Related papers: Relativistic Stellar Dynamics Around a Massive Bla…
We study the process of mass segregation through 2-body relaxation in galactic nuclei with a central massive black hole (MBH). This study has bearing on a variety of astrophysical questions, from the distribution of X-ray binaries at the…
Understanding the processes that drive galaxy formation and shape the observed properties of galaxies is one of the most interesting and challenging frontier problems of modern astrophysics. We now know that the evolution of galaxies is…
Galactic bulges are complex systems. Once thought to be small-scale versions of elliptical galaxies, advances in astronomical instrumentation (spectroscopy in particular) has revealed a wealth of photometric and kinematic substructure in…
We calculate the first dynamical evolutions of merging black hole-neutron star binaries that construct the combined black hole-neutron star spacetime in a general relativistic framework. We treat the metric in the conformal flatness…
I present an elementary primer of black hole physics, including its general relativity basis, all peppered with astrophysical illustrations. Following a brief review of the process stellar collapse to a black hole, I discuss the…
Relativistic outflows (mainly observed in the radio) are a characteristic feature of both Galactic stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of Galactic sources have shown that…
I review a new (and still tentative) approach to black hole thermodynamics that seeks to explain black hole entropy in terms of microscopic quantum gravitational boundary states induced on the black hole horizon.
Dynamical models of star clusters are maturing in the sense that effects other than simple point particle dynamics are taken into account. We summarize the relevance of and prospects for this new generation of N-body models.
Our current understanding of the stellar initial mass function and massive star evolution suggests that young globular clusters may have formed hundreds to thousands of stellar-mass black holes, the remnants of stars with initial masses…
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…
Black-hole perturbation theory is a useful tool to investigate issues in astrophysics, high-energy physics, and fundamental problems in gravity. It is often complementary to fully-fledged nonlinear evolutions and instrumental to interpret…
We discuss the method, and potential systematic effects therein, used for measuring the mass of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. We restrict our discussion to the method that relies on the validity of Kepler's laws; we refer to…
The most compelling evidences for the existence of stellar-mass black holes have been obtained through observations of X-ray binary systems. The application of classical methods and the development of new techniques have allowed us to…
Rotating relativistic stars have been studied extensively in recent years, both theoretically and observationally, because of the information they might yield about the equation of state of matter at extremely high densities and because…
It has long been suspected that Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by accretion of matter onto massive black holes and this belief implies their presence in the nuclei of most nearby galaxies as "relics" of past activity. Just a few years…
Nuclear star clusters that surround supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei are thought to contain large numbers of black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs), a fraction of which form binaries and could merge by Kozai-Lidov…
I briefly outline recent theoretical developments on the formation of the first massive black holes (MBHs) that may grow into the population of MBHs powering quasars and inhabiting galactic centers today. I also touch upon possible…
Microquasars provide new insights into: 1) the physics of relativistic jets from black holes, 2) the connection between accretion and ejection, and 3) the physical mechanisms in the formation of stellar-mass black holes. Furthermore, the…
Recent years have seen tremendous progress in the quest to detect supermassive black holes in the centers of nearby galaxies, and gas-dynamical measurements of the central masses of active galaxies have been valuable contributions to the…
We construct evolutionary tracks for massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) embedded in a surrounding distribution of stars. The dynamics of the binary is evolved by taking into account the erosion of the central stellar cusp bound to the…