Black hole mimickers: Regular versus singular behavior

Black hole mimickers are possible alternatives to black holes; they would look observationally almost like black holes but would have no horizon. The properties in the near-horizon region where gravity is strong can be quite different for both types of objects, but at infinity it could be difficult to discern black holes from their mimickers. To disentangle this possible confusion, we examine the near-horizon properties, and their connection with far away asymptotic properties, of some candidates to black mimickers. We study spherically symmetric uncharged or charged but nonextremal objects, as well as spherically symmetric charged extremal objects. Within the uncharged or charged but nonextremal black hole mimickers, we study nonextremal epsilon-wormholes on the threshold of the formation of an event horizon, of which a subclass are called black foils, and gravastars. Within the charged extremal black hole mimickers we study extremal epsilon-wormholes on the threshold of the formation of an event horizon, quasi-black holes, and wormholes on the basis of quasi-black holes from Bonnor stars. We elucidate whether or not the objects belonging to these two classes remain regular in the near-horizon limit. The requirement of full regularity, i.e., finite curvature and absence of naked behavior, up to an arbitrary neighborhood of the gravitational radius of the object enables one to rule out potential mimickers in most of the cases. A list ranking the best black hole mimickers up to the worst, both nonextremal and extremal, is as follows: wormholes on the basis of extremal black holes or on the basis of quasi-black holes, quasi-black holes, wormholes on the basis of nonextremal black holes (black foils), and gravastars. Since in observational astrophysics it is difficult to find extremal configurations (the best mimickers in the ranking), whereas nonextremal configurations are really bad mimickers, the task of distinguishing black holes from their mimickers seems to be less difficult than one could think of it.