Related papers: Black Hole and Neutron Star Binaries: Theoretical …
This paper reviews some of the recent observational results on stellar mass black hole candidates. Over the last decade, much of the progress in this field has been achieved through the study of transient X--ray binary sources which shine…
Theoretically, bound binaries of massive black holes are expected as the natural outcome of mergers of massive galaxies. From the observational side, however, massive black hole binaries remain elusive. Velocity shifts between narrow and…
Dynamical interactions that take place between objects in dense stellar systems lead to frequent formation of exotic stellar objects, unusual binaries, and systems of higher multiplicity. They are most important for the formation of…
We review the main physical processes that lead to the formation of stellar binary black holes (BBHs) and to their merger. BBHs can form from the isolated evolution of massive binary stars. The physics of core-collapse supernovae and the…
General Relativity (GR) remains the most accurate theory of gravity to date. It has passed many experimental tests in the Solar System as well as binary pulsar, cosmological and gravitational-wave (GW) observations. Some of these tests…
We consider a generalized three-dimensional theory of gravity which is specified by two fields, the graviton and the dilaton, and one parameter. This theory contains, as particular cases, three-dimensional General Relativity and…
Black holes and neutron stars present extreme forms of matter that cannot be created as such in a laboratory on Earth. Instead, we have to observe and analyze the experiments that are ongoing in the Universe. The most telling observations…
The direct detection of gravitational waves opens new perspectives for measuring properties of gravitationally bound compact objects. It is then important to investigate black holes and neutron stars in alternative theories of gravity,…
Following a short account of the history of the idea of black holes, we present a review of the current status of the search for observational evidence of their existence aimed at an audience of relativists rather than astronomers or…
A number of efforts are underway to detect close binary stars in planetary nebulae. The primary goal of these studies is to determine the binary fraction of central stars. The next stage is a detailed analysis of the binaries to determine…
Detecting binary black holes in interferometer data requires an accurate knowledge of the orbital phase evolution of the system. From the point of view of data analysis one also needs fast algorithms to compute the templates that will…
Collapsed objects have definitely been observed: some are stellar-mass objects, the endpoint of massive stars; others, millions of times more massive, have been discovered in the cores of most galaxies. Their formation poses some…
Astrophysical tests of general relativity belong to two categories: 1) "internal", i.e. consistency tests within the theory (for example, tests that astrophysical black holes are indeed described by the Kerr solution and its perturbations),…
The advent of long-term stability in numerical relativity has yielded a windfall of answers to long-standing questions regarding the dynamics of space-time, matter, and electromagnetic fields in the strong-field regime of black-hole binary…
Neutron stars are versatile in their application to studying various important aspects of fundamental physics, in particular strong-field gravity tests and the equation of state for super-dense nuclear matter at low temperatures. However,…
The X-ray emission of neutron stars and black holes presents a rich phenomenology that can lead us to a better understanding of their nature and to address more general physics questions: Does general relativity apply in the strong gravity…
This article reviews the current status of black hole astrophysics, focusing on topics of interest to a physics audience. Astronomers have discovered dozens of compact objects with masses greater than 3 solar masses, the likely maximum mass…
A general bimetric theory of gravitation is described as a linear in the second approximation. This is allowed due to the small experimental significance of the higher order terms. Solar System tests are satisfied. The theory allows black…
The "ringdown" radiation emitted by oscillating black holes has great scientific potential. By carefully predicting the frequencies and amplitudes of black hole quasinormal modes and comparing them with gravitational-wave data from compact…
Some BL Lacertae objects show a periodic behaviour in their light curves that is often attributed to the orbital motion of a central binary black hole system. On this basis, and assuming a circular orbit, Rieger and Mannheim have recently…