Related papers: Another look at Black Hole Spins
The spin of a black hole retains the memory of how the black hole grew, and can be a potent source of energy for powering relativistic jets. To understand the diagnostic power and astrophysical significance of black hole spin, however, we…
The spin of a black hole is an important quantity to study, providing a window into the processes by which a black hole was born and grew. Further, spin can be a potent energy source for powering relativistic jets and energetic particle…
Fast variability studies of accreting black holes in the Galaxy offer us a unique opportunity to measure the spins of black holes and test the strong-field behavior of general relativity. In this review, I summarize the arguments often used…
We estimate the spin distribution of primordial black holes based on the recent study of the critical phenomena in the gravitational collapse of a rotating radiation fluid. We find that primordial black holes are mostly slowly rotating.
In astronomy, the problem of black holes is arguably second in importance only to the problem of cosmology. A current frontier in black hole research is the measurement of spin. During the past three years, the spins of several stellar-mass…
It is well known that celestial bodies tend to be spherical due to gravity and that rotation produces deviations from this sphericity. We discuss what is known and expected about the shape of black holes' horizons from their formation to…
Although black holes are objects of central importance across many fields of physics, there is no agreed upon definition for them, a fact that does not seem to be widely recognized. Physicists in different fields conceive of and reason…
Black hole spin will have a large impact on searches for gravitational waves with advanced detectors. While only a few stellar mass black hole spins have been measured using X-ray techniques, gravitational wave detectors have the capacity…
The article summarizes the observational evidence for the existence of massive black holes, as well as the current knowledge about their abundance, their mass and spin distributions, and their cosmic evolution within and together with their…
Black holes are real astrophysical objects, but their interiors are hidden and can only be "observed" through mathematics. The structure of rotating black holes is typically illustrated with the help of special coordinates. But any such…
Black holes are perhaps the most strange and fascinating objects known to exist in the universe. Our understanding of space and time is pushed to its limits by the extreme conditions found in these objects. They can be used as natural…
Black hole spins affect the efficiency of the "classical" accretion processes, hence the radiative output from quasars. Spins also determine how much energy is extractable from the hole itself. Recently it became clear that massive black…
Supermassive black holes are nowadays believed to reside in most local galaxies. Observations have revealed us vast information on the population of local and distant black holes, but the detailed physical properties of these dark massive…
We briefly review some recent advances in the study of the shadows of rotating black holes in alternative theories. The size and the shape of the shadow depend on the mass and the angular momentum, and they can also depend on other…
The motion of a stellar compact object around a supermassive black hole can be approximated by the motion of a spinning test particle. The equations of motion describing such systems are in general non-integrable, and therefore, chaotic…
Black holes are among the most intriguing objects in modern physics. Their influence ranges from powering quasars and other active galactic nuclei, to providing key insights into quantum gravity. We review the observational evidence for…
In the context of f(R) modified gravity theories we determine that the black holes existence is determined by the sign of a parameter dependent of the mass, the charge, the spin and the scalar curvature. We obtain the different…
Measurements of black-hole spins are of crucial importance to fulfill the promise of gravitational-wave astronomy. On the astrophysics side, spins are perhaps the cleanest indicator of black-hole evolutionary processes, thus providing a…
Because of the very definition of black holes --- no light escapes them and falling objects get infinitely faint when approaching --- it is impossible to ever prove that they exist. However, electromagnetic and gravitational-wave…
In the standard paradigm, astrophysical black holes can be described solely by their mass and angular momentum - commonly referred to as `spin' - resulting from the process of their birth and subsequent growth via accretion. Whilst the mass…