Related papers: Public Release of RELXILL_NK: A Relativistic Refle…
The spacetime geometry around astrophysical black holes is supposed to be well approximated by the Kerr metric, but deviations from the Kerr solution are predicted in a number of scenarios involving new physics. Broad iron K$\alpha$ lines…
We have developed improved spectral models of relativistic reflection in the lamppost and disc-corona geometries. The models calculate photon transfer in the Kerr metric and give the observed photon-energy spectra produced by either thermal…
Broad, skewed iron K$\alpha$ emission lines in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes encode key information about the spacetime geometry of the innermost disk. While the Kerr metric is standard for spin measurements, horizonless…
Accretion disc model fitting to optical/UV quasar spectra requires that the highest mass black holes have the highest spin, with implications on the hierarchical growth of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies over cosmic time.…
Aims. We quantify the effect of gravitational redshift on emission lines to explore the transition region from the Newtonian to the Einsteinian regime. With the emitting region closer to the Kerr black hole, lines are successively subjected…
It is thought that the spacetime geometry around black hole candidates is described by the Kerr solution, but an observational confirmation is still missing. Today, the continuum-fitting method and the analysis of the iron K$\alpha$ line…
Recently the non-local gravity theory has come out to be a good candidate for an effective field theory of quantum gravity and also it can provide rich phenomenology to understand late-time accelerating expansion of the universe. For any…
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 construct a relativistic reflection model in a non-Kerr spacetime in which, depending on the value of the deformation parameter of the metric, there are black hole solutions with spin parameter $|a_*| > 1$. We apply our model to fit…
We present a new solution in Einstein's General Relativity representing a Schwarzschild black hole immersed in a rotating universe. Such a solution is constructed analytically by means of the last unexplored Lie point symmetry of the Ernst…
We investigate the gravitational lensing properties and the formation of relativistic images associated with black holes modeled by the Reissner-Nordstr\"om and Kerr space-time geometries. In particular, we perform numerical computations of…
We performed detailed calculations of the relativistic effects acting on both the reflection continuum and the iron line from accretion discs around rotating black holes. Fully relativistic transfer of both illuminating and reprocessed…
In this work, we elaborate on the development of a general relativistic formalism that allows one to analytically express the mass and spin parameters of the Kerr black hole in terms of observational data: the total redshift and blueshift…
In this Letter, we have developed a numerically efficient framework for evaluating parameters in metric theories of gravity, and applied it to constrain the horizon-scale magnetic field in the Kerr-Bertotti-Robinson (Kerr-BR) spacetime…
We are developing a general, unified, and rigorous analytical framework for using gravitational lensing by compact objects to test different theories of gravity beyond the weak-deflection limit. In this paper we present the formalism for…
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…
We present a detailed spectral analysis of the black hole candidate MAXI J1836-194. The source was caught in the intermediate state during its 2011 outburst by Suzaku and RXTE. We jointly fit the X-ray data from these two missions using the…
The emissivity profile assumed in X-ray reflection spectroscopy significantly impacts black hole spin measurements. Using simulated NuSTAR spectra generated for lamppost and disk-like coronae with the relxill model suite, we evaluate…
Physically relevant solutions in general relativity often contain spacetime singularities, which are typically interpreted as a sign of breakdown of the theory at high densities/curvatures. Hence, there has been a growing interest in…
In general relativity, the Kerr metric uniquely represents the geometry surrounding an isolated, rotating black hole. An identification of significant non-Kerr features in some astrophysical source would then provide a `smoking-gun' for the…