1210.7049 (Y. V. Stadnik et al.)

Resonant scattering of light in a near-black-hole metric    [PDF]

Y. V. Stadnik, G. H. Gossel, V. V. Flambaum, J. C. Berengut

We show that low-energy photon scattering from a body with radius $R$ slightly larger than its Schwarzschild radius $r_s$ resembles black-hole absorption. This absorption occurs via capture to one of the many long-lived, densely packed resonances that populate the continuum. The lifetimes and density of these meta-stable states tend to infinity in the limit $r_s \to R$. We determine the energy averaged cross-section for particle capture into these resonances and show that it is equal to the absorption cross-section for a Schwarzschild black hole. Thus, a non-singular static metric may trap photons for arbitrarily long times, making it appear completely `black' before the actual formation of a black hole.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.7049