Related papers: Radiation pattern and outflow geometry: a new prob…
We consider the impact of anisotropic radiation on the active galactic nucleus (AGN) radiative dusty feedback. The radiation pattern originating from the accretion disc is determined by the central black hole (BH) spin. Here we analyse how…
X-ray irradiation of the accretion disc leads to strong reflection features, which are then broadened and distorted by relativistic effects. We present a detailed, general relativistic approach to model this irradiation for different…
We study the effect of returning radiation on the shape of the X-ray reflection spectrum in the case of thin accretion disks. We show that the returning radiation mainly influences the observed reflection spectrum for a large black hole…
Most common formation channels of stellar mass black hole (BH) binaries like the ones observed by LIGO, often assume they are assembled from the direct collapse of massive pre-supernova stars. However, it is still unclear whether the final…
We use a combination of a cosmological N-body simulation of the concordance Lambda cold dark matter (LCDM) paradigm and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to investigate the spin development of central supermassive black holes (BHs)…
Accretion disks around stellar-mass black holes (BHs) emit radiation peaking in the soft X-rays when the source is in the thermal state. The emerging photons are polarized and, for symmetry reasons, the polarization integrated over the…
A new approach to constraining or determining the spin of a massive black hole is proposed. A key parameter in the analysis is the dimensionless ratio, r, of the energy released to the mass of the hole. It is shown that the black hole spin,…
Astrophysical black holes (BHs) have two fundamental properties: mass and spin. While the mass-evolution of BHs has been extensively studied, much less work has been done on predicting the distribution of BH spins. In this paper we present…
Mass and spin of massive black holes (BHs) at the centre of galaxies evolve due to gas accretion and mergers with other BHs. Besides affecting e.g. the evolution of relativistic jets, the BH spin determines the efficiency with which the BH…
Spectral features can arise by reflection of coronal X-rays on a black hole accretion disc. The resulting profile bears various imprints of strong gravitational field acting on the light emitting gas. The observed shape of the reflection…
Recent works have included the effect of rotation on simulations of black hole events at the LHC, showing that the angular momentum of the black hole cannot be ignored and it makes a non-trivial contribution for most of the lifetime of the…
The gravitational wave signature of a binary black hole (BBH) merger is dependent on its component mass and spin. If such black holes originate from rapidly rotating progenitors, the large angular momentum reserve in the star could drive a…
We review recent work on the Hawking radiation of rotating brane black holes, as may be produced at the LHC. We outline the methodology for calculating the fluxes of particles, energy and angular momentum by spin-0, spin-1/2 and spin-1…
Mass and spin are the only two parameters needed to completely characterize black holes in General Relativity. However, the interaction between black holes and their environment is where complexity lies, as the relevant physical processes…
In many active galaxies, the X-ray reflection features from the innermost regions of the accretion disc are relativistically distorted. This distortion allows us to measure parameters of the black hole such as its spin. The ratio in flux…
We present new calculations of X-ray polarization from black hole (BH) accretion disks in the thermally-dominated state, using a Monte-Carlo ray-tracing code in full general relativity. In contrast to many previously published studies, our…
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…
We consider the evaporation of rotating micro black holes produced in highly energetic particle collisions, taking into account the polarization due to the coupling between the spin of the emitted particles and the angular momentum of the…
We show that the magnetic dipole and gravitational radiation emitted by a pulsar can undergo superradiant scattering off a spinning black hole companion. We find that the relative amount of superradiant modes in the radiation depends on the…
An analytic model of the evolution of a rotating black hole (BH) is proposed by considering the coexistence of disk accretion with the Blandford-Znajek process. The evolutionary characteristics of the BH are described in terms of three…