QED Effects on Kerr Black Hole Shadows immersed in uniform magnetic fields

Abstract: In this work, taking the QED effect into account, we investigate the shadows of the Kerr black holes immersed in uniform magnetic fields through the numerical backward ray-tracing method. We introduce a dimensionless parameter $\Lambda$ to characterize the strength of magnetic fields and studied the influence of magnetic fields on the Kerr black hole shadows for various spins of the black holes and inclination angles of the observers. In particular, we find that the photon "hairs" appear near the left edge of the shadow in the presence of magnetic fields. The photon hairs may be served as a signature of the magnetic fields. We notice that the photon hairs become more evident when the strength of magnetic fields or the spin of the black hole becomes larger. In addition, we study the deformation of the shadows by bringing in quantitative parameters that can describe the position and shape of the shadow edge.