Related papers: A sensitive search for wormholes
We propose to use pulsar-black hole binaries as a probe of gravitational collider physics. Induced by the gravitation of the pulsar, the atomic transitions of the boson cloud around the black hole back-react on the orbital motion. This…
Gravitationally bound three-body systems have been studied for hundreds of years and are common in our Galaxy. They show complex orbital interactions, which can constrain the compositions, masses, and interior structures of the bodies and…
Pulsar timing is a promising technique for detecting low frequency sources of gravitational waves. Historically the focus has been on the detection of diffuse stochastic backgrounds, such as those formed from the superposition of weak…
Pulsar Timing Arrays are a prime tool to study unexplored astrophysical regimes with gravitational waves. Here we show that the detection of gravitational radiation from individually resolvable super-massive black hole binary systems can…
This talk reviews the constraints imposed by binary-pulsar data on gravity theories, focusing on ``tensor-scalar'' ones which are the best motivated alternatives to general relativity. We recall that binary-pulsar tests are qualitatively…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) found in the centers of many galaxies have been recognized to play a fundamental active role in the cosmological structure formation process. In hierarchical formation scenarios, SMBHs are expected to form…
Data from long term timing observations of the radio pulsar PSR B1855+09 have been searched for the signature of Gravitational waves (G-waves) emitted by the proposed supermassive binary black hole system in 3C66B. For the case of a…
During the motion of a binary pulsar around the Galactic center, the pulsar and its companion experience a wind of dark-matter particles that can affect the orbital motion through dynamical friction. We show that this effect produces a…
Radial velocity studies of X-ray binaries provide the most solid evidence for the existence of stellar-mass black holes. We currently have 20 confirmed cases, with dynamical masses in excess of 3 Msun. Accurate masses have been obtained for…
We review the state of the evidence for the existence and observational appearance of supermassive black hole binaries. Such objects are expected from standard hierarchical galaxy evolution to form after two galaxies, each containing a…
Although neutron star-black hole binaries have been identified through mergers detected in gravitational waves, a pulsar-black hole binary has yet to be detected. While short-period binaries are detectable due to a clear signal in the…
In the presence of an ultralight scalar or vector boson, a spinning black hole will be spun down through the superradiant instability. We use spin measurements from gravitational wave observations of binary black holes, in particular the…
A small group of X-ray binaries currently provides the best evidence for the existence of stellar-mass black holes. These objects are interacting binary systems where the X-rays arise from accretion of material onto a compact object (i.e.…
The S-star cluster in the Galactic center allows us to study the physics close to a supermassive black hole, including distinctive dynamical tests of general relativity. Our best estimates for the mass of and the distance to Sgr A* using…
Orbital eccentricity is one of the most robust discriminators for distinguishing between dynamical and isolated formation scenarios of binary black hole mergers using gravitational-wave observatories such as LIGO and Virgo. Using…
The discovery of radio pulsars (PSRs) around the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in our Galactic Center (GC), Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), will have significant implications for tests of gravity. In this paper, we predict restrictions on the…
The detection of a pulsar (PSR) in a tight, relativistic orbit around a supermassive or intermediate mass black hole - such as those in the Galactic centre or in the centre of Globular clusters - would allow for precision tests of general…
Beginning from massive binaries in the Galaxy we evolve black-hole, neutron-star binaries and binary neutron stars, such as the Hulse-Taylor system PSR 1913+16. The new point in our evolution is a quantitative calculation of the accretion…
Gravitational waves are a prediction of general relativity, and with ground-based detectors now running in their advanced configuration, we will soon be able to measure them directly for the first time. Binaries of stellar-mass black holes…
The first direct detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes open a unique window into the binary black hole formation environment. One promising environmental signature is the angular distribution of the black hole…