Related papers: Testing the Kerr Paradigm with X-ray Observations
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 ($M \sim 10^9 M_\odot$)…
We describe the possible forms of black hole images, viewed by a distant observer. These images are numerically calculated basing on general relativity and equations of motion in the Kerr-Newman metric. Black hole image is a gravitationally…
The black hole shadow, first observed by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2017, is the newest method for studying black holes and understanding gravity. Much work has gone into understanding the shadow of a Kerr black hole, including all of…
Astrophysical black hole systems are the ideal laboratories for testing Einstein's theory of gravity in the strong field regime. We have recently developed a framework which uses the reflection spectrum of black hole systems to perform…
The Kerr-Newman metric is the unique vacuum solution of the General Relativistic field equations, in which any singularities or spacetime pathologies are hidden behind horizons. They are believed to describe the spacetimes of massive…
Very compact objects probe extreme gravitational fields and may be the key to understand outstanding puzzles in fundamental physics. These include the nature of dark matter, the fate of spacetime singularities, or the loss of unitarity in…
We present NKBB, an XSPEC model for the thermal spectrum of thin accretion disks in parametric black hole spacetimes. We employ the Novikov-Thorne model for the description of the accretion disk and the formalism of the transfer function…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a powerful technique for probing the nature of gravity around black holes in the so-called strong field regime. One of the most popular of such probes is to look at theory-agnostic deviations away from the…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a promising technique for testing general relativity in the strong field regime, as it can be used to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. In this context, the parametrically deformed black hole metrics…
We analyse a rotating regular black hole with asymptotically Minkowski core. This Kerr-like geometry possesses the full "Killing tower" of nontrivial Killing tensor, Killing-Yano tensor, and principal tensor. The Hamilton-Jacobi equation,…
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…
Although the Kerr solution is common to many gravity theories, its perturbations are different in different theories. Hence, perturbed Kerr black holes can probe deviations from General Relativity.
Within 5-10 years, submillimeter VLBI facilities will be hopefully able to image the "shadow" of SgrA$^*$. When a black hole is surrounded by an optically thin emitting medium, the boundary of the shadow corresponds to the apparent photon…
All prior work on measuring the spins of stellar-mass black holes via the X-ray continuum-fitting method has relied on the use of weakly-Comptonized spectra obtained in the thermal dominant state. Using a self-consistent Comptonization…
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.…
Collaborative international efforts under the name of the Event Horizon Telescope project, using sub- mm very long baseline interferometry, are soon expected to provide the first images of the shadow cast by the candidate supermassive black…
We propose a new method to determine the physical parameters of Kerr black holes (namely, specific angular momentum $a$, inclination angle $i$, and distance $D$ from an observer) only from the shadow's information such as the size and…
In this contribution, I briefly review recent progress in detecting and measuring the properties of relativistic iron lines observed in stellar-mass black hole systems, and the aspects of these lines that are most relevant to studies of…
Accreting black holes often show iron line emission in their X-ray spectra. When this line emission is very broad or variable then it is likely to originate from close to the black hole. The theory and observations of such broad and…
It is commonly thought that the final product of gravitational collapse is a black hole. Nevertheless, theoretical studies have not yet provided a final answer to the question whether black holes are the only possible outcome or whether…