arXiv subjects

Sumanta Chakraborty

Publications and source records attributed to Sumanta Chakraborty.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Perturbing the perturbed: Stability of quasinormal modes in presence of a positive cosmological constant

In this work, we wish to address the question -- whether the quasi-normal modes, the characteristic frequencies associated with perturbed black hole spacetimes, central to the stability of these black holes, are themselves stable. Though the differential operator governing the perturbation of black hole spacetimes is self-adjoint, the boundary conditions are dissipative in nature, so that the spectral theorem becomes inapplicable, and there is no guarantee regarding the stability of the quasi-normal modes. We have provided a general method of transforming to the hyperboloidal coordinate system, for both asymptotically flat and asymptotically de Sitter spacetimes which neatly captures the dissipative boundary conditions, and the differential operator becomes non-self-adjoint. Employing the pseudospectrum analysis and numerically implementing the same through Chebyshev's spectral method, we present how the quasi-normal modes will drift away from their unperturbed values under external perturbation of the scattering potential. Intriguingly, for strong enough perturbation, even the fundamental quasi-normal mode, associated with gravitational perturbations, drifts away from its unperturbed position for asymptotically de Sitter black holes, in stark contrast to the case of asymptotically flat black holes. Besides presenting several other interesting results, specifically for asymptotically de Sitter black holes, we also discuss the implications of the instability of the fundamental quasi-normal mode on the strong cosmic censorship conjecture.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Addressing issues in defining the Love numbers for black holes

We present an analytic method for calculating the tidal response function of a nonrotating and a slowly rotating black hole from the Teukolsky equation in the small-frequency and near horizon limit. We point out that in the relativistic context, there can be two possible definitions of the tidal Love numbers and the dissipative part that arises from the tidal response function. Our results suggest that both of these definitions predict zero tidal Love numbers for a nonrotating black hole. On the other hand, for a slowly rotating black hole in a generic tidal environment, these two definitions of the tidal Love numbers do not coincide. While one procedure suggests zero tidal Love numbers, the other procedure gives purely imaginary tidal Love numbers. As expected, the dissipative terms differ as well. We emphasize that in our analysis, we keep all the terms linear in the frequency, unlike previous works in the literature. Following this, we propose a procedure to calculate the tidal response function -- and hence the Love numbers -- for an arbitrarily rotating black hole.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Universality of the Buchdahl sphere

Buchdahl sphere, the limiting stable isotropic stellar structure without exotic matter, plays a very important role in our understanding of how compact an astrophysical object can be. Here, we show certain universal properties associated with the Buchdahl sphere, in the sense that these properties will not change with the inclusion of electric charge in the stellar structure, or, will hold good in the pure Lovelock theories of gravity as well. Using these universalities, we have proposed a Buchdahl limit for a slowly-rotating stellar configuration, for the first time. Finally, the universality of the Buchdahl sphere in terms of the gravitational and non-gravitational field energies, as well as for the photon sphere have also been discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Transition from inspiral to plunge for braneworld EMRI

In the present article, we discuss the late inspiral and then the transition regime to the plunge phase of a secondary, less massive compact object into a more massive braneworld black hole, in the context of an extreme-mass-ratio inspiral. We obtain the approximate expressions for fluxes due to slowly evolving constants of motion, such as the energy and the angular momentum, in the presence of the tidal charge inherited from the higher spacetime dimensions for an extreme-mass-ratio system. These expressions for fluxes are further used to introduce dissipative effects while modeling the inspiral to the plunge phase through the transition regime. Within our setup, we provide a qualitative understanding of how the additional tidal charge present in the braneworld scenario may affect the timescale of the late inspiral to the plunge, in particular, by enhancing the time scale of the transition regime. Finally, we provide an estimate for the tidal charge from the higher dimensions, using the observable aspects of the transition regime from the late inspiral to the plunge by the gravitational wave detectors.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Dynamical Love for area quantized black holes

We study the tidal deformability of horizonless exotic compact objects, with implications for area quantized black holes. Since, any such horizonless compact object, including area quantized black hole, possesses a non-zero reflectivity, it follows that they inherit a nonzero tidal Love number, which varies as a function of the perturbing frequency. The reflectivity of the horizon for an area quantized black hole has a distinct shape and unmistakable features, which are also present in the frequency-dependent tidal Love numbers, and therefore is a smoking gun test for such quantum black holes. The existence of these features also promotes the dynamical Love number to be a crucial observational tool to not only distinguish area quantized black holes from other models of horizonless compact objects, but also to differentiate between black holes with distinct schemes of area quantization. We further discuss implications of the same for the present and the future gravitational wave detectors.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Shielding a charged black hole

We describe a shielding mechanism for a charged black hole immersed in a background involving charged matter fields, solely arising from the Einstein-Maxwell field equations. In particular, we consider a charged generalization of the Einstein cluster, that is a charged black hole surrounded by an effective fluid model for a partially charged dust cloud. We show that the shielding mechanism, arising thereof, is generic and appears in a different parametrization of the problem as well. In this process, we provide the most general electrovacuum solution in a spacetime region devoid of charges, but in the presence of a static and spherically symmetric charge distribution elsewhere. Side by side, we also introduce a convenient parametrization, providing the global solution of the Einstein-Maxwell's field equations in the presence of a charged black hole within the environment of charged fluid. We also comment on the nature of the photon sphere, shadow radius and the eikonal quasi-normal modes in the Einstein-Maxwell cluster.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Echoes from braneworld wormholes

We have studied the stability of wormhole geometries, under massless scalar, electromagnetic and axial gravitational perturbations, in the context of higher dimensional spacetimes. Intriguingly, the construction of a wormhole spacetime in the presence of higher dimensions, known as braneworld wormholes, \emph{does not} require the existence of exotic matter fields, unlike the scenario in four spacetime dimensions. Being a nonvacuum spacetime, the effective potential experienced by the axial gravitational perturbation differs considerably from the scenarios involving black holes. In particular, the present work provides one of the first attempts to study the gravitational perturbations of the wormhole spacetimes. Our analysis, involving both analytical and numerical techniques, demonstrates that there are echoes in the time domain signal of all the perturbations and the echo time delay is intimately related to the parameters originating from higher dimensions. Thereby combining the attempt to search for wormholes and extra dimensions, with the existence of gravitational wave echoes. Implications and future directions have also been discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Hunting extra dimensions in the shadow of Sgr A*

We show that the observed angular diameter of the shadow of the ultra compact object Sgr A*, favours the existence of an extra spatial dimension. This holds irrespective of the nature of the ultra compact object, i.e., whether it is a wormhole or, a black hole mimicker, but with the common feature that both of them have an extra dimensional origin. This result holds true for the mass and the distance measurements of Sgr A* using both Keck and the Gravity collaborations and whether we use the observed image or, the observed shadow diameter. In particular, the central value of the observed shadow or, the observed image diameter predicts non-zero hairs inherited from the extra dimensions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Gravitational wave memory in wormhole spacetimes

Gravitational wave memory is studied in the context of a certain class of braneworld wormholes. Unlike other wormhole geometries, this novel class of wormholes do not require any exotic matter fields for its traversability. First, we study geodesics in this wormhole spacetime, in the presence of a gravitational wave pulse. The resulting evolution of the geodesic separation shows the presence of displacement and velocity memory effects. Motivated by the same, we study the memory effects at null infinity using the Bondi-Sachs formalism, adapted for braneworld wormhole. Our analysis provides a non-trivial change of the Bondi mass after the passage of a burst of gravitational radiation and hence manifests the memory effect at null infinity. In both of these exercises, the presence of extra dimension and the wormhole nature of the spacetime geometry gets imprinted in the memory effect. Since future gravitational wave detectors will be able to probe the memory effect, the present work provides another avenue to search for compact objects other than black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Constraining extra dimensions using observations of black hole quasi-normal modes

The presence of extra dimensions generically modify the spacetime geometry of a rotating black hole, by adding an additional hair, besides the mass $M$ and the angular momentum $J$, known as the `tidal charge' parameter, $β$. In a braneworld scenario with one extra spatial dimension, the extra dimension is expected to manifest itself through -- (a) negative values of $β$, and (b) modified gravitational perturbations. This in turn would affect the quasi-normal modes of rotating black holes. We numerically solve the perturbed gravitational field equations using the continued fractions method and determine the quasi-normal mode spectra for the braneworld black hole. We find that increasingly negative values of $β$ correspond to a diminishing imaginary part of the quasi-normal mode, or equivalently, an increasing damping time. Using the publicly available data of the properties of the remnant black hole in the gravitational wave signal GW150914, we check for consistency between the predicted values (for a given $β$) of the frequency and damping time of the least-damped $\ell=2,m=2$ quasi-normal mode and measurements of these quantities using other independent techniques. We find that it is highly unlikely for the tidal charge, $β\lesssim -0.05$, providing a conservative limit on the tidal charge parameter. Implications and future directions are discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Weiss variation for general boundaries

The Weiss variation of the Einstein-Hilbert action with an appropriate boundary term has been studied for general boundary surfaces; the boundary surfaces can be spacelike, timelike, or null. To achieve this we introduce an auxiliary reference connection and find that the resulting Weiss variation yields the Einstein equations as expected, with additional boundary contributions. Among these boundary contributions, we obtain the dynamical variable and the associated conjugate momentum, irrespective of the spacelike, timelike or, null nature of the boundary surface. We also arrive at the generally non-vanishing covariant generalization of the Einstein energy-momentum pseudotensor. We study this tensor in the Schwarzschild geometry and find that the pseudotensorial ambiguities translate into ambiguities in the choice of coordinates on the reference geometry. Moreover, we show that from the Weiss variation, one can formally derive a gravitational Schr{ö}dinger equation, which may, despite ambiguities in the definition of the Hamiltonian, be useful as a tool for studying the problem of time in quantum general relativity. Implications have been discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Scalar perturbations around rotating regular black holes and wormholes: quasi-normal modes, ergoregion instability and superradiance

We study scalar test-field perturbations on top of a Kerr--black-bounce background, i.e. a family of rotating regular black holes and/or rotating traversable wormholes that can mimic Kerr black holes. We compute the quasi-normal modes for a massless field in both the regular black holes and wormhole branches, confirming the stability of the former and identifying a set of growing modes that renders the latter unstable. We further compute the superradiance amplification factors, for massless and massive fields, in the regular black hole branch, confirming that these objects superradiate, though to a lesser degree than the corresponding Kerr black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Strong cosmic censorship conjecture for a charged BTZ black hole

The strong cosmic censorship conjecture, whose validation asserts the deterministic nature of general relativity, has been studied for charged BTZ black holes in three dimensional general relativity, as well as for Nth order pure Lovelock gravity in d=2N+1 spacetime dimensions. Through both analytical and numerical routes, we have computed the ratio of the imaginary part of the quasi-normal mode frequencies with the surface gravity at the Cauchy horizon. The lowest of which corresponds to the key parameter associated with violation of strong cosmic censorship conjecture. Our results demonstrate that this parameter is always less than the critical value $(1/2)$, thereby respecting the strong cosmic censorship conjecture. This is in complete contrast to the four or, higher dimensional black holes, as well as for rotating BTZ black hole, where the violation of strong cosmic censorship conjecture exists. Implications and possible connection with the stability of the photon orbits have been discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Implications of the quantum nature of the black hole horizon on the gravitational-wave ringdown

Motivated by capturing putative quantum effects at the horizon scale, we model the black hole horizon as a membrane with fluctuations following a Gaussian profile. By extending the membrane paradigm at the semiclassical level, we show that the quantum nature of the black hole horizon implies partially reflective boundary conditions and a frequency-dependent reflectivity. This generically results into a modified quasi-normal mode spectrum and the existence of echoes in the postmerger signal. On a similar note, we derive the horizon boundary condition for a braneworld black hole that could originate from quantum corrections on the brane. This scenario also leads to a modified gravitational-wave ringdown. We discuss general implications of these findings for scenarios predicting quantum corrections at the horizon scale.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Non-trivial time crystal-like ground state for gravitational perturbation in quadratic gravity

We consider gravitational perturbation around maximally symmetric background of a theory of gravity involving quadratic curvature correction. This leads to a decoupled model of the standard transverse, traceless graviton mode and an additional scalar degree of freedom. Evolution of the latter is governed by a Lagrangian, which depends on higher derivative terms, inherited from the quadratic curvature correction in the action. It turns out that stability of the gravitational theory allows the scalar sector to choose between possible lowest energy states (or, ground states), that can sustain periodic form of inhomogeneity, either in space or in time. The latter, with a restricted form of invariance in time translation, is possibly a variant form of the time crystal. Existence of this novel ground state, depicting a time crystal, is solely related to the presence of higher curvature terms in the action. In particular, this non-trivial condensate-like ground state describe the spacetime fabric itself by introducing fundamental scales in the theory. Possible implications are also discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Bouncing with shear: Implications from quantum cosmology

We consider the introduction of anisotropy in a class of bouncing models of cosmology. The presence of anisotropy often spells doom on bouncing models, since the energy density due to the anisotropic stress outweighs that of other matter components, as the universe contracts. Different suggestions have been made in the literature to resolve this pathology, classically. Here, we introduce a family of bouncing models, in which the shear density can be tuned to either allow or forbid classical bouncing scenarios. Following this, we show that quantum cosmological considerations can drastically change the above scenario. Most importantly, we find that quantum effects can enable a bounce, even when the anisotropic stress is large enough to forbid the same classically. We employ the solutions of the appropriate mini-superspace Wheeler-DeWitt equation for homogeneous, but anisotropic cosmologies, with the boundary condition that the universe is initially contracting. Intriguingly, the solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation exhibit an interesting phase transition-like behaviour, wherein, the probability to have a bouncing universe is precisely unity before the shear density reaches a critical value and then starts to decrease abruptly as the shear density increases further. We verified our findings using the tools of the Lorentzian quantum cosmology, along with the application of the Picard-Lefschetz theory. In particular, the semi-classical probability for a bounce has been re-derived from the imaginary component of the on-shell effective action, evaluated at the complex saddle points. Implications and future directions have also been discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Supertranslations at Timelike Infinity

We propose a definition of asymptotic flatness at timelike infinity in four spacetime dimensions. We present a detailed study of the asymptotic equations of motion and the action of supertranslations on asymptotic fields. We show that the Lee-Wald symplectic form $Ω(g, δ_1 g, δ_2 g)$ does not get contributions from future timelike infinity with our boundary conditions. As a result, the "future charges" can be computed on any two-dimensional surface surrounding the sources at timelike infinity. We present expressions for supertranslation and Lorentz charges.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Hilltop inflation and generation of helical magnetic field

Primordial magnetic field generated in the inflationary era can act as a viable source for the present day intergalactic magnetic field of sufficient strength. We present a fundamental origin for such a primordial generation of the magnetic field, namely through anomaly cancellation of $U(1)$ gauge field in quantum electrodynamics in the context of hilltop inflation. We have analysed at length the power spectrum of the magnetic field, thus generated, which turns out to be helical in nature. We have also found that magnetic power spectrum has significant scale-dependence giving rise to a non-trivial magnetic spectral index, a key feature of this model. Interestingly, there exists a large parameter space, where magnetic field of significant strength can be produced.

gr-qc↗