Related papers: Testing General Relativity with Black Hole X-ray D…
Einstein's general relativity is the best available theory of gravity. In recent years, spectacular proofs of Einstein's theory have been conducted, which have aroused interest that goes far beyond the narrow circle of specialists. The aim…
Einstein's general theory of relativity poses many problems to the quantum theory of point particle fields. Among them is the fate of a massive point particle. Since its rest mass exists entirely within its Schwarzschild radius, in the…
Accretion disks around black holes radiate a significant fraction of the rest mass of the accreting material in the form of thermal radiation from within a few gravitational radii of the black hole ($ r \lesssim 20 G M / c^{2}$). In…
The confrontation between Einstein's gravitation theory and experimental results, notably binary pulsar data, is summarized and its significance discussed. Experiment and theory agree at the 10^{-3} level or better. All the basic structures…
The confrontation between General Relativity and experimental results, notably binary pulsar data, is summarized and its significance discussed. The agreement between experiment and theory is numerically very impressive. However, some…
The recent discovery of "dark energy" has challenged Einstein's general theory of relativity as a complete model for our macroscopic universe. From a theoretical view, the challenge is even stronger: general relativity clearly does not…
In 1945 Einstein concluded that [1]: 'The present theory of relativity is based on a division of physical reality into a metric field (gravitation) on the one hand, and into an electromagnetic field and matter on the other hand. In reality…
The debate on gravity theories to extend or modify General Relativity is very active today because of the issues related to ultra-violet and infra-red behavior of Einstein's theory. In the first case, we have to address the Quantum Gravity…
X-ray timing observations of neutron stars and black holes are among the few available probes of ultrastrong magnetic fields, strong gravity, high densities, and the propagation of thermonuclear burning. Here we review the evidence for…
Soon after he proposed three classic observational tests for the general theory of relativity, Einstein realised that a consistent description of the universe as a whole provided another important challenge for the theory. In this essay, we…
Einsteins general theory of relativity is one of the most important accomplishments in the history of science. Its experimental verification a century ago is therefore an essential milestone that is worth celebrating in full. We reassess…
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…
Charged black holes, both spherically symmetric and rotating, in the low energy limit of string theory (Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory) are compared to analogous geometries in pure general relativity. We describe various physical…
We review the general relativistic theory of the motion, and of the timing, of binary systems containing compact objects (neutron stars or black holes). Then we indicate the various ways one can use binary pulsar data to test the…
It is well known that Einstein's General Relativity (GR) achieved a great success and overcame lots of experimental tests. On the other hand, GR also showed some shortcomings and flaws which today advise theorists to ask if it is the…
Current astrophysical research suggests that the most persistently luminous objects in the Universe are powered by the flow of matter through accretion disks onto black holes. Accretion disk systems are observed to emit copious radiation…
Observations of compact objects in the electromagnetic spectrum and the detection of gravitational waves from them can lead to quantitative tests of the theory of general relativity in the strong-field regime following two very different…
Rapidly-rotating black-hole spacetimes outside general relativity are key to many tests of Einstein's theory. We here develop an efficient spectral method to represent such spacetimes analytically, in closed-form, and to high accuracy, in a…
General Relativity (GR) remains the most accurate theory of gravity to date. It has passed many experimental tests in the Solar System as well as binary pulsar, cosmological and gravitational-wave (GW) observations. Some of these tests…
Astrophysical black holes are ideal laboratories for testing Einstein's theory of general relativity in the strong field regime. In this manuscript, we present an analysis of Suzaku and NuSTAR spectra of the black hole binary Cygnus X-1…