https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-15356-1
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Null geodesics and shadows of slowly rotating wormholes immersed in dark matter halos
1
Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X54001, 4000, Durban, South Africa
2
Center for Theoretical Physics, Khazar University, 41 Mehseti Str., AZ1096, Baku, Azerbaijan
3
Department of Basic Sciences, Erzurum Technical University, 25050, Erzurum, Türkiye
4
Department of Medical Imaging Techniques, Hakkari University, 30000, Hakkari, Türkiye
5
Department of Physics, Eastern Mediterranean University, north Cyprus, Mersin 10, 99628, G. Magusa, Türkiye
a
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Received:
29
December
2025
Accepted:
21
January
2026
Published online:
8
February
2026
Abstract
We study slowly rotating traversable wormholes embedded in realistic galactic dark matter halos, including Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW), Bose–Einstein Condensate (Thomas-Fermi, TF), and pseudo-isothermal (PI) profiles. Using the Teo-type rotating wormhole metric, we construct shape functions from halo density distributions and analyze the resulting geometrical properties, such as throat structure, flaring-out conditions, and violations of the null energy condition. We examine null geodesics, effective potentials, photon spheres, and Lense-Thirring (LT) precession, highlighting differences between cuspy and cored halo models. Finally, we calculate wormhole shadows, observing that cuspy NFW halos tend to produce smaller, asymmetric shadows, while cored TF and PI halos yield smoother, nearly circular silhouettes. The findings provide a theoretical characterization of photon dynamics and shadow morphology in wormholes embedded within different dark matter environments.
© The Author(s) 2026
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Funded by SCOAP3.
