Related papers: Sgr A*: The Optimal Testbed of Strong-Field Gravit…
The Event Horizon Telescope is a global very-long baseline interferometer capable of probing potential deviations from the Kerr metric, which is believed to provide the unique description of astrophysical black holes. Here we report an…
The supermassive black hole Sgr A* is located at the Milky Way center. We studied its flaring activity close to the DSO/G2 pericenter passage to constrain the physical properties and origin of the flares. Simultaneous/coordinated…
In addition to providing vital clues as to the formation and evolution of black holes, the spin of black holes may be an important energy source in the Universe. Over the past couple of years, tremendous progress has been made in the realm…
Astrophysical black hole candidates are thought to be the Kerr black holes of general relativity. However, macroscopic deviations from the Kerr background are predicted by a number of scenarios beyond Einstein's gravity. X-ray reflection…
It has been recently shown (Munyaneza, Tsiklauri and Viollier 1998) that the analysis of the orbits of the fast moving stars close to Sgr A$^{*}$ (Eckart and Genzel 1997) provides a valuable tool to probe the gravitational potential near…
Recent VLBI observations have resolved Sagittarius A* at horizon scales. The Event Horizon Telescope is expected to provide increasingly good images of the region around the Schwarzschild radius $r_S$ of Sgr A* soon. A number of authors…
Light rays passing very close to a black hole may experience very strong deviations. Two geometries were separately considered in the recent literature: a source behind the black hole (standard gravitational lensing); a source in front of…
The hierarchical nature of galaxy formation suggests that a supermassive black hole binary could exist in our galactic center. We propose a new approach to constraining the possible orbital configuration of such a binary companion to the…
The dark compact object at the centre of the Milky Way is well established to be a supermassive black hole with mass $M_{\bullet} \sim 4.3 \cdot 10^6 \, M_{\odot}$, but the nature of its environment is still under debate. In this work, we…
The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) residing in the centers of most galaxies remains a mystery. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) provided direct imaging of the SMBH Sgr A* at the Milky Way's center, indicating it likely spins…
We report new simultaneous near-infrared/sub-millimeter/X-ray observations of the SgrA* counterpart associated with the massive 3-4x10**6 solar mass black hole at the Galactic Center. The main aim is to investigate the physical processes…
Latest observational data provides evidence that the emissions from Sgr A* originate from an accretion disc within ten gravitational radii of the dynamical centre of Milky Way. We investigate the physical processes responsible for the…
We construct gravitational atoms including self-gravity, obtaining solutions of the Einstein-Klein-Gordon equations for a scalar field surrounding a non-rotating black hole in a quasi-stationary approximation. We resolve the region near the…
The Galactic Center is the closest galactic nucleus that can be studied with unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity. We summarize recent basic observational results on Sagittarius A* and the conditions for star formation in the…
The super-massive objects in galactic nuclei are thought to be the Kerr black holes predicted by General Relativity, although a definite proof of their actual nature is still lacking. The most massive objects in AGN ($M \sim 10^9 M_\odot$)…
Gravitational lensing near a black hole is strong enough that light rays can circle the event horizon multiple times. Photons emitted in multiple directions at a single event, perhaps because of localized, impulsive heating of accreting…
Observations of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way with the Event Horizon Telescope at 1.3 mm have revealed a size of the emitting region that is smaller than the size of the black-hole shadow. This can be reconciled with the…
SgrA$^*$, the supermassive black hole candidate at the center of our Galaxy, seems to be one of the most promising object to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis with near future observations. In a few years, it will hopefully be possible to…
The Center of the Milky Way emits radiation through all the electromagnetic spectrum due to the presence of several astrophysical phenomena. Various scientifical questions remain unsolved in the picture that emerge from observations, the…
The unprecedented image of the M87* supermassive black hole has sparked some controversy over its usefulness as a test of the general relativistic Kerr metric. The criticism is mainly related to the black hole's quasi-circular shadow and…