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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Journal of High Energy Physics

Black hole photon rings saturate the quantum chaos bound

  • D. Giataganas1,2
  • G. F. Giudice3,4
  • A. Kehagias5
  • F. Quevedo3,6
  • A. Riotto7,8
8 affiliations
  1. 1National Sun Yat-sen University
  2. 2Physics Division, National Center for Theoretical Sciences
  3. 3New York University Abu Dhabi
  4. 4Theoretical Physics Department, CERN
  5. 5National Technical University of Athens
  6. 6University of Cambridge
  7. 7University of Geneva
  8. 8INFN, Sezione di Roma
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Abstract

A bstract : We study the quantum chaos bound in the photon ring region surrounding black holes. By evaluating the Lyapunov exponent associated with unstable null geodesics in a broad class of generalized Kerr geometries, as well as the temperature induced by a string probe, we show that the quantum chaos bound is exactly saturated on equatorial circular orbits of the photon ring. We confirm our result by deriving the same exponent from out-of-time-order correlators in the near ring region. As a byproduct, we show that the photon ring saturation of the quantum chaos bound implies the saturation of the Bekenstein bound on the rate of information emission from the ringdown phase through the quasinormal modes in the eikonal limit. Our results extend the known correspondence between black hole thermodynamics and chaotic dynamics, highlighting the role of the photon ring as a probe of the fundamental limits on thermalization and information scrambling in black holes.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{giataganas2026black,
  title = {{Black hole photon rings saturate the quantum chaos bound}},
  author = {D. Giataganas and G. F. Giudice and A. Kehagias and F. Quevedo and A. Riotto},
  journal = {Journal of High Energy Physics},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1007/jhep10(2026)184},
  url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP10(2026)184},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Black hole photon rings saturate the quantum chaos bound
AU  - D. Giataganas
AU  - G. F. Giudice
AU  - A. Kehagias
AU  - F. Quevedo
AU  - A. Riotto
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/16
JO  - Journal of High Energy Physics
DO  - 10.1007/jhep10(2026)184
UR  - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP10(2026)184
AB  - A bstract : We study the quantum chaos bound in the photon ring region surrounding black holes. By evaluating the Lyapunov exponent associated with unstable null geodesics in a broad class of generalized Kerr geometries, as well as the temperature induced by a string probe, we show that the quantum chaos bound is exactly saturated on equatorial circular orbits of the photon ring. We confirm our result by deriving the same exponent from out-of-time-order correlators in the near ring region. As a byproduct, we show that the photon ring saturation of the quantum chaos bound implies the saturation of the Bekenstein bound on the rate of information emission from the ringdown phase through the quasinormal modes in the eikonal limit. Our results extend the known correspondence between black hole thermodynamics and chaotic dynamics, highlighting the role of the photon ring as a probe of the fundamental limits on thermalization and information scrambling in black holes.
SN  - 1029-8479
ER  -