Testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companions

We show that the magnetic dipole and gravitational radiation emitted by a pulsar can undergo superradiant scattering off a spinning black hole companion. We find that the relative amount of superradiant modes in the radiation depends on the pulsar's angular position relative to the black hole&#...

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Main Author: João G. Rosa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2015-10-01
Series:Physics Letters B
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269315005730
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spelling doaj-cdddd64ed50147f4a35ecf76f136e9562020-11-24T22:35:43ZengElsevierPhysics Letters B0370-26931873-24452015-10-01749C22623010.1016/j.physletb.2015.07.063Testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companionsJoão G. RosaWe show that the magnetic dipole and gravitational radiation emitted by a pulsar can undergo superradiant scattering off a spinning black hole companion. We find that the relative amount of superradiant modes in the radiation depends on the pulsar's angular position relative to the black hole's equatorial plane. In particular, when the pulsar and black hole spins are aligned, superradiant modes are dominant at large angles, leading to an amplification of the pulsar's luminosity, whereas for small angles the radiation is dominantly composed of non-superradiant modes and the signal is attenuated. This results in a characteristic orbital modulation of the pulsar's luminosity, up to the percent level within our approximations, which may potentially yield a signature of superradiant scattering in astrophysical black holes and hence an important test of general relativity.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269315005730
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author João G. Rosa
spellingShingle João G. Rosa
Testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companions
Physics Letters B
author_facet João G. Rosa
author_sort João G. Rosa
title Testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companions
title_short Testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companions
title_full Testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companions
title_fullStr Testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companions
title_full_unstemmed Testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companions
title_sort testing black hole superradiance with pulsar companions
publisher Elsevier
series Physics Letters B
issn 0370-2693
1873-2445
publishDate 2015-10-01
description We show that the magnetic dipole and gravitational radiation emitted by a pulsar can undergo superradiant scattering off a spinning black hole companion. We find that the relative amount of superradiant modes in the radiation depends on the pulsar's angular position relative to the black hole's equatorial plane. In particular, when the pulsar and black hole spins are aligned, superradiant modes are dominant at large angles, leading to an amplification of the pulsar's luminosity, whereas for small angles the radiation is dominantly composed of non-superradiant modes and the signal is attenuated. This results in a characteristic orbital modulation of the pulsar's luminosity, up to the percent level within our approximations, which may potentially yield a signature of superradiant scattering in astrophysical black holes and hence an important test of general relativity.
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269315005730
work_keys_str_mv AT joaogrosa testingblackholesuperradiancewithpulsarcompanions
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