Related papers: RELXILL_NK: A Black Hole Relativistic Reflection M…
Most of the X-ray emission from luminous accreting black holes emerges from within 20 gravitational radii. The effective emission radius is several times smaller if the black hole is rapidly spinning. General Relativistic effects can then…
We extend the investigation of general relativistic effects on the observed X-ray continuum of Kerr black holes in the context of the light bending model (Miniutti & Fabian, 2004). Assuming a ring-like illuminating source, co-rotating with…
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…
The construction of a generic parametrization to describe the spacetime geometry around astrophysical black hole candidates is an important step to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. In the last few years, the Johannsen-Psaltis metric has…
Accretion of magnetized gas on compact astrophysical objects such as black holes has been successfully modeled using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations. These simulations have largely been performed in the Kerr…
A detailed study of ray tracing in the space-time generated by a disk of counter-rotating dust is presented. The space-time is given in explicit form in terms of hyperelliptic theta functions. The numerical approach to ray tracing is set up…
We present a pseudo-Newtonian potential for accretion disk modeling around the rotating black holes. This potential can describe the general relativistic effects on accretion disk. As the inclusion of rotation in a proper way is very…
The effect of the returning radiation has long been ignored in the analysis of the reflection spectra of Galactic black holes and active galactic nuclei and only recently has been implemented in the relxill package. Here we present a study…
Considerable attention has recently focused on gravity theories obtained by extending general relativity with additional scalar, vector, or tensor degrees of freedom. In this paper, we show that the black-hole solutions of these theories…
We use a ray-tracing technique to compute the observed spectrum of a thin accretion disk around a Kerr black hole. We include all relativistic effects such as frame-dragging, Doppler boost, gravitational redshift, and bending of light by…
General relativity has passed all solar system experiments and neutron star based tests, such as binary pulsar observations, with flying colors. A more exotic arena for testing general relativity is in systems that contain one or more black…
SgrA$^*$, the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Center, exhibits flares in the X-ray, NIR, and sub-mm bands that may be interpreted within a hot spot model. Light curves and images of hot spots orbiting a black hole are…
Astrophysical black holes are expected to be described by the Kerr metric. This is the only stationary, vacuum, axisymmetric metric, without electromagnetic charge, that satisfies Einstein's equations and does not have pathologies outside…
We introduce a new general-relativistic timing observable that measures the breaking of reflection symmetry in photon arrival times caused by black hole spin. Using backward ray tracing in the Kerr spacetime, we construct time-delay maps…
We present a new and complete library of synthetic spectra for modeling the component of emission that is reflected from an illuminated accretion disk. The spectra were computed using an updated version of our code XILLVER that incorporates…
Astrophysical tests of general relativity belong to two categories: 1) "internal", i.e. consistency tests within the theory (for example, tests that astrophysical black holes are indeed described by the Kerr solution and its perturbations),…
We present a numerical work aiming at the computation of excised initial data for black hole spacetimes in full general relativity, using Dirac gauge in the context of a constrained formalism for the Einstein equations. Introducing the…
Blurred reflection features are commonly observed in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes. In the presence of high-quality data and with the correct astrophysical model, X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a powerful tool to probe the…
The Kerr spacetime of spinning black holes is one of the most intriguing predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity. The special role this spacetime plays in the theory of gravity is encapsulated in the no-hair theorem, which…
The images of supermassive black holes surrounded by optically-thin, radiatively-inefficient accretion flows, like those observed with the Event Horizon Telescope, are characterized by a bright ring of emission surrounding the black-hole…