X-Ray Novae, Event Horizons and the Exponential Metric

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  • 5 October 1997
Abstract
Recent models based on general relativity attribute some important spectral features of some accreting neutron stars to their surfaces and "gap accretion" while observations of x-ray novae indicate a surprising lack of distinguishing spectral characteristics between these neutron stars and black hole candidates. The shared spectral characteristics strongly suggest that both have surfaces without event horizons. Since many of the black hole candidates have masses known to be in excess of the 3 solar mass Schwarzschild limit for nuclear densities, the predicted existence of black holes may well be an error of General Relativity. The 3 solar mass limit can be removed by the Yilmaz modifications to General Relativity. The Yilmaz theory has no adjustable parameters, passes the four classic weak-field tests, permits neutron stars of 10 solar mass, and has no singularities, event horizons or black holes. Accretion disk and surface luminosity characteristics are compared here for gravitationally compact objects in the Yilmaz and Schwarzschild metrics. The gravitational fields, characteristic orbits and spectral characteristics of neutron stars in the two metrics are found to be very similar to 2 solar mass. Above 2.0 solar mass in the Schwarzschild metric and 2.5 solar mass in the Yilmaz metric, neutron stars have radii smaller than that of the innermost marginally stable orbit. The spectral characteristics associated with the resulting "gap accretion" are precisely those exhibited by the black hole candidates.

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