Prediction for the interferometric shape of the first black hole photon ring

Abstract: Black hole images are theoretically predicted (under mild astrophysical assumptions) to display a stack of lensed "photon rings" that carry information about the underlying spacetime geometry. Despite vigorous efforts, no such ring has been observationally resolved thus far. However, planning is now actively under way for space missions targeting the first (and possibly the second) photon rings of the supermassive black holes M87* and Sgr A*. In this work, we study interferometric photon ring signatures in time-averaged images of Kerr black holes surrounded by different astrophysical profiles. We focus on the first, most easily accessible photon ring, which has a larger width-to-diameter ratio than subsequent rings and whose image consequently lacks a sharply defined diameter. Nonetheless, we show that it does admit a precise angle-dependent diameter in visibility space, for which the Kerr metric predicts a specific functional form that tracks the critical curve. We find that a measurement of this interferometric ring diameter is possible for most astrophysical profiles, paving the way for precision tests of strong-field general relativity via near-future observations of the first photon ring.