"However, that may change, as a next-generation version of the Event Horizon Telescope is being considered, along with a space-based telescope that would operate on similar principles. So the team (four researchers based in Shanghai and CERN) decided to repeat an analysis they did shortly before the Event Horizon Telescope went operational, and consider whether the next-gen hardware might be able to pick up features of the environment around the black hole that might discriminate among different theorized versions of gravity."
"Using those five versions of gravity, they model the three-dimensional environment near the event horizon using hydrodynamic simulations, including infalling matter, the magnetic fields it produces, and the jets of matter that those magnetic fields power. The results resemble the sorts of images that the Event Horizon Telescope produced. These include a bright ring with substantial asymmetry, where one side is significantly brighter due to the rotation of the black hole. And, while the differences are subtle between all the variations of gravity, they're there."
A research team evaluated whether next-generation Event Horizon Telescope arrays and a space-based telescope could detect features that discriminate among alternative gravity models near black-hole event horizons. The Konoplya-Rezzolla-Zhidenko parametric metric was used to vary gravity behavior by toggling two parameters between zero and one, producing four alternative configurations compared with the Kerr metric. Hydrodynamic simulations modeled the three-dimensional accretion environment, including infalling matter, magnetic fields, and jets. Simulated images show a bright, asymmetric ring similar to EHT observations. Subtle but clear differences appear across metrics, with one extreme case producing the smallest yet brightest ring.
Read at Ars Technica
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