Distorted Local Shadows

Abstract: We introduce the notion of a local shadow for a black hole and determine its shape for the particular case of a distorted Schwarzschild black hole. Considering the lowest-order even and odd multiple moments, we compute the relation between the deformations of the shadow of a Schwarzschild black hole and the distortion multiple moments. For the range of values of multiple moments that we consider, the horizon is deformed much less than its corresponding shadow, suggesting the horizon is more `rigid'. Quite unexpectedly we find that a prolate distortion of the horizon gives rise to an oblate distortion of the shadow, and vice-versa.