Testing Gravity with Black Hole X-Ray Data
Abstract
The analysis of the properties of the X-ray radiation emitted from geometrically thin accretion disks around black holes can be a powerful tool to test General Relativity in the strong field regime. This chapter reviews the state-of-the-art of gravity tests with black hole X-ray data. So far, most efforts have been devoted to test the Kerr hypothesis - namely that the spacetime around astrophysical black holes is described by the Kerr solution - and X-ray data can currently provide among the most stringent constraints on possible deviations from the Kerr geometry. As of now, all X-ray analyses are consistent with the predictions of General Relativity.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2210.05322,
title = {Testing Gravity with Black Hole X-Ray Data},
author = {Cosimo Bambi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.05322},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
35 pages, 13 figures. Chapter for the book "Recent Progress on Gravity Tests" (Eds. C. Bambi and A. C\'ardenas-Avenda\~no, Springer Singapore, expected in 2023). It reviews current X-ray constraints on the Kerr hypothesis and discusses the systematic uncertainties