Geodesics and shadows of the spindle-deformed Kerr black hole

Abstract

Recently, a new exact Ricci-flat rotating black-hole solution was constructed in four-dimensional general relativity, in which an additional parameter $B$ characterizes a spindle deformation of the Kerr geometry. We study geodesic motion and black-hole shadows in this spacetime. The Hamilton-Jacobi equation is not exactly separable for either timelike or null geodesics. Remarkably, however, at the leading nontrivial order, ${\cal O}(B^2)$, null but not timelike geodesics become separable. In the timelike sector, the spindle deformation shifts the innermost stable circular orbit and can give rise to an outermost stable circular orbit. In the null sector, exploiting the perturbatively separated equations, we analytically determine the photon region, equatorial photon orbits, and black-hole shadow, and compare the resulting predictions with direct ray tracing in the exact spacetime. The numerical results validate the perturbative treatment and quantify the deviations from Kerr.