Related papers: Five misconceptions about black holes
If TeV-scale gravity describes nature, black holes will be produced in particle accelerators, perhaps even with impressive rates at the Large Hadron Collider. Their decays, largely via the Hawking process, will be spectacular. Black holes…
We present a broad review on black holes. We analyse some of the fundamental concepts in black hole theory, the observational and theoretical status of stellar and galactic black holes, and their appearance as quantum objects.
Dark matter overdensities around black holes can be searched for by looking at the characteristic imprint they leave on the gravitational waveform of binary black hole mergers. Current theoretical predictions of the density profile of dark…
We study the formation of black holes from subhorizon and superhorizon perturbations in a matter dominated universe with 3+1D numerical relativity simulations. We find that there are two primary mechanisms of formation depending on the…
Recent observations of two nearby black hole low-mass X-ray binaries have suggested possible indication of dark matter density spikes. While the evidence is compelling, one issue with this interpretation is that light black holes formed…
The existence of supermassive collapsed objects in the cores of most galaxies poses still-unanswered questions. First, how did they form, and how does their mass depend on the properties of the host galaxy? Second, can observations probe…
Proof that black holes exist will likely require confirmation of the existence of event horizons. The common assumption that the mere existence of large compact masses proves the case for black holes is an unwarranted extrapolation of…
The formation of the first massive objects in the infant Universe remains impossible to observe directly and yet it sets the stage for the subsequent evolution of galaxies. While some black holes with masses > billion solar masses? have…
The existence of black holes is a central prediction of general relativity and thus serves as a basic consistency test for modified theories of gravity. In spherical symmetry, only two classes of dynamic solutions are compatible with the…
The formation of supermassive black holes (SMBH) is intimately related to galaxy formation, although precisely how remains a mystery. I speculate that formation of, and feedback from, SMBH may alleviate problems that have arisen in our…
Recently, various authors have proposed that the first ultraviolet effect on the gravitational collapse of massive stars to black holes is the transition between a black-hole geometry and a white-hole geometry, though their proposals are…
Alvarez-Dominguez, Garay, Martin-Martinez, and Polo-Gomez have suggested that ``it is not possible to concentrate enough light to precipitate the formation of an event horizon. We argue that the dissipative quantum effects coming from the…
It is argued that the bulk of black holes (BH) in the universe are primordial (PBH). This assertion is strongly supported by the recent astronomical observations, which allow to conclude that supermassive BHs with $M= (10^6 - 10^9) M_\odot$…
More than 300 supermassive black holes have been detected at redshifts larger than 6, and they are abundant in the centers of local galaxies. Their formation mechanisms, however, are still rather unconstrained. A possible origin of these…
Black Holes generate a particular kind of environments dominated by an accretion flow which concentrates a magnetic field. The interplay of gravity and magnetism creates this paradoxical situation where relativistic ejection is allowed and…
Black-hole masses of distant quasars cannot be measured directly, but can be estimated to within a factor 3 to 5 using scaling relationships involving the quasar luminosity and broad-line width. Why such relationships are reasonable is…
A new model for the formation of active galaxies is described. A key feature of this model is the idea that the birth of black holes in the centers of supergiant galaxies is strongly influenced by the large-scale distribution of matter in…
In this article we consider the formation and evolution of black holes, especially those in binary stars where radiation from the matter falling on them can be seen. We consider a number of effects introduced by some of us, which are not…
Recently wide publicity has been given to a claim by T. Vachaspati that "black holes do not exist", that the objects known as black holes in astrophysics should rather be called "black stars" and they not only do not have event horizons but…
Recent developments have ushered in a new era in the field of black hole astrophysics, providing our first direct view of the remarkable environment near black hole event horizons. These observations have enabled astronomers to confirm…