arXiv subjects

Sijie Gao

Publications and source records attributed to Sijie Gao.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Geodesic completeness, curvature singularities and infinite tidal forces

We report some new findings regarding the subtle relations among geodesic completeness, curvature singularities and tidal forces. It is well known that any particle may be torn up near a singularity at the center of a black hole due to the divergent tidal force. However, we find that singularity is not the only cause of tidal force divergence. Even on the surface of the Earth, the tidal force experienced by a particle could be arbitrarily large if the particle moves arbitrarily close to the speed of light in a nonradial direction. Moreover, we find that the maximum tidal force always occurs along the radial direction, regardless of the particle's motion. Usually, a curvature singularity implies geodesic incompleteness since in many cases the metric cannot be defined at the location of the singularity. Counterexamples have been found in recent years, suggesting that geodesics could pass through curvature singularities. By taking into account the fact that any real particle is an extended body, we calculate the tidal force acting on the particle in a static and spherically symmetric spacetime. We explicitly show that an infinite tidal force always occurs near such a singularity. Therefore, no particle can actually reach the curvature singularity even if the metric is well defined at that point. We also demonstrate that the tidal acceleration along a null geodesic at the coordinate origin is divergent. Finally, we examine a wormhole solution which possesses a curvature singularity at its throat and was previously asserted to be geodesically complete in the literature. However, we prove that no metric can be defined at the throat and thus the spacetime is geodesically incomplete. we also show that the tidal forces experienced by any particle near the singularity are divergent.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Geometric Inequality for Axisymmetric Black Holes With Angular Momentum

In an effort to understand the Penrose inequality for black holes with angular momentum, an axisymmetric, vacuum, asymptotically Euclidean initial data set subject to certain quasi-stationary conditions is considered for a case study. A new geometric definition of angular velocity of a rotating black hole is defined in terms of the momentum constraint, without any reference to a stationary Killing vector field. The momentum constraint is then shown to be equivalent to the dynamics of a two-dimensional steady compressible fluid flow governed by a quasi-conformal mapping. In terms of spinors, a generalised first law for rotating black holes (possibly with multi-connected horizon located along the symmetry axis) is then proven and may be regarded as a Penrose-type inequality for black holes with angular momentum.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

General mass formulas for charged Kerr-AdS black holes

It is well-known that the mass of a non-asymptotically flat spacetime cannot be uniquely defined. Some mass formulas for the Kerr-AdS black hole have been found and used in studying black hole thermodynamics. However, the derivations usually need a background subtraction to eliminate the divergence at infinity. It is also unknown whether the mass depends on the choice of coordinates. In this paper, we provide a more straightforward derivation for the mass formula, only demanding that the first law of black hole thermodynamics and Smarr formula are satisfied. We first make use of the Iyer-Wald formalism to derive a first law which avoids the divergence at infinity. Then we apply this formula to charged Kerr-AdS black hole expressed in the coordinates rotating at infinity. However, the first law associated with the timelike Killing vector field $\frac{\partial}{\partial t}$ is not integrable. Then, by making use of the gauge freedom of $t$, we find a favorite parameter $t'$ which just makes the mass integrable. Applying the scaling argument, we show that the mass satisfies the Smarr formula and takes the form $M/Ξ^{3/2}$. Moreover, applying the conformal method with $\ppn{}{t'}$, we obtain the same mass. By applying the first law to the coordinates which is not rotating at infinity, we find a preferred time $T$ that makes the first law integrable and the mass is just the familiar mass $M/Ξ^2$ in the literature. This mass is also confirmed by the conformal method. We find that the two mass formulas correspond to different families of observers and the preferred Killing times. So our work clarifies the ambiguities of mass in Kerr-AdS spacetimes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

General Proof of the Tolman law

Tolman proposed that the proper temper $T$ of a static self-gravitating fluid in thermodynamic equilibrium satisfies the relation $χT=constant$, where $χ$ is the redshift factor of the spacetime. The Tolman law has been proven for radiation in stationary spacetimes and for perfect fluids in stationary, asymototically flat and axisymmetric spacetimes. It is unclear whether the proof can be extended to more general cases. In this paper, we prove that under some reasonable conditions, the Tolman law always holds for a perfect fluid in a stationary spacetime. The key assumption in our proof is that the particle number density $n$ can not be determined by the energy density $ρ$ and pressure $p$ via the equations of state. This is true for many known fluids with the equation of state $p=p(ρ)$. Then, by requiring that the total entropy of the fluid is an extremum for the variation of $n$ with a fixed metric, we prove the Tolman law. In our proof, only the conservations of stress energy and the total particle number are used, and no field equations are involved. Our work suggests that the Tolman law holds for a generic perfect fluid in a stationary spacetime, even beyond general relativity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Testing the weak cosmic censorship conjecture for extremal magnetized Kerr-Newman black holes

We test the weak cosmic censorship conjecture for magnetized Kerr-Newman spacetime via the method of injecting a test particle. Hence, we need to know how the black hole's parameters change when a test particle enters the horizon. This was an unresolved issue for non-asymptotically flat spacetimes since there are ambiguities on the energies of black holes and particles. We find a novel approach to solve the problem. We start with the "physical process version" of the first law, which relates the particle's parameters with the change in the area of the black hole. By comparing this first law with the usual first law of black hole thermodynamics, we redefine the particle's energy such that the energy can match the mass parameter of the black hole. Then, we show that the horizon of the extremal magnetized Kerr-Newman black hole could be destroyed after a charged test particle falls in, which leads to a possible violation of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture. We also find that the allowed parameter range for this process is very small, which indicates that after the self-force and radiation effects are taken into account, the weak cosmic censorship conjecture could still be valid. In contrast to the case where the magnetic field is absent, the particle cannot be released at infinity to destroy the horizon. And in the case of a weak magnetic field, the releasing point becomes closer to the horizon as the magnetic field increases. This indicates that the magnetic field makes the violation of the cosmic censorship more difficult. Finally, by applying our new method to Kerr-Newman-dS (AdS) black holes, which are well-known non-asymptotically flat spacetimes, we obtain the expression of the particle's energy which matches the black hole's mass parameter.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Light rings and long-lived modes in quasi-black hole spacetimes

It has been argued that ultracompact objects, which possess light rings but no horizons, may be unstable against gravitational perturbations. To test this conjecture, we revisit the quasi-black hole solutions, a family of horizonless spacetimes whose limit is the extremal Reissner-Nordström black hole. We find a critical parameter at which the light rings just appear. We then calculate the quasinormal modes of the quasi-black holes. Both the WKB result and the numerical result show that long-live modes survive for the range where light rings exist, indicating that horizonless spacetimes with light rings are unstable. Our work provides a strong and explicit example that light rings could be direct observational evidence for black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Universality of entropy principle for a general diffeomorphism-covariant purely gravitational theory

Thermodynamics plays an important role in gravitational theories. It is a principle independent of the gravitational dynamics, and there is still no rigorous proof to show that it is consistent with the dynamical principle. We consider a self-gravitating perfect fluid system in a general diffeomorphism-covariant purely gravitational theory. Based on the Noether charge method proposed by Iyer and Wald, considering static off/on-shell variational configurations which satisfy the gravitational constraint equation, we rigorously prove that the extrema of the total entropy of perfect fluid inside a compact region for fixed total particle number demands that the static configuration is an on-shell solution after we introduce some appropriate boundary conditions, i.e., it also satisfies the spatial gravitational equations. This means that the entropy principle of the fluid stores the same information as the gravitational equation in a static configuration. Our proof is universal and holds for any diffeomorphism-covariant purely gravitational theories, such as Einstein gravity, f(R) gravity, Lovelock gravity, f(Gauss-Bonnet) gravity and Einstein-Weyl gravity. Our result shows the consistency between the ordinary thermodynamics and the gravitational dynamics.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Universal Properties of Light Rings for Stationary Axisymmetric Spacetimes

Light rings (LRs) play an important role in gravitational wave observations and black hole photographs. In this paper, we investigate general features of LRs in stationary, axisymmetric, asymptotically flat spacetimes with or without horizons. For a nonextremal black hole, we show explicitly that there always exist at least two LRs propagating in opposite directions, where the outermost one is radially unstable. For an extremal black hole, we show that there exists at least one retrograde LR. We find that there is at least one LR which is angularly stable. The stability analysis does not involve any energy condition. Our method also applies to horizonless spacetimes and we prove that LRs always appear in pairs. Only some natural and generic assumptions are used in our proof. The results are applicable to general relativity as well as most modified theories of gravity. In contrast to previous works on this issue, we obtain much stronger results with a much more straightforward approach.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Overcharging magnetized black holes at linear order and the weak cosmic censorship conjecture

Evidences have been found that the weak cosmic censorship conjecture could be violated if test particles with charge and angular momentum are injected into a black hole. However, second-order corrections and fine-tunings on the particle's parameters are required in previous studies, indicating that self-force and radiative effects must be taken into account. In this paper, we first consider a magnetically charged particle falling into an extremal Bardeen black hole, which is regular (with no singularity) and has a magnetic monopole at the center. We then investigate a general class of magnetic black holes with or without singularities. In all the cases, we show that the test particle with magnetic charge could overcharge the black hole, causing possible violation of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture. In contrast to previous arguments in the literature, second-order corrections are not necessary in our analysis and the results are not sensitive to the particle's parameters. Our work indicates that the self-force effect, which is related to the second-order correction, may not help rescue the weak cosmic censorship conjecture in our examples.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Universality of BSW mechanism for spinning particles

Bañados $et\, al.$ (BSW) found that Kerr black holes can act as particle accelerators with collisions at arbitrarily high center-of-mass energies. Recently, collisions of particles with spin around some rotating black holes have been discussed. In this paper, we study the BSW mechanism for spinning particles by using a metric ansatz which describes a general rotating black hole. We notice that there are two inequivalent definitions of center-of-mass (CM) energy for spinning particles. We mainly discuss the CM energy defined in terms of the worldline of the particle. We show that there exists an energy-angular momentum relation $e = Ω_h j$ that causes collisions with arbitrarily high energy near-extremal black holes. We also provide a simple but rigorous proof that the BSW mechanism breaks down for nonextremal black holes. For the alternative definition of the CM energy, some authors find a new critical spin relation that also causes the divergence of the CM mass. However, by checking the timelike constraint, we show that particles with this critical spin cannot reach the horizon of the black hole. Further numerical calculation suggests that such particles cannot exist anywhere outside the horizon. Our results are universal, independent of the underlying theories of gravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Critical phenomena in gravitational collapse of Husain-Martinez-Nunez scalar field

We construct analytical models to study the critical phenomena in gravitational collapse of the Husain-Martinez-Nunez massless scalar field. We first use the cut-and-paste technique to match the conformally flat solution ($c=0$ ) onto an outgoing Vaidya solution. To guarantee the continuity of the metric and the extrinsic curvature, we prove that the two solutions must be joined at a null hypersurface and the metric function in Vaidya spacetime must satisfy some constraints. We find that the mass of the black hole in the resulting spacetime takes the form $M\propto (p-p^*)^γ$, where the critical exponent $γ$ is equal to $0.5$. For the case $c\neq 0$, we show that the scalar field must be joined onto two pieces of Vaidya spacetimes to avoid a naked singularity. We also derive the power-law mass formula with $γ=0.5$. Compared with previous analytical models constructed from a different scalar field with continuous self-similarity, we obtain the same value of $γ$. However, we show that the solution with $c\neq 0$ is not self-similar. Therefore, we provide a rare example that a scalar field without self-similarity also possesses the features of critical collapse.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

First law and Smarr formula of black hole mechanics in nonlinear gauge theories

Motivated by the fact that Bardeen black holes do not satisfy the usual first law and Smarr formula, we derive a generalized first law from the Lagrangian of nonlinear gauge field coupled to gravity. In our treatment, the Lagrangian is a function of the electromagnetic invariant as well as some additional parameters. Consequently, we obtain new terms in the first law. With our formula, we find the correct forms of the first law for Bardeen black holes and Born-Infeld black holes. By scaling arguments, we also derive a general Smarr formula from the first law. Our results apply to a wide class of black holes with nonlinear gauge fields.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Five-dimensional Myers-Perry Black Holes as Particle Accelerators

It has been shown that black holes could be used as particle accelerators to create arbitrarily high center-of-mass (CM) energy if certain critical conditions are satisfied. Most studies so far are confined in four-dimensional spacetimes. In this paper, we present a systematic analysis on five-dimensional Myers-Perry black holes and find some novel properties compared to four-dimensional Kerr black holes. Firstly, we give a rigorous proof that untrhigh energy collisions cannot occur near a five-dimensional nonextremal black hole. Secondly, For extremal black holes, we find a critical condition on the particles' parameters causing ultraenergetic collisions. Thirdly, when the spacetime contains a naked singularity, we show that the CM energy could diverge at the singularity if one of the particle just bounces back at the singularity. Finally, we explore a special and important case where the naked singularity just begins to form. Surprisingly, the ultraenergetic collisions do not need any fine-turning in that case. However, we find that one of the conserved angular momentums must be nonzero.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Kerr black holes as accelerators of spinning test particles

It has been shown that ultraenergetic collisions can occur near the horizon of an extremal Kerr black hole. Previous studies mainly focused on geodesic motions of particles. In this paper, we consider spinning test particles whose orbits are non-geodesic. By employing the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon equation, we find the critical angular momentum satisfies $J=2E$ for extremal Kerr black holes. Although the conserved angular momentum $J$ and energy $E$ have been redefined in the presence of spin, the critical condition remains the same form. If a particle with this angular momentum collides with another particle arbitrarily close to the horizon of the black hole, the center-of-mass energy can be arbitrarily high. We also prove that arbitrarily high energies cannot be obtained for spinning particles near the horizons of non-extremal Kerr black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

A static spherically symmetric thin shell wormhole colliding with a spherical thin shell

We consider a static spherically symmetric thin shell wormhole collides with another thin shell consisting of ordinary matter. By employing the geometrical constraint, which leads to the conservation of energy and momentum, we show that the state after the collision can be solved from the initial data. In the low speed approximation, the solutions are rather simple. The shell may either bounce back or pass through the wormhole. In either case, the wormhole shrinks right after the collision. In the "bouncing" case, a surprising result is that the radial speeds before and after the collision satisfy an addition law, which is independent of the masses of the wormhole and the shell. Once the shell passes through the wormhole, we find that the shell always expands. However, the expansion rate is the same as its collapsing rate right before the collision. Finally, we find out the solution for the shell moving together with the wormhole.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Proof of entropy principle in Einstein-Maxwell theory

We consider a static self-gravitating charged perfect fluid system in the Einstein-Maxwell theory. Assume Maxwell's equation and the Einstein constraint equation are satisfied, and the temperature of the fluid obeys Tolman's law. Then we prove that the total entropy of the fluid achieves an extremum implies other components of Einstein's equation for any variations of metric and electrical potential with fixed boundary values. Conversely, if Einstein's equation and Maxwell's equations hold, the total entropy achieves an extremum. Our work suggests that the maximum entropy principle is consistent with Einstein's equation when electric field is taken into account.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Mass Dependence of the Entropy Product and Sum

For black holes with multiple horizons, the area product of all horizons has been proven to be mass independent in many cases. Counterexamples were also found in some occasions. In this paper, we first prove a theorem derived from the first law of black hole thermodynamics and a mathematical lemma related to the Vandermonde determinant. With these arguments, we develop some general criterion for the mass independence of the entropy product as well as the entropy sum. In particular, if a $d$-dimensional spacetime is spherically symmetric and its radial metric function $f(r)$ is a Laurent series in $r$ with the lowest power $-m$ and the highest power $n$, we find the criteria is extremely simple: The entropy product is mass independent if and only if $m\geq d-2$ and $n\geq4-d$. The entropy sum is mass independent if and only if $m\geq d-2$ and $n\geq 2$. Compared to previous works, our method does not require an exact expression of the metric. Our arguments turn out to be useful even for rotating black holes. By applying our theorem and lemma to a Myers-Perry black hole with spacetime dimension $d$, we show that the entropy product/sum is mass independent for all $d>4$, while it is mass dependent only for $d=4$, i.e., the Kerr solution.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Thin shell model revisited

We reconsider some fundamental problems of the thin shell model. First, we point out that the "cut and paste" construction does not guarantee a well-defined manifold because there is no overlap of coordinates across the shell. When one requires that the spacetime metric across the thin shell is continuous, it also provides a way to specify the tangent space and the manifold. Other authors have shown that this specification leads to the conservation laws when shells collide. On the other hand, the well-known areal radius $r$ seems to be a perfect coordinate covering all regions of a spherically symmetric spacetime. However, we show by simple but rigorous arguments that $r$ fails to be a coordinate covering a neighborhood of the thin shell if the metric across the shell is continuous. When two spherical shells collide and merge into one, we show that it is possible that $r$ remains to be a good coordinate and the conservation laws hold. To make this happen, different spacetime regions divided by the shells must be glued in a specific way such that some constraints are satisfied. We compare our new construction with the old one by solving constraints numerically.

gr-qc↗