Related papers: Spinning super-massive objects in galactic nuclei …
It has long been known that a maximally spinning black hole can not be over-spun by tossing in a test body. Here we show that if instead the black hole starts out with below maximal spin, then indeed over-spinning can be achieved when…
Black holes in General Relativity are known as Kerr black holes and are characterized solely by two parameters, the mass $M$ and the spin $J$. All the higher multipole moments of the gravitational field are functions of these two…
Classical Censorship permits AdS$_5$-Kerr black holes with arbitrarily large angular momenta per unit mass, which does not seem reasonable from a holographic point of view. However, it has been shown that, when these black holes are…
An inspiralling object of mass $\mu$ around a Kerr black hole of mass $M (\gg \mu)$ experiences a continuous transition near the innermost stable circular orbit from adiabatic inspiral to plunge into the horizon as gravitational radiation…
We show that observations by Backer and collaborators over the past two decades constrain the time derivative of the proper motion of Sgr A* to be less than 0.14 mas yr^{-2}. Using this result and a preliminary measurement by Eckart and…
One of the primary means of determining the spin of an astrophysical black hole is by actually measuring the inner radius of a surrounding accretion disk and using that to infer the spin. By comparing a number of different estimates of the…
In this paper we continue our study on the accretion process onto super-spinning Kerr objects with no event horizon (super-spinars). We discuss the counterpart of the Bondi accretion onto black holes. We first report the results of our…
Black holes are a common feature of the Universe. They are observed as stellar mass black holes spread throughout galaxies and as supermassive objects in their centres. Observations of stars orbiting close to the centre of our Galaxy…
General relativity (GR) predicts the existence of black hole (BH). The rotating BH called as a Kerr Black hole and GR implies that there is an upper limit on the angular momentum per mass squared of black holes $\leq 1$, above which the…
The spin of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) growing through repeated black hole mergers in stellar clusters statistically asymptotes to zero. Putative observations of IMBHs with dimensionless spin parameter $\chi\gtrsim 0.6$ would…
A star orbiting a supermassive black hole can be tidally disrupted if the black hole's gravitational tidal field exceeds the star's self gravity at pericenter. Some of this stellar tidal debris can become gravitationally bound to the black…
We present the first fully relativistic study of gravitational radiation from bodies in circular equatorial orbits around the massive black hole at the Galactic Center, Sgr A* and we assess the detectability of various kinds of objects by…
Supermassive black holes are believed to be ubiquitous at the centers of galaxies. Measuring their masses is extremely challenging yet essential for understanding their role in the formation and evolution of cosmic structure. We present a…
Black hole spins affect the efficiency of the "classical" accretion processes, hence the radiative output from quasars. Spins also determine how much energy is extractable from the hole itself. Recently it became clear that massive black…
We show that in realistic cases of accretion in active galactic nuclei or stellar-mass X-ray binaries, the Lense-Thirring effect breaks the central regions of tilted accretion discs around spinning black holes into a set of distinct planes…
We calculate the structure of accretion disks around Kerr black holes for accretion rates 0.001 - 10 M_sun/s. Such disks are plausible candidates for the central engine of gamma-ray bursts. Our disk model is fully relativistic and treats…
It has been argued that, starting with a slightly sub-extremal Kerr black hole instead of an extremal one, it is possible to overspin a black hole past the extremal limit and turn it into a naked singularity by sending test bodies, if one…
Electromagnetic observations reveal that almost all galaxies have supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers, but their properties, especially their spins, are not fully understood. Some of the authors have recently shown [Oshita and…
We investigate thick accretion structures around Kerr black holes in a swirling background. This stationary and axisymmetric spacetime is composed of a rotating black hole, which is immersed in a rotating background. The swirling background…
Most of the X-ray emission from luminous accreting black holes emerges from within 20 gravitational radii. The effective emission radius is several times smaller if the black hole is rapidly spinning. General Relativistic effects can then…