Papers

We investigate the harvesting of genuine tripartite entanglement by three linearly arranged Unruh-DeWitt detectors locally coupled to a massless scalar field in a gravitational wave background. We show that gravitational waves play a dual role in entanglement harvesting, either enhancing or suppressing the harvested entanglement depending on the system parameters. In particular, genuine tripartite entanglement exhibits a pronounced nonmonotonic response to the gravitational wave frequency, characterized by successive suppression, enhancement resembling resonance, and renewed suppression, while approaching its corresponding value in Minkowski spacetime in the regime of high frequencies. Its dependence on the detector separation is also nonmonotonic, displaying local enhancement peaks that are absent in the corresponding bipartite entanglement behavior. Compared with bipartite entanglement, genuine tripartite entanglement therefore exhibits a higher sensitivity to gravitational wave perturbations in both the frequency and spatial domains. These results suggest that genuine tripartite entanglement may provide a sensitive quantum probe of spacetime perturbations induced by gravitational waves.

We investigate the Joule Thomson expansion of a symmergent black hole within an extended phase-space formalism in which the thermodynamic pressure is introduced as an independent variable. The symmergent entropy contains the parameter alpha-hat, which modifies the enthalpy and thermodynamic volume relative to their standard forms. We show that the Joule Thomson coefficient depends only on the combination 8piP*r_+^2, leading to an inversion curve P_i = (pi/2) * I_i^2 that is independent of alpha-hat. The isenthalpic curves, however, retain a parametric dependence on alpha-hat, indicating that the symmergent sector affects the thermodynamic trajectories but not the inversion boundary itself. The inversion pressure and temperature are derived explicitly, and the cooling regime P > P_i is distinguished from the heating regime P < P_i. Since the effective geometry is asymptotically AdS-like for positive pressure, the results also admit a holographic reading, in which the Joule Thomson expansion corresponds to an isenthalpic process in the dual field theory. The results provide a consistent thermodynamic framework for symmergent black holes and clarify the role of the symmergent parameters in the Joule Thomson process.

In this paper, we study Abelian T-duality of the string charge density/bit threads correspondence in ten-dimensional Type II supergravity. T-duality along the common compact circle maps the Type IIB F1-NS5-P background to a Type IIA P-NS5-F1 background with the winding and momentum charges exchanged. The radial F1 source remains an F1 source, and its projected charge density gives a bit-thread flow whose maximal flux reproduces the black hole entropy. The same duality maps D1-D5-P to D0-D4-F1. In this case, a radial D1 source becomes a D2 source wrapped on the dual circle. Contracting the resulting spatial bivector with the normalized closed one-form on that circle gives a conserved effective radial flow whose maximal flux again reproduces the entropy. Although the local metrics, dilatons, source currents, and flow norms change, the dilaton-weighted transverse area density and the integrated maximal flux are invariant. These results provide a nontrivial T-duality test of the correspondence and extend it from string currents to wrapped-brane currents that reduce to string-like flows.

We investigate the spin-curvature interaction for a massive spin-1/2 quantum particle in a slowly rotating black hole spacetime. In contrast to the flat Minkowski space, the curved spacetime introduces non-trivial spin connections into the Dirac equation due to the direct curvature-spin interaction. The force arising from this non-trivial spin-curvature coupling makes the particle deviate from its geodesics. We first calculate the tetrads in the co-moving frame of the particle in the slowly rotating black hole background. We then compute the components of the relativistic quantum force, arising from the spin-curvature interaction, using these co-moving tetrads up to linear order in the rotation parameter ($a$) of the black hole. The procedure of computing the force is based on the WKB approximation and the Gordon decomposition method for the Dirac probability four current. Our results show that the rotation parameter modifies the magnitude of the force by introducing a term that decays more rapidly with radial distance than the force magnitude in a static spherically symmetric Schwarzschild black hole spacetime.

We develop a new parametrization for generic departures from the $\Lambda$CDM model based on the Markov-Mukhanov action with non-minimal matter-gravity coupling. In this approach the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ and the gravitational coupling $G$ become dynamical with their values determined by the explicit form of the matter-gravity coupling. We use the framework to build a simple phenomenological model where dynamical dark energy is naturally obtained as a consequence of the departure of the theory from classical General Relativity at low densities. We show how the model's free parameters can be constrained from observational data and interpret the tentative observations of `phantom crossing' by the DESI collaboration in view of the proposed formalism.

We establish a saddle-order proposition for the ensemble-averaged generalized free energy in reduced Euclidean black hole ensembles. Under regularity and stability assumptions, the leading fluctuation contribution is determined by the order of the first stabilizing term around the dominant saddle. An ordinary critical point is governed by a quartic soft mode, giving a quarter-temperature contribution instead of the familiar half-temperature Gaussian result. We verify this analytically for four-dimensional RN-AdS and Kerr-AdS black holes and map their thermodynamic controls to a common quartic normal form, whose scaling function connects the critical and Gaussian regimes along the zero-field one-well direction. The proposition also extends to coupled collective modes with weighted-homogeneous leading potentials. These results provide a unified description of reduced-ensemble fluctuations through black hole criticality.

Semiclassical gravity provides a promising framework to address the black hole singularity problem through quantum backreaction characterized by a coupling parameter, making it essential to thoroughly explore the accretion properties around such objects. In this paper, within the framework of semiclassical gravity with type-A trace anomaly, we investigate the thermal radiative signatures of Novikov-Thorne accretion disks around rotating black holes across diverse parameter spaces, focusing on the energy flux density, temperature profile, and thermal luminosity. Our findings demonstrate that the introduction of the coupling parameter suppresses disk emission, leading to lower peak values of both energy flux density and temperature, as well as lower peak values and corresponding peak frequencies in thermal luminosity compared to their Kerr counterparts in general relativity. In particular, this discrepancy becomes remarkably pronounced when the black hole possesses a high spin. Mechanistically, increasing the coupling parameter reinforces the effective gravitational field strength of the central compact object, which pushes the equatorial stable circular orbits outward and increases the specific energy of the orbiting matter, thereby reducing the radiative efficiency and weakening the overall disk emission. This suppression mechanism offers a practical astrophysical window to distinguish semiclassical gravity from general relativity and to place observational constraints on the coupling parameter via thermal disk spectra.

We study continuous scalar-hair bifurcations from stationary black holes with a nonextremal Cauchy horizon. Although the exterior deformation vanishes at criticality, the critical zero mode generically develops a logarithmic branch at the reference Cauchy horizon, producing a nonuniform critical limit. We show that the coefficient of this logarithm in the scalar perturbation, together with local Cauchy-horizon data, determines the exponential collapse rate of the Einstein-Rosen bridge. If the post-collapse geometry evolves into a Kasner regime, the boundary order-parameter scaling $O\propto|\lambda-\lambda_c|^\beta$ further implies $ 1-p_t\propto|\lambda-\lambda_c|^{2\beta}. $ Crucially, zero-mode matching fixes both the critical exponents and the associated amplitudes, without any fit to the nonlinear interior. We illustrate this mechanism in the transition from rotating BTZ to hairy rotating black holes. For scalarized RN-AdS$_4$ black branes, we quantitatively verify the predicted Kasner scaling using fully nonlinear numerical solutions. At low temperature, two charged models with identical linear critical data instead approach different infrared endpoints, yielding respectively power-law and inverse-logarithmic Kasner scaling. Thus interiors near a finite-temperature bifurcation are controlled by zero-mode transmission, whereas low temperature scaling is governed by the nonlinear infrared completion.

In this paper, we study Einstein-Dirac system based on a Dirac fermion coupled with a nonlinear chiral field on static spherically symmetric spacetime. Gravitational effects on the dynamical mass of fermions are examined. The chiral quark soliton model (CQSM) originally was a model of hadron inspired by the low-energy regime of large-$N_\textrm{c}$ QCD, realizing localized fermions with the full inclusion of the Dirac-sea, which is derived from a regularized one-fermion loop. We extend the CQSM in spherically symmetric curved spacetime and coupled with the Einstein gravity. We successfully solve the CQSM and the Einstein equation self-consistently, and obtain the spectral flow of the fermion energies and also of the ADM mass. The Dirac-sea dilutes the effect of the energy-momentum tensor, which induces an inactive point for the impact of gravity even when the localizing matter exists. The Dirac-sea effect becomes dominant for larger dynamical mass $M\sim \langle\bar{\psi}\psi\rangle$, leading to the emergence of the negative ADM mass.

We examine the round Euclidean no-boundary saddle proposed by Liu, Quintin, and Afshordi in "Ultraviolet Completion of the Big Bang in Quadratic Gravity." For a free, massless, conformal realization of their large matter sector, the omitted type-A trace anomaly contributes at leading order in the matter multiplicity. Within the one-loop renormalization-group-improved pure quadratic truncation, both the sphere effective action and the local trace equation show that a stationary point of the running $R^2$ coupling supports a round sphere only if the total Euler anomaly coefficient vanishes. Using the proposed beta function, we further find that no real stationary coupling ratio exists when this coefficient exceeds $79/420$, a bound violated parametrically by the assumed matter sector when the remaining gravitational contributions are perturbatively controlled and of order unity. The local obstruction also applies to a round half-sphere and cannot be removed by shifting its radius. Under these assumptions, the proposed round starting geometry and its stated continuation to Lorentzian inflation are excluded, without ruling out inflation from other initial conditions.

We introduce a family of static and spherically symmetric regular black-hole geometries characterized by a discrete core index $n$, a regularization scale $a$, and a dimensionless deformation parameter $\eta$. The construction starts from a positive, normalized effective density profile with a tunable central behavior. The lowest member contains the Bardeen geometry as a limiting case, whereas a nonzero deformation parameter generates a Reissner–Nordström-like asymptotic correction. The parameter $n$ controls the order of central depletion: the lowest member possesses a de Sitter-type core, whereas higher members approach a Minkowski-like center with vanishing density and curvature. We determine the horizon structure, extremality condition, Hawking temperature, entropy, and the horizon thermodynamic identity implied by the radial Einstein equation. Null geodesics are analyzed to obtain the photon sphere, critical impact parameter, and shadow radius, including analytic weak-deformation approximations, the exact Schwarzschild and Bardeen limits, and comparison with the leading Reissner–Nordström-like behavior. The photon-orbit angular frequency and Lyapunov exponent are then used to separate orbital and instability timescales; their ratio provides information not already contained in the shadow radius. Weak gravitational lensing and magnification are discussed through a controlled sector-isolated expansion of the asymptotic metric. We further study timelike geodesics, circular motion, the marginally bound orbit, and the innermost stable circular orbit, deriving exact implicit relations and perturbative expressions. The model provides a unified framework for investigating how a tunable regular core and an RN-like exterior deformation affect the thermodynamic and geodesic properties of regular black holes.

This article is the second part of a review devoted to spacetime singularities in classical General Relativity. While Primer I developed the mathematical framework for defining, classifying, and proving the existence of singularities, the present work examines their concrete realization in spatially homogeneous cosmological models. After reviewing the geometrical foundations of homogeneity and the Bianchi classification, we derive the field equations for orthogonal and tilted perfect fluid cosmologies and use the Kasner and Bianchi I solutions as elementary prototypes of anisotropic singular behaviour. Raychaudhuri focusing provides general conditions under which the homogeneous Cauchy development reaches a finite proper time boundary. We then distinguish matter singularities, characterized by divergent density and Ricci curvature, from more subtle non-scalar or whimper singularities associated with Cauchy horizons and extreme fluid tilt. The classical Ellis-King analysis is reconsidered in the light of later developments, including rigorous curvature-blow-up results for Bianchi VIII and IX models, kinematic singularities in geodesically complete tilted spacetimes, and the recent reappearance of whimper behaviour in dipole cosmology. The resulting picture shows that even spatially homogeneous cosmologies exhibit a remarkably rich hierarchy of singular boundaries. The detailed dynamical approach to these boundaries - Hamiltonian cosmology, Kasner transitions, Mixmaster dynamics and the BKL conjecture - is reserved for Primer III.

We present a unification scheme for anisotropic compact stars generated via minimal geometric deformation (MGD), built on a two-parameter seed family $\nu(r)=\text{Ln}[C(1+ar^{2n})^{m}]$ whose radial metric potential $\mu(r)=e^{-\lambda(r)}$ is fixed in closed form by the isotropy condition. At $n=1$ the family reproduces Tolman IV, Korkina–Orlyanskii, Heintzmann IIa, and Durgapal IV–V as the particular cases $m=1,2,3,4,5$. The key result is a single closure of the MGD $\theta$-sector, through one source function $g(r)$, that integrates the decoupler equation in closed form, in terms of the Gauss hypergeometric function ${}_2F_1$, for arbitrary $(n,m)$: the anisotropic extension of the $n=1$ family is thus obtained from one master formula. We derive the effective anisotropic matter content, the Darmois–Israel matching to the exterior Schwarzschild vacuum, and the full set of physical acceptability criteria constraining the parameter space, and map the admissible region in compactness and decoupling strength explicitly for the case $n=1$: Tolman IV and Korkina–Orlyanskii admit physically consistent anisotropic deformations at arbitrarily high compactness, while Heintzmann IIa and Durgapal IV–V are bounded by a compactness ceiling beyond which no value of the decoupling parameter restores causality. Using the same closed-form matter content, we compute the quadrupolar tidal Love number and dimensionless tidal deformability across the admissible region, finding that the decoupling systematically enhances both relative to the isotropic seed at fixed compactness, with a sharp rise near the causal ceiling in the Heintzmann and Durgapal branches.

We determine the electrostatic Dirichlet-to-Neumann map of an arbitrary four-dimensional Majumdar–Papapetrou spacetime. For a minimally coupled spectator Maxwell field, the potentials of the disconnected extremal horizons may be prescribed independently, and the resulting flux charges are related by an exact capacitance matrix. If the centers have masses $M_A$ and coordinate separations $R_{AB}$, its entries are $C_{AA}=M_A+\sum_{B\ne A}M_AM_B/R_{AB}$ and $C_{AB}=-M_AM_B/R_{AB}$. The matrix is a positive diagonal term plus the weighted Laplacian of the complete graph of horizons, giving an exact common-mode and differential-mode decomposition of the field energy. The grounded Dirichlet Green function shows that a point charge partitions its flux among infinity and the horizons according to elementary harmonic measures. A direct translation of the multicenter Green function of Frolov and Zelnikov gives the diagonal completion used in their published Eq.~(68), whose component-resolved Gauss flux preserves the total horizon charge but generally transfers charge between horizons. The symmetric Green function that preserves every horizon charge instead contains the inverse of the full capacitance matrix. For a binary, the difference gives a finite, negative-semidefinite shift of the electrostatic self-energy and a corresponding exact self-force difference without an additional ultraviolet subtraction. We finally extend the response matrix, flux partition, and fixed-charge Green function to $D=n+3$ dimensions, where the graph weights acquire the universal factor $\pi^{n/2}/\Gamma(n/2)$.

We prove that a smooth, regular, asymptotically flat stationary vacuum black hole has a nonextremal Kerr exterior if no null geodesic orthogonal to its stationary Killing field is trapped, establishing the rigidity conjecture of Alexakis, Ionescu, and Klainerman. In the rotating case, we start with the rotational Killing field constructed near the bifurcation sphere and study a maximal domain carrying its complete circle action. The main difficulty is to recover boundary regularity and the curvature condition needed for local Killing extension. We derive uniform estimates along complete rotational orbits from nontrapping and combine them with convexity along short null geodesics. These estimates show that a nonempty remaining boundary in the ergoregion is a timelike photon surface for the stationary quotient metric. Its null geodesics lift to spacetime null geodesics orthogonal to the stationary field. The vacuum circularity identities give their continuation through contact with the ergosurface, keeping their stationary projections in a compact set. This contradicts nontrapping and yields the global rotational symmetry required by black hole uniqueness.

The Voyager spacecraft have been detecting plasma oscillations of a few kHz for over 40 years. However, there is still no widely accepted hypothesis for the astrophysical source of the oscillations. Having entered the local interstellar medium, these detections have persisted, adding to the challenge of identifying the astrophysical source. Neutron stars were one of the earliest hypothesized candidates of the electromagnetic radiation responsible for the detected plasma oscillations, but no theoretical mechanism could be identified to explain the frequency of the oscillations. We explore the recently developed theory of co-production of electromagnetic radiation in gravitational wave backgrounds as a possible source of these low-frequency oscillations and investigate whether neutron stars could be the astrophysical source.

We investigate the question of equivalence between the Einstein and Jordan frames for generic scalar-tensor and $f(R)$ gravity theories in the context of minisuperspace quantum cosmology. We consider, particularly, the minisuperspace of a homogeneous and isotropic universe with the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric. We show that the equivalence between the frames depends on the operator ordering scheme of the quantum Hamiltonian: if the quantum theory is covariant under point canonical transformations in the minisuperspace, then the equivalence between the two frames holds. We find that for a large class of operator orderings, including the Laplace-Beltrami operator in the minisuperspace, the wave functions of the universe obtained in the two frames are related by the same transformations that connect the two frames, i.e., the frames are quantum mechanically equivalent. Further, we show that adding a fluid clock with an arbitrary equation of state parameter $w$ to the system breaks the equivalence, except for the case of a radiation fluid ($w=1/3$). All our arguments are presented at a formal level in both canonical and path integral approaches, and for any scalar-tensor, $f(R)$ theories without assuming any particular model.

We construct a static and spherically symmetric black hole (BH) spacetime surrounded by a depleted Dehnen dark matter (DM) halo. The model describes a final equilibrium configuration rather than dynamical accretion process: the initial halo mass inside a prescribed inner edge is incorporated into the central BH, leaving a vacuum gap between the dressed horizon and the surviving halo. Consequently, the horizon radius depends on the Dehnen cusp index $\gamma$ and the absorbed halo mass, while the Schwarzschild result is recovered exactly when the halo is removed. We derive general expressions for the metric functions and redshift phase and obtain explicit solutions for $\gamma=0,1,2,$ and $5/2$. The dominant energy condition imposes the universal local bound $\kappa\geq5/4$, whereas global admissibility depends additionally on the cusp index and halo compactness. A literal stable Einstein-cluster interpretation requires the stronger condition $\kappa\geq3$ when stable circular motion is imposed at the halo edge. We also analyze the photon sphere, shadow, and admissible parameter space, demonstrating how the halo cusp and depletion scale affect strong-field observables. Previously studied analytic BH–halo geometries and the Schwarzschild and weak-halo limits follow as special cases of the general construction.

We propose a novel method for constructing ghost-free multi-field higher-derivative scalar-tensor theories. The idea is to start from spatially covariant gravity and couple it to an additional scalar field. The resulting spatially covariant scalar field theory can be understood as a bi-scalar-tensor theory in the unitary gauge of one scalar. Within a broad class in which metric velocities enter through the extrinsic curvature and the additional scalar enters through temporal derivatives up to second order, we perform a Hamiltonian constraint analysis. We show that the theory generally propagates five physical degrees of freedom (DOFs), i.e., two tensor modes and three scalar modes. One of the scalar modes is the unwanted mode associated with the additional scalar. We then derive a degeneracy condition and an additional consistency condition. When both conditions hold, the unwanted mode is eliminated and the theory propagates four degrees of freedom. The resulting theories fall into two cases, depending on whether the preservation of the tertiary constraint closes without a new constraint or generates a quaternary constraint. We also study the two-field disformal transformation, derive its invertibility condition, and express it in the unitary gauge. Our construction provides a systematic approach to constructing bi- and multi-scalar-tensor theories with higher derivatives.

In this work, we construct models compatible with ACT constraints on inflation in the framework of $f\left(Q, \tilde R\right)$ gravity, with $f(R)$ gravity coupled to a scalar field. The $f\left(Q, \tilde R\right)$ theory is equivalent to $f(Q, B)$ gravity models or $f(Q, C)$ gravity where $B$ or $C$ is the difference between $Q$ and the scalar curvature $\tilde R$ in Einstein's gravity, so, $B=Q-\tilde R$ or $C=\tilde R - Q$. Using appropriate reconstruction techniques compatible with $f\left(Q, \tilde R\right)$ theory, we propose two functional behaviors of the Hubble rate $H$ that satisfy the constraints, and we construct models that realize these behaviors of the Hubble rate $H$ using $f\left(Q, \tilde R\right)$ gravity and $f(R)$ gravity coupled with a scalar field. We also discuss the reheating stage after inflation. Although the scenario of $f(R)$ gravity coupled with a scalar field is well-known, since the model can be rewritten in the form of Einstein's gravity coupled with two scalar fields, the non-trivial problem occurs in the $f\left(Q, \tilde R\right)$ gravity case, because the number of dynamical degrees of freedom in $f(Q)$ gravity is not settled.

We investigate the correspondence between quasinormal modes (QNMs) and grey-body factors (GBFs) of higher-dimensional Reissner-Nordström black holes. Considering gravitational perturbations of these black holes, we systematically compute the QNMs and GBFs for scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations, including the $(+)$ and $(-)$ types of scalar and vector perturbations, to examine the validity of the correspondence. The QNMs are computed using the continued fraction method, and the integration-through-midpoints method is applied when required by the singularity structure of the Frobenius series for each perturbation type and set of black-hole parameters. We evaluate the accuracy of the correspondence for each spacetime dimension $D$ and black-hole charge by comparing the GBFs obtained from the correspondence with those obtained by numerical integration. The correspondence provides a good approximation to the GBFs for the scalar($+$), vector($+$), vector($-$), and tensor perturbations. However, for the scalar($-$) type, the correspondence exhibits pronounced deviations at low to intermediate charges in $D > 6$. At higher charges, it recovers reasonable accuracy despite the effective potential exhibiting a double-peak structure inconsistent with the assumptions underlying the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB)-based derivation of the correspondence. In contrast to the other types, for which the correspondence deteriorates as $D$ increases, the scalar($-$) type is more accurate in $D=8$ than in $D=7$. Furthermore, the correspondence performs well for the vector($-$) perturbation of near-extreme black holes, even though the potential develops a double-peak structure in $D>6$. These results indicate that the correspondence is applicable over a broader range than expected from the assumptions of the WKB approximation.

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) detect nanohertz gravitational waves through spatial correlations between the timing residuals of different pulsars. For an isotropic, unpolarized stochastic background in general relativity, the ensemble-mean correlation follows the Hellings–Downs (HD) curve; measuring this angular pattern tests the gravitational-wave origin of the signal. Standard bin-by-bin reconstructions optimize the weights within each angular bin separately. We reconstruct the curve jointly using the full pulsar-pair covariance, retaining a free amplitude in every bin. The resulting all-angle best linear unbiased estimator minimizes the variance of every bin value and every linear combination of bins. Applied to the public NANOGrav 15 yr data products, our method reduces the bin standard deviations by up to 12.9%, with a median reduction of 9.5%. For a future Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO)-like PTA, the predicted reduction reaches 36.4%, with a median of 29.6%, enabling significantly more precise measurements of the gravitational-wave background.

We study the instability of the naked singularities arising in the spherically symmetric self-similar collapsing of the Einstein–Euler system under gravitational perturbations. We show that small $C^{1,\alpha}$ perturbations (without any symmetries) of the initial conformal metric lead to trapped surface formation. One key point is that the speed of sound is strictly slower the the speed of light, so the gravitational radiation can become sufficiently concentrated to form a trapped surface before the fluid develops any singularity.

The Van der Waals black hole (BH) is a non-Kerr model in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime that exhibits characteristic thermodynamic phase transitions. Whether the physical validity of parameters such as the BH molecular volume $b$ and pressure $P$ is feasible still requires observational verification. As a sensitive probe of strong gravitational fields, the BH photon ring directly carries spacetime geometric information, making it an ideal object for model testing. In accordance with the spacetime metric associated with this BH, this study obtains the null geodesic equations for photons and conserved quantities, determines the photon sphere conditions and radii via effective potential analysis, investigates the photon ring classification and radiative properties, and employs measurements from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to place constraints on parameters and simulate the optical appearance. The results show that the molecular volume parameter $b$ significantly regulates the radius of the photon sphere radius, photon ring structure, and the luminosity. Within a specific interval, the model exhibits a high degree of agreement with the EHT measurements for M87* and Sgr A*. This interval not only satisfies the energy conditions (weak, strong, and dominant) but also corresponds to a stable Van der Waals-type phase transition region. Furthermore, the photon ring can distinguish between the Van der Waals BH and the Schwarzschild BH: due to the small-black-hole-large-black-hole (SBH-LBH) phase transition and microstructural discontinuities, the photon ring of the Van der Waals BH is particularly sensitive to the parameter $b$, whereas the Schwarzschild BH lacks these features. This work uses the photon ring to probe BH molecular models, linking its microstructure, spacetime geometry and observational signatures, and provides a new way to derive BH microphysics from observations.

We derive the renormalized local equation of motion for the gravitational self-force on a compact object moving through matter in a black-hole spacetime. We integrate out the environment and metric perturbations on a Schwinger–Keldysh contour, obtaining a causal effective action given by a sum of curved-spacetime Feynman diagrams organized by powers of the mass ratio and environmental density. At leading order, an environmental wake gravitationally backreacts on the worldline. The corresponding diagram contains a logarithmic ultraviolet divergence that renormalizes the leading dissipative fluid–particle coupling. We isolate the divergence with a local large-momentum expansion, in which the curved-spacetime retarded Green's function reduces to its flat tangent-space form. We translate the resulting singularity into a Barack–Ori mode-sum scheme, deriving an analytic puncture and regularization parameters for an ideal-fluid environment. Mode subtraction fixes the divergent part but not the finite Wilson coefficient. For collisionless dust, we determine this coefficient by matching to an exact near-zone calculation for a black hole moving through the medium. This gives a complete renormalization prescription suitable for numerical self-force calculations.

We investigate the dynamics of charged particles in the dipolar electromagnetic field generated by a stationary current loop around a static black hole in the Randall–Sundrum braneworld model. The current loop is located at the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of the tidal charged black hole, and the azimuthal electromagnetic four-potential is obtained as an exact analytical solution of the Maxwell equations in the curved background. Starting from the Hamilton–Jacobi equation, we derive the effective potential for charged particle motion in both the interior and exterior regions of the current loop, and analyze the dependence of the ISCO radius, angular momentum, energy, and orbital frequency on the tidal charge parameter $b$ and the magnetic coupling parameter $\omega$. We further compute three fundamental frequencies and show that the dipolar loop field revives a nonzero nodal precession frequency even though the background is static and non-rotating. Using these frequencies we construct five twin-peak QPO models (RP, WD, and ER2–ER4) and perform a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis to constrain the braneworld parameters $(b,\omega)$ from the observed twin-peak QPO frequencies of six black hole sources spanning three mass regimes: GRO~J1655–40, XTE~J1550–564, GRS~1915$+$105, H~1743$+$322, M82~X-1, and Sgr~A$^{*}$. Adopting the epicyclic-resonance ER4 model as the representative framework, we find moderate, non-negligible tidal charges $b\simeq0.3$–$1.0$, while the magnetic coupling remains consistent with zero, $|\omega|\lesssim0.05$. Our results therefore place upper bounds on the tidal charge and on the magnetic coupling strength from astrophysical QPO data.

We show that the equations of motion for magnetically charged $p$-branes in $(n+p+2)$-dimensional AdS reduce to coupled one-dimensional Toda-type equations, and use this structure to construct static toroidal black branes with $T^n$ symmetry and $p$ translation-invariant directions. In the pure-Maxwell case we obtain an exact $\sinh$ solution–a $(p+2)$-dimensional black brane times an $n$-torus, asymptotically $\mathrm{AdS}_{p+2}\times T^n$–whose dilatonic analogue, with a scalar coupled through $e^{a\phi}$, has a running torus modulus and a non-trivial dilaton. A perturbative expansion reduces the linearized system to a pair of Pöschl-Teller equations, one elementary and one solved by associated Legendre functions of non-integer degree, so that the general solution is non-elementary; at weak coupling $\epsilon=a^2$ we construct the $O(a^2)$ backreaction explicitly. From the surface gravity, horizon area, and holographic renormalization we obtain the Hawking temperature, entropy density, and mass density, verifying the first law $d\mathcal{M}=T_H\,ds$ and the traceless conformal stress tensor of the dual $(p+1)$-dimensional theory. At $O(a^2)$ the first law persists, but the dilaton source shifts the Stefan-Boltzmann exponent to $p_{\rm eff}=p+a^2/2$, breaking the clean power law $s\propto T_H^p$ while the normalizable dilaton hair decouples from the entropy.

It is well known that in (2+1)-dimensional general relativity, black hole solutions exist only in the anti-de Sitter case–the so-called Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole. In this letter, we construct, for the first time, three independent LQG-inspired frameworks for (2+1)-dimensional black holes: the $\bar{\mu}$-scheme holonomy corrections, the quantum Oppenheimer-Snyder collapse, and a covariant effective model. Remarkably, all three approaches yield the same qualitative picture: when LQG-inspired corrections are included, we find three distinct types of solutions corresponding to asymptotically flat, anti-de Sitter, and de Sitter geometries. Our results demonstrate that the asymmetry between classical (2+1)-dimensional and (3+1)-dimensional solutions is eliminated upon incorporating effective quantum gravity effects.

In this paper, we investigate null geodesics in the spacetime of a Reissner-Nordström black hole pierced by a cosmic string. Analysis of the equations of motion reveals that null geodesics in this conical spacetime can be classified into three main categories, with the classification entirely determined by the ratio $|Q|/M$ (where $Q$ and $M$ denote the black hole charge and mass, respectively). Analytical solutions to the null geodesic equations are obtained for each category. Based on these solutions, we numerically simulate light trajectories and analyze in detail the effects of the black hole charge $Q$ and the cosmic string parameter $\alpha$. It is found that the cosmic string parameter $\alpha$ enhances the winding behavior of null geodesics across all three main categories. Finally, we consider light deflection in the equatorial plane and derive an expression for the deflection angle, revealing that the charge $Q$ decreases the deflection angle, whereas the cosmic string parameter $\alpha$ increases it.

We investigate the equilibrium structure of electrically charged quark stars within the framework of energy-momentum-squared gravity (EMSG), adopting a unified interacting quark-matter equation of state that incorporates perturbative QCD corrections, color superconductivity, and finite-strange-quark-mass effects. By solving the modified Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations over a broad range of EMSG coupling strengths and interaction parameters, we show that the inclusion of electric charge substantially increases both the maximum mass and radius compared with neutral configurations. For strong negative couplings and pronounced interaction strengths, the resulting stellar models reach masses close to $3,M_{\odot}$ with compactness ratios of order $0.34$, placing them within the mass range inferred for the secondary component of GW190814, whose nature remains observationally undetermined. The presence of charge reduces the central density at maximum mass by approximately $10$–$15\%$ while maintaining full compliance with causality requirements. Furthermore, comparisons with observational constraints from PSR J1614$-$2230, J0348$+$0432, J0740$+$6620, J0952$-$0607, and recent NICER radius measurements indicate that charged EMSG configurations remain consistent with current astrophysical bounds over a wide parameter space. These results demonstrate that a moderate electric charge, when combined with nonlinear matter-geometry coupling, can support quark stars that are significantly more massive than those predicted in general relativity, underscoring the potential observational relevance of charged compact objects in modified gravity and multimessenger astrophysics.