Shadows of three black holes in static equilibrium configuration
Dan Li (School of Mathematics and Physics, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, People’s Republic of China); Yuxiang Zuo (School of Mathematics and Physics, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, People’s Republic of China); Shiyang Hu (School of Mathematics and Physics, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, People’s Republic of China)
; Chen Deng (School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, People’s Republic of China); Yu Wang (School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, People’s Republic of China); et al - Show all 6 authors
In this paper, we employ a ray-tracing algorithm to simulate the shadows of three equal-mass black holes in static equilibrium across a wide parameter space. We find that the shadows consist of a larger primary shadow and several distorted, eyebrow-like secondary shadows. The boundaries of these profiles exhibit self-similar fractal structures, which can be attributed to the photon chaotic scattering. In certain parameter spaces, we also observe the ring-like shadows, with the ring diameter associated with the spacing of black holes. Furthermore, when the black holes approach each other sufficiently, their shadows can merge into a standard disk, suggesting a shadow degeneracy between closely arranged triple black holes and a single massive, spherically symmetric black hole. The shadow features of the triple black holes revealed in this study have potential implications for analyzing the shadow formation mechanisms, as well as the gravitational lensing during the merger and inspiral of black holes.
