Testing Conformal Weyl Gravity with Plasma Modified Black Hole Shadows and EHT Constraints

We study the shadows of a charged rotating de Sitter solution in fourth order conformal Weyl gravity (CWG) immersed in plasma and analyze the joint charge-plasma constraints. Our main goal is to distinguish observational effects caused by the dispersive plasma environment from those caused by the underlying gravitational theory. Within a separable Hamilton-Jacobi plasma model, we derive the radial and angular photon potentials, the equatorial finite-distance deflection angle, and the finite-observer shadow boundary due to the asymptotically non-flat nature of the CWG spacetime. Our results separate two effects. Increasing the plasma strength generally reduces the shadow radius, the signed deflection angle, and the energy emission peak in both CWG and GR. Charge ($q$) produces a stronger theory dependence: for the representative parameters studied, increasing $q$ enlarges the CWG shadow but reduces the GR shadow. The lensing behavior independently supports the geometry-dependent response found from the photon region and shadow observables. We further compare the finite observer dimensionless shadow radius with EHT-inferred size intervals for Sgr~A$^*$ and M87$^*$. Our results indicate that plasma effects can mimic part of the shadow size shift, but the distinct charge response of CWG offers a potential observational route for separating conformal gravity signatures from environmental propagation effects.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
arXiv (Cornell University)
Published
2026-10-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2610.36562
Primary Topic
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
Type
preprint
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preprint

Testing Conformal Weyl Gravity with Plasma Modified Black Hole Shadows and EHT Constraints

William Horner, Connor McMillin, Zhichen Guan, Shanshan Rodriguez et al.
arXiv (Cornell University)
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
preprint

Testing Conformal Weyl Gravity with Plasma Modified Black Hole Shadows and EHT Constraints

William Horner, Connor McMillin, Zhichen Guan, Shanshan Rodriguez, Owen Gartlan, Leo Rodriguez
preprint en

Abstract

We study the shadows of a charged rotating de Sitter solution in fourth order conformal Weyl gravity (CWG) immersed in plasma and analyze the joint charge-plasma constraints. Our main goal is to distinguish observational effects caused by the dispersive plasma environment from those caused by the underlying gravitational theory. Within a separable Hamilton-Jacobi plasma model, we derive the radial and angular photon potentials, the equatorial finite-distance deflection angle, and the finite-observer shadow boundary due to the asymptotically non-flat nature of the CWG spacetime. Our results separate two effects. Increasing the plasma strength generally reduces the shadow radius, the signed deflection angle, and the energy emission peak in both CWG and GR. Charge ($q$) produces a stronger theory dependence: for the representative parameters studied, increasing $q$ enlarges the CWG shadow but reduces the GR shadow. The lensing behavior independently supports the geometry-dependent response found from the photon region and shadow observables. We further compare the finite observer dimensionless shadow radius with EHT-inferred size intervals for Sgr~A$^*$ and M87$^*$. Our results indicate that plasma effects can mimic part of the shadow size shift, but the distinct charge response of CWG offers a potential observational route for separating conformal gravity signatures from environmental propagation effects.

arXiv (Cornell University)
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
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Testing Conformal Weyl Gravity with Plasma Modified Black Hole Shadows and EHT Constraints — William Horner, Connor McMillin, et al. · arXiv (Cornell University) (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS