Related papers: Fundamental Concepts
These lectures provide an overview of the theory of accretion disks with application to bright sources containing black holes. I focus on the fundamental physics of these flows, stressing modern developments and outstanding questions…
Current astrophysical research suggests that the most persistently luminous objects in the Universe are powered by the flow of matter through accretion disks onto black holes. Accretion disk systems are observed to emit copious radiation…
A brief review is given for X-ray properties of black hole binary systems. Topics include the effort to re-define the three states of active accretion, potential applications for general relativity in the regime of strong gravity, and the…
Basic properties of black holes are explained in terms of trapping horizons. It is shown that matter and information will escape from an evaporating black hole. A general scenario is outlined whereby a black hole evaporates completely…
Since a black hole does not emit light from its interior, nor does it have a surface on which light from nearby sources can be reflected, observational study of black hole physics requires observing the gravitational impact of the black…
We investigate the astrophysical consequences of black holes in quadratic gravity, characterized by the parameters $S_0$, $S_2$, $m_0$ and $m_2$, in addition to the black hole mass $M$. To evaluate the physical validity of the fundamental…
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…
A general formulation of the basic conflict of the information problem is given, encapsulated in a "black hole theorem." This is framed in a more general context than the usual one of quantum field theory on a background, and is based on…
The role of X-ray observations for cosmological studies and conclusions is briefly explored. X-rays currently yield cosmologically interesting results on the abundances, evolution and gas content of clusters of galaxies, on the clustering…
The X-ray emission of neutron stars and black holes presents a rich phenomenology that can lead us to a better understanding of their nature and to address more general physics questions: Does general relativity apply in the strong gravity…
Recent developments in the study of primordial black holes (PBHs) will be reviewed, with particular emphasis on their formation and evaporation. PBHs could provide a unique probe of the early Universe, gravitational collapse, high energy…
In the last decades, luminous accreting super-massive black holes have been discovered within the first Gyr after the Big Bang, but their origin is still an unsolved mystery. We discuss our state-of-the-art theoretical knowledge of their…
Gravitational wave observations will be excellent tools for making precise measurements of processes that occur in very strong-field regions of spacetime. Extreme mass ratio systems, formed by the capture of a stellar mass body compact by a…
In the coming decade, gravitational waves will convert the study of general relativistic aspects of black holes and stars from a largely theoretical enterprise to a highly interactive, observational/theoretical one. For example,…
Objects that are on the verge of being extremal black holes but actually are distinct in many ways are called quasi-black holes. Quasi-black holes are defined here and treated in a unified way through the displaying of their properties. The…
This paper provides a brief review of the history of our understanding and knowledge of black holes. Starting with early speculations on ``dark stars'' I discuss the Schwarzschild "black hole" solution to Einstein's field equations and the…
At the 20-th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics there was a plenary talk devoted to the recent developments in classical Relativity. In that talk the problems of gravitational collapse, collisions of black holes, and of black…
Black holes in several dimensions and in several theories are studied and discussed. The theories are, general relativity, Kaluza-Klein, Brans-Dicke, Lovelock gravity and string theory.
One of the main goals of contemporary theoretical physics is to find the quantum theory of gravity. There are various working hypotheses, mostly operating in the regime of high-energy physics well above the reach of particle accelerators.…
These notes provide a self-contained introduction to the derivation of the zero, first and second laws of black hole mechanics. The prerequisite conservation laws in gauge and gravity theories are also briefly discussed. An explicit…