In light of increasing observational evidence supporting the existence of ultra-compact objects, we adopt the term astrophysical black hole to refer to any object having a huge mass confined within a sufficiently small region of spacetime. This terminology encompasses both the classical black hole solutions predicted by general relativity, as well as alternative compact objects that may not possess an event horizon. We propose models of Astrophysical Black holes (ABHs) without event horizons (EHs), as a more viable explanation for the long-term quenching phenomenon in galaxies. At the same time, the short-term quenching is explained here in terms of an efficient feedback expected in the models of stellar-mass astrophysical black holes (StMABHs). We have calculated the radiative flux from the disk in a general spherically symmetric metric background and used it to contrast the distinctive features of the BHs and ABHs scenarios. We demonstrate the relative ease of wind generation from the accretion disk surrounding an ABH without an event horizon, compared to a BH, and highlight the significant strength of these winds. The nature of the feedbacks arising from accretion onto a BH and an ABH in the `quasar' and `radio' modes are compared and some possible observational signatures of the StMABHs are pointed out.

Abstract In this paper, working in a geometrical, frame-independent and ansatz-independent formalism, we analytically investigate the gravitational collapse of a mass-less scalar field in a spherically symmetric space-time. This is one of the fundamental matter fields determined by the Lagrangian formulation. We identify a single dimensionless parameter, that determines the end-state to be a black-hole or complete dispersal and a locally naked null singularity, which exists as a critical case between the previous two end-states. The governing parameter, being dimensionless, makes the result scale independent, thus confirming the universality and criticality that was observed in extensive numerical studies by various authors.

In this paper, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the quasinormal modes in an external geometry of the Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN-1) naked singularity by investigating its response to linear perturbations, including gravitational and electromagnetic perturbations. To analyze the stability of the JMN-1 naked singularity under axial perturbations, we compute the quasinormal mode frequencies using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin method. The quasinormal mode frequencies provides information about the stability of spacetime, with the real part of the frequency determining the oscillation rate and the imaginary part governing the decay or growth of perturbations. Our results indicate that by imposing appropriate boundary conditions, we find that the background spacetime of JMN-1 naked singularity remains dynamically stable under axial perturbations.

This paper explores the cosmological implications of a scalar field with a specific potential, crucial for achieving the final equilibrium state of gravitational collapse. We consider a system with two fluids: minimally coupled matter representing dust-like dark matter and a scalar field acting as dark energy. Our model, akin to the top-hat collapse model, focuses on isolated over-dense regions within a closed FLRW metric, while the background follows a flat FLRW metric. We analyze spacetime configurations where these regions undergo initial expansion followed by contraction, deriving the scalar field potential responsible for their equilibrium state. Our fully relativistic approach offers a comprehensive understanding of stable cosmic over-dense regions, without the need for ad-hoc Newtonian virialization.

The S-stars around the center of the milky way galaxy provide us with detailed information about the nature of the supermassive compact object Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). In this work, we derive the fully relativistic orbit equations for the case of the Reissner-Nordström (RN) and Kerr-Newman spacetimes. We solve these orbit equations numerically to analyze the periastron shift of relativistic orbits. We show that retrograde precession (or negative precession) of timelike bound orbits is possible in the case of naked singularity arising from these spacetimes. We have then compared our results with the non-charged Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes. This theoretical analysis of relativistic orbits would be helpful in either confirming or ruling out such charged black holes and naked singularities through the future trajectories of S-stars and will also help us constrain the geometry of Sgr A*.

We investigate the tidal disruption of a neutron star (NS) near a black hole (BH), and for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, near a naked singularity (NaS). For a BH with a mass greater than about 10 M_⊙, the tidal disruption of NS should occur within the event horizon, and hence neither can the stellar material escape nor a distant observer observe the disruption. Since NaS does not have an event horizon, a significant portion of the NS's material can escape, and the tidal disruption can be observed by a distant observer. One could identify such an event from the observed emission from the disrupted NS's material and the decay of the light curve of the disruption event. The escape of a significant fraction of the NS's material may also have implications for the heavy elements in the universe. Moreover, observing such an event can be useful for confirming a NaS, probing its spacetime, and studying the motion of matter in such a geometry. This may help constrain the NS parameters and equation of state models. As a first step in this direction, we calculate here the tidal disruption radius and other parameters for a specific type (Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan type 1) of NaS and compare our results with observations.

In this paper, we investigate particle acceleration and high-energy collisions in the Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN-1) naked singularity spacetime, which, in the absence of an event horizon, allows infalling particles to turn back under specific angular momentum conditions. These outgoing particles can then collide with infalling particles, enabling the JMN-1 singularity spacetime to act as a natural high-energy particle accelerator. We derive the necessary expressions to compute the center-of-mass energy of two colliding particles and find that this energy can reach extremely high values, potentially even approaching Planck energy scales. If horizonless compact objects exist in nature, these high-energy collisions could substantially influence the surrounding physical processes and might give rise to distinct observational signatures. We also discuss whether phenomena such as a photosphere or shock waves could develop within the shadow region of the JMN-1 naked singularity as a result of high-energy particle collisions near the singularity.

Primordial black hole formation has been discussed widely, when density perturbations in the early universe cause matter to collapse gravitationally, giving rise to these ultra-compact objects. We propose and point out that such a gravitational collapse would also give rise to primordial naked singularities, that would play an important role in the observable features of present universe. We consider two types of collapse scenarios that give rise to event-like and object-like visible singularities within a cosmological background. We briefly discuss implications of primordial naked singularities, including those for dark matter, vis-a-vis primordial black holes.

Recently there has been an interest in exploring black holes that are regular in that the central curvature singularity is avoided. Here, we give a recipe to obtain a regular black hole spacetime from the unhindered gravitational collapse from regular initial data of a spherically symmetric perfect fluid. While the classic Oppenheimer-Snyder collapse model necessarily produces a black hole with a Schwarzschild singularity at the centre, we show here that there are classes of regular initial conditions when collapse gives rise to a regular black hole.

A major issue in general relativity and blackhole physics today is to determine the conditions when the spacetime singularities forming as end-states of gravitational collapse are visible to external observers, and when these are hidden within the event horizon of a black-hole. We show here that such a causal structure of singularity, in terms of its visibility or otherwise, is determined by the dynamics of the apparent horizon and trapped surfaces forming during collapse of massive matter clouds. It turns out that the relative timing of formation of trapped surfaces and the singularity plays a crucial role here. The dynamics of apparent horizon governs the visibility of singularity, and we characterize precise conditions here for spherically symmetric collapse with a general type-I matter field. This is done in terms of the existence of outgoing null geodesic families from the central singularity. These results hold under generic initial data satisfying 𝒞^2 regularity and the weak energy condition.

The density fluctuations in the nearly homogeneous background in the very early universe are argued to be the origin of the cosmic structures we observe in our present universe. Along with many other structures, these fluctuations would have also given rise to primordial black holes at the end of unhindered gravitational collapse of high-density matter blobs that developed due to these fluctuations. We study here such a collapse, which are seeded by a scalar field ϕ associated to a non-trivial potential function V(ϕ), minimally coupled to gravity. Such a continual collapse is presumed to form a black hole always and is named a primordial black hole (PBH). Examining the dynamics of such a collapse, we find the parameter range where the apparent horizon does not form, thus resulting in the visibility of the final singularity of collapse for faraway external observers. This treatment is within the classical limits dictated by Planck's constraints. The slow-roll parameters are analysed here to keep the relic abundance of the scalar field high enough so that the abundance of produced primordial naked singularities (PNaSs) falls within the range of resolution of possible observational probes.

Recent Event Horizon Telescope observations of M87* and Sgr A* strongly suggests the presence of supermassive black hole at their respective cores. In this work, we use the semi-analytic Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows (RIAF) model to investigate the resulting images of Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN-1) naked singularity and the Schwarzschild BH. We aim at choosing the JMN-1 naked singularity model and compare the synchrotron images with the Schwarzschild solution to search any distinct features which can distinguish the two objects and find alternative to the black hole solution. We perform general relativistic ray-tracing and radiative transfer simulations using Brahma code to generate synchrotron emission images utilising thermal distribution function for emissivity and absorptivity. We investigate effects in the images by varying inclination angle, disk width and frequency. The shadow images simulated by the JMN-1 model closely resemble those generated by the Schwarzschild black hole. When we compare these images, we find that the disparities between them are minimal. We conduct simulations using various plasma parameters, but the resulting images remain largely consistent for both scenarios. This similarity is evident in the horizontal cross-sectional brightness profiles of the two instances. Notably, the JMN-1 model exhibits slightly higher intensity in comparison to the Schwarzschild black hole. We conclude that JMN-1 presents itself as a viable substitute for the black hole scenario. This conclusion is not solely grounded in the fact that they are indistinguishable from their respective shadow observations, but also in the consideration that JMN-1 emerges as an end state of a continual gravitational collapse. This paradigm not only allows for constraints on spacetime but also provides a good probe for the nature of the central compact object.

Vortex is the most natural phenomenon observed in the universe. It has various industrial and household applications. Interestingly, researchers are now utilizing the knowledge of hydrodynamic vortex flow to develop laboratory-based mimicking models of black hole—analogue black holes. Although it covers various aspects of black holes, the gravitomagnetic effects in the analogue models are yet to be explored. The magnetically modulated vortex created in the magnetizable system can open up a diverse research path in the field of analogue black holes. This motivated us to explore magnetically driven hydrodynamic vortex flow in the magnetizable system. Albeit, researchers have explored the formation of micro-vortices in the magnetic fluid by applying the rotating magnetic field. However, the hydrodynamic vortex formation in the magnetic fluid is yet to be explored. In view of this, the present work focuses on the experimental development of hydrodynamic vortex flow in magnetizable systems by applying continuous rotation of the rare earth magnet.

The upcoming discoveries of pulsars orbiting the center of the Milky Way will present unparalleled opportunities to examine the causal structure of the spacetime geometry of Sagittarius A*. In this paper, we investigate the fully relativistic propagation time delay of pulsar signals in the Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN-1) and Janis-Newman-Winicour (JNW) spacetimes. This delay arises basically from the spacetime curvatures in the vicinity of these ultra-compact objects, induced by the intense gravitational field near the Galactic Center (GC). Using the principles of gravitational lensing, we compute the arrival time of photons originating from a pulsar in orbit around the GC. To validate our approach, we compare our time delay analysis of the Schwarzschild black hole with the corresponding delay in the post-Newtonian framework. Subsequently, we find that the propagation time of pulsar signal is greater and lesser for the given horizon-less ultra-compact objects for direct and indirect propagation respectively. Therefore, our results suggest quite significant propagation time delay differences in JMN-1 and JNW spacetimes, when compared to the Schwarzschild black hole case. This can be inferred as a possible distinguishing feature for these ultra-compact objects' geometries.

We investigate the gravitational field of a charged, non-vacuum, non-rotating, spherically symmetric body of mass M assuming a static solution to the Einstein–Maxwell field equations. We show the characteristics of perihelion precession of orbits in the case of charged naked singularity (CNS) spacetime. Here we discuss some novel features of light-like geodesics in this spacetime. We also discuss the comparative study of tidal force in the null singularity spacetime and charged naked singularity spacetime.

Near-solar mass black holes (BHs) could have been involved in the two recent gravitational wave events, GW190425 and GW190814. Since such a low mass BH cannot be formed via stellar evolution, a model has been proposed based on the core collapse of a neutron star initiated by a certain number of dark matter (DM) particles. In this process, the accumulated DM particles collapse to form a tiny BH inside the neutron star, and the entire neutron star is transmuted into a BH after a certain time due to the accretion of matter by the endoparasitic BH from its host. Here, we argue that, depending on the initial conditions, a dark core collapse could give rise to either a BH or a naked singularity. For example, if the accumulated cloud of DM particles in the core of a neutron star can be modeled as an anisotropic fluid and it fulfils the criterion for collapse, an endoparasitic naked singularity could form instead of an endoparasitic BH. Immediately after its formation, the naked singularity should begin accreting matter from the host neutron star, thus eventually transmuting the entire host into a near-solar mass, relatively slowly-spinning naked singularity. We also propose a general technique to constrain the DM particle-neutron scattering cross section using the lack of pulsars near the Galactic centre and assuming that these missing pulsars have already been transmuted into BHs and/or naked singularities. Thus, the missing pulsars also indicate the existence of many such singularities near the Galactic center.

The general theory of relativity predicts the relativistic effect in the orbital motions of S-stars which are orbiting around our Milky-way galactic center. The post-Newtonian or higher-order approximated Schwarzschild black hole models have been used by GRAVITY and UCLA galactic center groups to carefully investigate the S2 star's periastron precession. In this paper, we investigate the scalar field effect on the orbital dynamics of S2 star. Hence, we consider a spacetime, namely Janis-Newman-Winicour (JNW) spacetime which is seeded by a minimally coupled, mass-less scalar field. The novel feature of this spacetime is that one can retain the Schwarzschild spacetime from JNW spacetime considering zero scalar charge. We constrain the scalar charge of JNW spacetime by best fitting the astrometric data of S2 star using the Monte-Carlo-Markov-Chain (MCMC) technique assuming the charge to be positive. Our best-fitted result implies that similar to the Schwarzschild black hole spacetime, the JNW naked singularity spacetime with an appropriate scalar charge also offers a satisfactory fitting to the observed data for S2 star. Therefore, the JNW naked singularity could be a contender for explaining the nature of Sgr A* through the orbital motions of the S2 star.

The importance and significance of magnetic fields in the astrophysical scenario is well known. Many domains of astrophysical black hole physics such as polarized shadow image, high energy emitting processes and jet formation are dependent on the behavior of the magnetic fields in the vicinity of the compact objects. In light of this, we determine the master equation and master differential equation that determine the spatial behavior of the magnetic field inside a matter distribution or vacuum region, of general spherically symmetric metric, which is immersed in a test magnetic field. We also investigate here the case of JMN-1 singularity immersed in a uniform weak magnetic field and determine the behavior of magnetic fields by defining electromagnetic four potential vector. We find that the tangential component of the magnetic field is discontinuous at the matching surface of the JMN-1 singularity with the external Schwarzschild metric, resulting in surface currents. We define the covariant expression of surface current density in this scenario. We also analyze the behavior of center-of-mass energy of two oppositely charged particles in the geometry of the magnetized JMN-1 singularity. We briefly discuss the possible scenarios which would possess a discontinuous magnetic field and implications of the same and future possibilities in the realm of astrophysics are indicated.

The Large Hadron Collider will soon undergo an upgrade to increase its luminosity by a factor of  10 [1]. A crucial part of this upgrade will be replacement of the NbTi focusing magnets with Nb3Sn magnets that achieve a  50 increase in the field strength. This will be the first ever large-scale implementation of Nb3Sn magnets in a particle accelerator. The High-Luminosity LHC Upgrade, HL-LHC is a CERN project with a world-wide collaboration. It is under construction and utilizes Nb3Sn Magnets (named MQXF) as key ingredients to increase tenfold the integrated luminosity delivered to the CMS and ATLAS experiments in the next decade. The HL-LHC AUP is the US effort to contribute approximately 50 low-beta focusing magnets and crab cavities for the HL-LHC. This paper will present the program to fabricate the Nb3Sn superconducting magnets. We are reporting the status of the HL-LHC AUP project present the results from horizontal tests of the first fully assembled cryo-assembly.

The concept of regular black holes has gained attention in recent years, especially in the context of quantum gravity theories. In these theories, the existence of singularities is paradoxical as they represent a breakdown of the laws of physics. Motivated by the recent developments in this area, we study the tidal force effects in one such family of regular geometries described by the Simpson-Visser metric. We find the radial and angular force profiles for a radially in-falling particle in this spacetime and calculate the variation of the geodesic separation vector with the radial coordinate using two different initial conditions. These results are then compared with that of Schwarzschild black hole spacetime. We show that for a regular black hole, both radial and angular tidal forces show a peak outside the horizon and then fall to ultimately switch their behavior from stretching to compression and vice-versa. Also, they are finite at $r=0$ unlike the Schwarzschild spacetime. It is also seen that the angular deviation profile shows an oscillating behavior for a particular initial condition. Our analysis can be used to distinguish between regular black hole, one-way and two-way wormholes and a singular black hole spacetimes.