Related papers: Stellar-mass Black Hole Spin Constraints from Disk…
We extract all the XMM-Newton EPIC pn burst mode spectra of GX 339-4, together with simultaneous/contemporaneous RXTE data. These include three disc dominated and two soft intermediate spectra, and the combination of broad bandpass/moderate…
Relativistic reflection features in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes are considered to be generated by the illumination of the accretion disk by the hot corona. In this work, we present a numerical method for the emission line…
We perform a detailed observational analysis of several galactic X-ray binaries, focusing on the interplay between black hole spin, jet power, and radiative efficiency within the context of Blandford-Znajek-powered jets. Using updated…
Using known frequencies of the twin peak high-frequency quasiperiodic oscillations (HF QPOs) and known mass M of the central black hole, the black-hole dimensionless spin a can be determined assuming a concrete version of the resonance…
We present a re-analysis of the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observing campaign for the well-studied, X-ray-bright AGN MCG-06-30-15. In particular, we consider a disc model with finite thickness. By fitting the disc reflection spectra in the data,…
The spin of supermassive black holes could power jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN), although direct observational evidence for this conjecture is sparse. The accretion disk luminosity and jet power, on the other hand, have long been…
Electromagnetic observations have been used over the past decades to understand the nature of black holes and the material around them. Our ability to learn about the fundamental physics relies on our understanding of two key ingredients in…
We study the effect of returning radiation on the shape of the X-ray reflection spectrum in the case of thin accretion disks. We show that the returning radiation mainly influences the observed reflection spectrum for a large black hole…
We present an extended scheme for the calculation of the profiles of emission lines from accretion discs around rotating black holes. The scheme includes discs with angular momenta which are parallel and antiparallel with respect to the…
We generalize the effective point particle approach to black hole dynamics to include spin. In this approach dissipative effects are captured by degrees of freedom localized on the wordline. The absorptive properties of the black hole are…
The rotational properties of astrophysical black holes are fundamental quantities that characterization the black holes. A new method to empirically determine the spin mass-energy characteristics of astrophysical black holes is presented…
In a previous paper, one of us has described a code to compute the thermal spectrum of geometrically thin and optically thick accretion disks around generic stationary and axisymmetric black holes, which are not necessarily of the Kerr…
We present three simultaneous/quasi-simultaneous NuSTAR and Swift datasets of the black hole GRS 1716-249 in its hard intermediate state. The accretion disk in this state may have reached the innermost stable circular orbit, and the NuSTAR…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a powerful tool to probe the strong gravity region around black holes, but the available relativistic reflection models have a number of simplifications that lead to systematic uncertainties (not fully under…
(abbreviated) In this paper we derive equations describing dynamics and stationary configurations of a twisted fully relativistic thin accretion disc around a slowly rotating black hole. We find that the disc dynamics and stationary shapes…
The spins of binary black holes measured with gravitational waves provide insights about the formation, evolution, and dynamics of these systems. However, interpreting these measurements-especially for heavy black holes-remains an open…
Disc spectra from highly luminous black hole binaries are observed to be rather simple, despite theoretical predictions to the contrary. We collate the disc-dominated spectra from multiple observations of 10 separate sources, and show that…
Gravitational waves from compact binary mergers provide a direct measurement of luminosity distance, which, in combination with redshift information, serves as a cosmological probe. In order to statistically infer merger redshifts, the…
There are many simplifications in current relativistic reflection models and this introduces systematic uncertainties in the measurement of the properties of the source. In this paper, we study the impact of the radiation crossing the…
We present numerical spectral and vertical structure calculations appropriate for near-Eddington-luminosity, radiation-pressure-dominated accretion disks around stellar-mass black holes. We cover a wide range of black hole spins and…