Gravitational lensing by hairy black holes in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theories

We investigate the weak and strong deflection gravitational lensing by the hairy black holes in the Einsteinscalar-Gauss-Bonnet (EsGB) gravity with five types of coupling functions (quadratic, cubic, quartic, inverse-polynomial, and logarithmic), which can evade the no-hair theorem. The lensing observables are found and the possibility of detecting the effects of the scalar hair is analyzed. We find that all of the shadows cast by these black holes are consistent with the measurement by the Event Horizon Telescope, while other lensing observables are beyond the present capacity. Therefore, it is currently impossible to distinguish these black holes from the Schwarzschild one and from each other merely by their lensing signatures, leaving testing the EsGB gravity by gravitational lensing until new technology is available.

Automated summary

The study reveals that black holes in the EsGB gravity theory show unique lensing effects but currently cannot be distinguished from Schwarzschild black holes based solely on their lensing signatures.