Light Propagation in the vicinity of the ModMax black hole

TL;DR

This paper investigates how light behaves near a ModMax black hole, a solution in nonlinear electrodynamics coupled with gravity, comparing its optical effects with those around a Reissner-Nordstrom black hole.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of light propagation, birefringence, and shadows in the context of ModMax black holes, highlighting differences from classical solutions.

Findings

Birefringence effects are present near the ModMax black hole.

Light trajectories and deflections differ from Reissner-Nordstrom predictions.

The black hole shadow exhibits unique features due to nonlinear electrodynamics.

Abstract

ModMax is a nonlinear electrodynamics theory with the same symmetries as Maxwell electrodynamics. Static spherically symmetric solutions have been derived by coupling ModMax electrodynamics with the Einstein equations, which can represent a black hole. In this paper, we analyze light propagation in the vicinity of the ModMax black hole. We determine birefringence, light trajectories, deflection, redshifts, as well as the shadow of the black hole using the effective or optical metric to determine the optical paths of light; comparison is done with the corresponding effects in the neighborhood of the Reissner-Nordstrom black hole, that is the solution to the Einstein-Maxwell equations.