Related papers: Testing SgrA$^*$ with the spectrum of its accretio…
The Galactic Center Region has been surveyed in 1997-1998 with the Narrow Field Instruments on-board the BeppoSAX satellite (2-10keV energy range). The X-ray emission from SgrA*, the putative supermassive black hole at the center of our…
Black hole spectroscopy is a clean and powerful tool to test gravity in the strong-field regime and to probe the nature of compact objects. Next-generation ground-based detectors, such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, will…
Observations of supermassive black holes by the Event Horizon Telescope reveal significant inhomogeneities, most likely related to density and magnetic field perturbations. To model these features, we conduct high-resolution 2D…
Einstein's theory of general relativity has been extensively tested in weak gravitational fields, mainly with experiments in the Solar System and observations of radio pulsars, and current data agree well with the theoretical predictions.…
Astrophysical black hole candidates are thought to be the Kerr black holes predicted by General Relativity, as these objects cannot be explained otherwise without introducing new physics. However, there is no observational evidence that the…
The Galactic Center is the closest galactic nucleus that allows us to determine the multi-frequency behavior of the supermassive black hole counterpart Sagittarius A* in great detail. We put SgrA*, as a nucleus with weak activity, into the…
Within 5-10 years, very-long baseline interferometry (VLBI) facilities will be able to directly image the accretion flow around SgrA$^*$, the super-massive black hole candidate at the center of the Galaxy, and observe the black hole…
In this letter, a matrix method is employed to study the scalar quasinormal modes of Kerr as well as Kerr-Sen black holes. Discretization is applied to transfer the scalar perturbation equation into a matrix form eigenvalue problem, where…
Studies of the inner few parsecs at the Galactic Centre provide evidence of a supermassive black hole, associated with the unusual, variable radio and infrared source Sgr A*. Our major aim is the study and analysis of the physical processes…
Kaluza-Klein theory is a popular alternative theory of gravity, with both non-rotating and rotating black hole solutions known. This allows for the possibility that the theory could be observationally tested. We present a model which…
We estimate the potential of present and future interferometric gravitational-wave detectors to test the Kerr nature of black holes through "gravitational spectroscopy," i.e. the measurement of multiple quasinormal mode frequencies from the…
(abridged) The connection between black hole, accretion disk, and radio jet can be best constrained by fitting models to observations of nearby low luminosity galactic nuclei, in particular the well studied sources Sgr~A* and M87. There has…
We describe a Monte Carlo radiative transport code intended for calculating spectra of hot, optically thin plasmas in full general relativity. The version we describe here is designed to model hot accretion flows in the Kerr metric and…
The galactic central black hole Sgr A* exhibits outbursts of radiation in the near infrared (so-called IR flares). One model of these events consists in a hotspot orbiting on the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of the hole. These…
We report the first detection of the Galactic Centre massive black hole, Sgr~A*, in the far infrared. Our measurements were obtained with PACS on board the \emph{Herschel} satellite at $100~\mathrm{\mu m}$ and $160~\mathrm{\mu m}$. While…
Over a two year period (1995-1997), we have conducted a diffraction-limited imaging study at 2.2 microns of the inner 6"x6" of the Galaxy's central stellar cluster using the Keck 10-m telescope. The K band images obtained reveal a large…
The inner shadow of a black hole, as a projection of the event horizon, is regarded as a potential tool for testing gravitational theories and constraining system parameters. Whether this holds in the case of a tilted accretion disk…
Observational evidence for black hole spin down has been found in the normalized light curves of long GRBs in the BATSE catalogue. Over the duration $T_{90}$ of the burst, matter swept up by the central black hole is susceptible to…
The center of the Milky Way hosts the closest supermassive black hole, SgrA$^*$. Decades of near-infrared observations of our Galactic Center have shown the presence of a small population of stars (the so called S-star cluster) orbiting…
It has been suggested that spinning wormholes may mimic Kerr black holes in astronomical sources such as X-ray binaries and supermassive compact objects in centers of galaxies. With recent advances in instrumentation this could be tested if…