Photon Ring Thickness as a Probe of Near-Horizon Plasma Physics

This repository contains the full reproducibility package for the study: "Photon Ring Thickness as a Probe of Near-Horizon Plasma Physics" We introduce a minimal and predictive framework to infer the physicalconditions of near-horizon plasma in black holes from the observedthickness of photon rings. The central idea is that the observed ring width is not a direct measureof the emitting region, but the result of a relativistic transfer process. By separating observed and intrinsic scales, we show that the emissionoriginates from a thin layer with intrinsic thickness wₗocal ~ 10^-3 (in units of the Schwarzschild radius). This framework allows direct inference of: - confinement pressure- magnetic field strength- thermodynamic conditions- plasma regime (beta parameter) The repository includes: - Full paper (PDF) - Analysis scripts- Generated figures- Numerical outputs- Validation tests (spin, flare stability, parameter scans) All results are fully reproducible using the provided scripts. This work provides a new interpretation of black hole imaging as aninverse diagnostic problem, where observed morphology constrainsintrinsic near-horizon physics.