis that astrophysical black holes are described by the Kerr solution to Einstein's equations is to compare the size and shape of the shadow a black hole casts on the surrounding emission to the predictions of the Kerr metric. We develop here an efficient parametric framework to perform this test. We carry out ray-tracing simulations for several parametrized non-Kerr metrics to create a large data set of non-Kerr shadows that probe the allowed parameter space for the free parameters of each metric. We then perform principal components analysis (PCA) on this set of shadows and show that only a small number of components are needed to accurately reconstruct all shadows within the set. We further show that the amplitude of the PCA components are smoothly related to the free parameters in the metrics, and therefore, that these PCA components can be fit to EHT observations in order to place constraints on the free parameters of these metrics that will help quantify any potential deviations from the Kerr solution.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Discretization and Filtering Effects on Black Hole Images Obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope

Interferometers, such as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), do not directly observe the images of sources but rather measure their Fourier components at discrete spatial frequencies up to a maximum value set by the longest baseline in the array. Construction of images from the Fourier components or analysis of them with high-resolution models requires careful treatment of fine source structure nominally beyond the array resolution. The primary EHT targets, Sgr A* and M87, are expected to have black-hole shadows with sharp edges and strongly filamentary emission from the surrounding plasma on scales much smaller than those probed by the currently largest baselines. We show that for aliasing not to affect images reconstructed with regularized maximum likelihood methods and model images that are directly compared to the data, the sampling of these images (i.e., their pixel spacing) needs to be significantly finer than the scale probed by the largest baseline in the array. Using GRMHD simulations of black-hole images, we estimate the maximum allowable pixel spacing to be approximately equal to (1/8)GM/c^2; for both of the primary EHT targets, this corresponds to an angular pixel size of <0.5 microarcseconds. With aliasing under control, we then advocate use of the second-order Butterworth filter with a cut-off scale equal to the maximum array baseline as optimal for visualizing the reconstructed images. In contrast to the traditional Gaussian filters, this Butterworth filter retains most of the power at the scales probed by the array while suppressing the fine image details for which no data exist.

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arXiv2018

GRMHD simulations of visibility amplitude variability for Event Horizon Telescope images of Sgr A*

Synthesis imaging of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way, Sgr A*, with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) rests on the assumption of a stationary image. We explore the limitations of this assumption using high-cadence GRMHD simulations of Sgr A*. We employ analytic models that capture the basic characteristics of the images to understand the origin of the variability in the simulated visibility amplitudes. We find that, in all simulations, the visibility amplitudes for baselines oriented perpendicular to the spin axis of the black hole typically decrease smoothly over baseline lengths that are comparable to those of the EHT. On the other hand, the visibility amplitudes for baselines oriented parallel to the spin axis show significant structure with one or more minima. This suggests that fitting EHT observations with geometric models will lead to reasonably accurate determination of the orientation of the black-hole on the plane of the sky. However, in the disk-dominated models, the locations and depths of the minima in the visibility amplitudes depend primarily on the width and asymmetry of the crescent-like images and are highly variable. In the jet-dominated models, the locations of the minima are determined by the separation of the two image components but their depths depend primarily on the relative brightness of the two components and are also variable. This suggests that using time-independent models to infer additional black-hole parameters, such as the shadow size or the spin magnitude, will be severely affected by the variability of the accretion flow.

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