The future ability to test theories of gravity with black-hole shadows
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The future ability to test theories of gravity with black-hole shadows
Fri, 23/10/2026 - 14:00 to 14:30
Location:
Speaker:
Akhil Uniyal
Synopsis:
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has opened a new window for testing general relativity in the strong-gravity regime around supermassive black holes. With future facilities such as the next-generation EHT (ngEHT) and the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX), we may soon be able to probe gravity with unprecedented precision. But a fundamental question remains: How different can two black-hole images be, and can we distinguish them observationally? Using general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) and radiative-transfer (GRRT) simulations, we investigate how images of Kerr black holes differ from those of a broad class of non-Kerr solutions. We find that future observations could distinguish many non-Kerr black holes when their images differ from the Kerr case by only a few percent. These results highlight the potential of next-generation black-hole imaging to place meaningful constraints on deviations from general relativity.
Biography:
I completed my PhD at the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute (TDLI), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in 2026, where I developed advanced general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) and radiative-transfer (GRRT) simulation techniques, alongside AI-based inference models for astronomical data. My research focuses on testing theories of gravity through high-fidelity black-hole simulations and radiative-transfer modelling, with an emphasis on integrating machine-learning methods into astrophysical data analysis. My doctoral research was supported by the Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC), the Research Fund for Excellent International PhD Students with funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) as a principal investigator (PI), as well as the Shanghai Municipality's Orientation Programme of Basic Research for International Scientists as a team member. I was also nominated for SJTU's prestigious Academic Star Award, becoming the first international student in the university's history to receive this nomination.