Related papers: Seeing the unseeable
Since the Weak Cosmic Censorship Conjecture was proposed, research on this conjecture has been ongoing. This paper explores the conjecture in black holes that are closer to those existing in the real universe (i.e., rotating black holes…
Simulated images of a black hole surrounded by optically thin emission typically display two main features: a central brightness depression and a narrow, bright "photon ring" consisting of strongly lensed images superposed on top of the…
The theory of measurement is employed to elucidate the physical basis of general relativity. For measurements involving phenomena with intrinsic length or time scales, such scales must in general be negligible compared to the (translational…
The classic black hole mechanics and thermodynamics are formulated for stationary black holes with event horizons. Alternative theories of gravity of interest for cosmology contain a built-in time-dependent cosmological "constant" and black…
Black hole jets represent one of the most extreme manifestations of astrophysical processes, linking accretion physics, relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, and large-scale feedback in galaxies and clusters. Despite decades of observational…
Black holes in General Relativity are described by space-time metrics that are simpler in comparison to non-vacuum compact objects. However, given the universality of the gravitational pull, it is expected that dark matter accumulates…
In general relativity without a cosmological constant, a classical theorem due to Hawking states that stationary black holes must be topologically spherical. This result is one of the several ingredients that collectively imply the…
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity predicts that accelerating mass distributions produce gravitational radiation, analogous to electromagnetic radiation from accelerating charges. These gravitational waves have not been directly…
Classical black holes are solutions of the field equations of General Relativity. Many astronomical observations suggest that black holes really exist in nature. However, an unambiguous proof for their existence is still lacking. Neither…
We examine the justification for taking the Event Horizon Telescope's famous 2019 image to be a reliable representation of the region surrounding a black hole. We argue that it takes the form of a robustness argument, with the resulting…
Global expansion of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) will see the strategic addition of antennas at new geographical locations, transforming the sensitivity and imaging fidelity of the $\lambda \sim 1$\,mm EHT array. A possible South…
In this review, I have tried to focus on the development of the field, from the first speculations to the current lines of research. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, black holes are relatively simple objects and…
The International X-ray Observatory (IXO), a joint NASA-ESA-JAXA effort, will address fundamental and timely questions in astrophysics: What happens close to a black hole? How did supermassive black holes grow? How does large scale…
Supermassive black holes, with masses of 10^6 to more than 10^9 solar masses, are among the most spectacular objects in the Universe, and are laboratories for physics in extreme conditions. The primary goal of ARISE (Advanced Radio…
Testing gravity theory in the strong field region becomes a reality due to the observations of gravitational waves and black hole shadows. In this paper, we discuss how to constrain the possible deviations of the classical general…
Interferometers from the ground and space will be able to resolve the two images in a microlensing event. This will at least partially lift the inherent degeneracy between physical parameters in microlensing events. To increase the…
We discuss some of the drawbacks of using event horizons to define black holes and suggest ways in which black holes can be described without event horizons, using trapping horizons. We show that these trapping horizons give rise to…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has produced images of the plasma flow around the supermassive black holes in Sgr A* and M87* with a resolution comparable to the projected size of their event horizons. Observations with the…
The Hawking-Unruh effect of thermal radiance from a black hole or observed by an accelerated detector is usually viewed as a geometric effect related to the existence of an event horizon. Here we propose a new viewpoint, that the detection…
Some tests of fundamental physics - the equation of state at supra-nuclear densities, the metric in strong gravity, the effect of magnetic fields above the quantum critical value - can only be measured using compact astrophysical objects:…