Related papers: A sensitive search for wormholes
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…
This talk is based on my work in collaboration with Thibault Damour since 1991. Unified theories, like superstrings, predict the existence of scalar partners to the graviton. Such theories of gravity can be very close to general relativity…
The evolution of the spin and tilt of black holes in compact black hole - neutron star and black hole - black hole binary systems is investigated within the framework of the coalescing compact star binary model for short gamma ray bursts…
Several stars orbit around a black hole candidate of mass $3.7\times 10^6$ M$_{\odot}$, in the region of the Galactic Center (GC). Looking for General Relativistic (GR) periastron shifts is limited by the existence of a stellar cluster…
The existence of black holes and of spacetime singularities is a fundamental issue in science. Despite this, observations supporting their existence are scarce, and their interpretation unclear. We overview how strong a case for black holes…
A populations of stellar mass black hole binaries may exist in globular clusters. The dynamics of globular cluster evolution imply that there may be at most one black hole binary is a globular cluster. The population of binaries are…
Binary black-hole systems with spins aligned or anti-aligned to the orbital angular momentum provide the natural ground to start detailed studies of the influence of strong-field spin effects on gravitational wave observations of coalescing…
The recent LIGO detection of gravitational waves from black-hole binaries offers the exciting possibility of testing gravitational theories in the previously inaccessible strong-field, highly relativistic regime. While the LIGO detections…
The detection of gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences has provided significant insights into our Universe, and the discovery of new and unique gravitational wave candidates from independent searches remains an ongoing field…
The detection of orbital eccentricity for a binary black hole system via gravitational waves is a key signature to distinguish between the possible binary origins. The identification of eccentricity has been difficult so far due to the…
The LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors have uncovered binary black hole systems with definitively nonzero spins, as well as systems with significant spin residing in the more massive black hole of the pair. We investigate the…
A supermassive binary black-hole candidate SDSS J1430+2303 reported recently motivates us to investigate an imminent binary of supermassive black holes as potential gravitational wave source, the radiated gravitational waves at the end of…
Based on the consideration of potential energy of the di-black-hole as a function of mass asymmetry (transfer) collective coordinate, the possibility of matter transfer between the black holes in a binary system is investigated. The…
The study of hyperbolic binary black hole encounters yields an effective probe of the strong field regime of black holes, thus providing an additional channel to test General Relativity. We study the scattering of two black holes in…
The extreme-gravity collisions of binaries with one black hole and one neutron star provide for excellent tests of general relativity. We here study how well one can constrain theories beyond general relativity with additional scalar fields…
The specific angular momentum of a Kerr black hole must not be larger than its mass. The observational confirmation of this bound which we call a Kerr bound directly suggests the existence of a black hole. In order to investigate…
Motion of short-period stars orbiting the supermassive black hole in our Galactic Center has been monitored for more than 20 years. These observations are currently offering a new way to test the gravitational theory in an unexplored…
Although roughly half of all stars are considered to be part of binary or multiple systems, there are only two confirmed cases of RR Lyrae pulsators with companions. One of them is TU Uma (Wade et al 1999) - a classical RR Lyrae star in a…
Gravitational waves at suitable frequencies can resonantly interact with a binary system, inducing changes to its orbit. A stochastic gravitational-wave background causes the orbital elements of the binary to execute a classic random walk,…
The Galactic centre Nuclear Star Cluster is one of the densest stellar clusters in the Galaxy. The stars in its inner portions orbit the supermassive black hole associated with compact radio source Sgr~A* at the orbital speeds of several…