Related papers: Testing the Kerr black hole hypothesis using X-ray…
Ray tracing radiative transfer is a powerful method for comparing theoretical models of black hole accretion flows and jets with observations. We present a public code, grtrans, for carrying out such calculations in the Kerr metric,…
We discuss a model of an X-ray illuminating source above an accretion disk of a rotating black hole. Within the so called lamp-post scheme we compute the expected (observed) polarization properties of the radiation reaching an observer. We…
An historical account of the reasoning that led to the discovery of the Kerr and Kerr-Schild metrics in 1963-1964, and their physical interpretation as rotating black holes, is presented.
We use a Monte Carlo code to calculate the geodesic orbits of test particles around Kerr black holes, generating a distribution function of both bound and unbound populations of dark matter particles. From this distribution function, we…
General relativistic effects are strong near the black hole of an X-ray binary and significantly impact the total energy released at the innermost accretion disk's region. Our goal is to fully incorporate the black hole's spin and all the…
It has been proposed by Bekenstein and others that the horizon area of a black hole conforms, upon quantization, to a discrete and uniformly spaced spectrum. In this paper, we consider the area spectrum for the highly non-trivial case of a…
We investigate the wave optical imaging of black holes with Hawking radiation. The spatial correlation function of Hawking radiation is expressed in terms of transmission and reflection coefficients for scalar wave modes and evaluated by…
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…
We investigate stationary slim accretion disks around Kerr black holes. We construct a new numerical method based on the relaxation technique. We systematically cover the whole parameter space relevant to stellar mass X-ray binaries. We…
In this paper we present RELXILLDGRAD_NK, a relativistic reflection model in which the electron density of the accretion disk is allowed to have a radial power-law profile. The ionization parameter has also a non-constant radial profile and…
Relativistic reflection features in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes are considered to be generated by the illumination of the accretion disk by the hot corona. In this work, we present a numerical method for the emission line…
The exponential blueshift associated with the event horizon of a black hole makes conformal symmetry play a fundamental role in accounting for its thermal properties. Using a derivation based on two-point functions, we show that the…
The relativistically-broadened reflection spectrum, observed in both AGN and X-ray binaries, has proven to be a powerful probe of the properties of black holes and the environments in which they reside. Being emitted from the inner-most…
One of the Holy Grails of observational astronomy is to confirm the prediction that black holes in the Universe are described by the Kerr solution of Einstein's field equations of general relativity. This Topical Collection provides a…
We present a general relativistic accretion disc model and its application to the soft-state X-ray spectra of black hole binaries. The model assumes a flat, optically thick disc around a rotating Kerr black hole. The disc locally radiates…
Self-consistent vertical structure models together with non-LTE radiative transfer should produce spectra from accretion disks around black holes which differ from multitemperature blackbodies at levels which may be observed. High…
Black holes (BH) are objects described by General Relativity (GR), particularly by the Kerr solution. However, this solution is based on simplifying assumptions. To achieve a more realistic approach, we investigate the impact of deviations…
This review describes the events leading up to the discovery of the Kerr metric in 1963 and the enormous impact the discovery has had in the subsequent 50 years. The review discusses the Penrose process, the four laws of black hole…
We present a convariant formulation for radiative transfer in curved space time and demonstrate some applications in the black-hole systems. We calculate the emission from semi-transparent accretion tori around black holes, for opacity…
Very steep reflection emissivity profiles in the inner part of accretion disks are commonly found in the analysis of X-ray observations of black hole binaries and AGN, but there is some debate about their exact origin. While steep…