Related papers: Testing the Kerr Paradigm with X-ray Observations
Astrophysical black holes (BHs) are universally expected to be described by the Kerr metric, a stationary, vacuum solution of general relativity (GR). Indeed, by imaging M87$^\star$ and Sgr A$^\star$ and measuring the size of their shadows,…
A typical galaxy is thought to contain tens of millions of stellar-mass black holes, the collapsed remnants of once massive stars, and a single nuclear supermassive black hole. Both classes of black holes accrete gas from their…
The equations of null geodesics in the STU family of rotating black hole solutions of supergravity theory, which may be considered as deformations of the vacuum Kerr metric, are completely integrable. We propose that they be used as a foil…
In extensions of general relativity and in theories aiming at unifying gravity with the forces of the Standard Model, the value of the "fundamental constants" is often determined by the vacuum expectation value of new fields, which may thus…
According to the general-relativistic no-hair theorem, astrophysical black holes depend only on their masses and spins and are uniquely described by the Kerr metric. Mass and spin are the first two multipole moments of the Kerr spacetime…
According to the asymptotically safe gravity, black holes may have characteristics different from those described according to general relativity if the running of the gravitational constant coupling happens at low energies. Particularly,…
Geometrical properties of the extreme Kerr black holes in the topological sectors of nonextreme and extreme configurations are studied. We find that the Euler characteristic plays an essential role to distinguish these two kinds of extreme…
We review some recent results obtained for black holes using effective field theory methods applied to quantum gravity, in particular the unique effective action. Black holes are complex thermodynamical objects that not only have a…
Within General Relativity, the unique stationary solution of an isolated black hole is the Kerr spacetime, which has a peculiar multipolar structure depending only on its mass and spin. We develop a general method to extract the multipole…
Quantum modifications to black holes on scales comparable to the horizon size, or even more radical physics, are apparently needed to reconcile the existence of black holes with the principles of quantum mechanics. This piece gives an…
We propose a simple and unambiguous way to deduce the parameters of black holes which may reside in AGNs and some types of X-ray binaries. The black-hole mass and angular momentum are determined in physical units. The method is applicable…
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…
This chapter briefly discusses the fundamental properties of black holes in general relativity, the discovery of astrophysical black holes and their main astronomical observations, how X-ray and $\gamma$-ray facilities can study these…
After a brief introduction to the black hole stability problem, we outline our recent proof of the linear stability of the non-extreme Kerr geometry.
Rotating stringy black hole solutions with non-vanishing dilaton $\phi$, antisymmetric tensor $B_{\mu\nu}$, and $U(1)$ gauge field $A_{\mu}$ are investigated. Both Boyer-Lindquist-like and Kerr-Schild-like coordinate are constructed. The…
Recent X-ray observations have shown broad, skewed iron line emission from Seyfert 1 galaxies which is explained by the emission being fluorescence on a disk close to a black hole. During one interval, the line in MCG--6-30-15 was so broad…
This work consists of two distinct parts. In the first part we present a new method for solving the initial value problem of general relativity. Given any spatial metric with a surface orthogonal Killing field and two freely specified…
Regular rotating black holes are usually described by a metric of the Kerr-Schild form with a particular mass function that is chosen to avoid the ring singularity of the Kerr metric and which approaches the Kerr metric at the asymptotic…
Black holes pose great difficulties for theory since gravity and quantum theory must be combined in some as yet unknown way. An additional difficulty is that detailed black hole observational data to guide theorists is lacking. In this…
Gravitational lensing is a well known phenomenon predicted by the General Theory of Relativity. It is now a well-developed observational technique in astronomy and is considered to be a fundamental tool for acquiring information about the…