Spacetime completeness of non-singular black holes in conformal gravity

Journal Article · Mon May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2017/05/003· OSTI ID:22676235

Bambi, Cosimo; Rachwał, Lesław ^[1]; Modesto, Leonardo ^[2]

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1. Center for Field Theory and Particle Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, 200433 Shanghai (China)
2. Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, 1088 Xueyuan Road, Shenzhen 518055 (China)

We explicitly prove that the Weyl conformal symmetry solves the black hole singularity problem, otherwise unavoidable in a generally covariant local or non-local gravitational theory. Moreover, we yield explicit examples of local and non-local theories enjoying Weyl and diffeomorphism symmetry (in short co-covariant theories). Following the seminal paper by Narlikar and Kembhavi, we provide an explicit construction of singularity-free spherically symmetric and axi-symmetric exact solutions for black hole spacetimes conformally equivalent to the Schwarzschild or the Kerr spacetime. We first check the absence of divergences in the Kretschmann invariant for the rescaled metrics. Afterwords, we show that the new types of black holes are geodesically complete and linked by a Newman-Janis transformation just as in standard general relativity (based on Einstein-Hilbert action). Furthermore, we argue that no massive or massless particles can reach the former Schwarzschild singularity or touch the former Kerr ring singularity in a finite amount of their proper time or of their affine parameter. Finally, we discuss the Raychaudhuri equation in a co-covariant theory and we show that the expansion parameter for congruences of both types of geodesics (for massless and massive particles) never reaches minus infinity. Actually, the null geodesics become parallel at the r =0 point in the Schwarzschild spacetime (the origin) and the focusing of geodesics is avoided. The arguments of regularity of curvature invariants, geodesic completeness, and finiteness of geodesics' expansion parameter ensure us that we are dealing with singularity-free and geodesically-complete black hole spacetimes.

• OSTI ID: 22676235
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Journal Issue: 05 Vol. 2017; ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BLACK HOLES
CONFORMAL INVARIANCE
EQUATIONS
EXACT SOLUTIONS
EXPANSION
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
GRAVITATION
MASSLESS PARTICLES
METRICS
SINGULARITY
SPACE-TIME
SYMMETRY
TRANSFORMATIONS