Upper bound on the radii of black-hole photonspheres

One of the most remarkable predictions of the general theory of relativity is the existence of black-hole photonspheres, compact null hypersurfaces on which massless particles can orbit the central black hole. We prove that every spherically-symmetric asymptotically flat black-hole spacetime is characterized by a photonsphere whose radius is bounded from above by r(gamma) <= 3M, where M is the total ADM mass of the black-hole spacetime. It is shown that hairy black-hole configurations conform to this upper bound. In particular, the null circular geodesic of the (bald) Schwarzschild black-hole spacetime saturates the bound. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.