Related papers: A unified hoop conjecture for black holes and hori…
The spin of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) growing through repeated black hole mergers in stellar clusters statistically asymptotes to zero. Putative observations of IMBHs with dimensionless spin parameter $\chi\gtrsim 0.6$ would…
Recent results of Trudinger on Isoperimetric Inequalities for non-convex bodies are applied to the gravitational collapse of a lightlike shell of matter to form a black hole. Using some integral identities for co-dimension two surfaces in…
The horizon is a classical concept that arises in general relativity, and is therefore not clearly defined when the source cannot be reliably described by classical physics. To any (sufficiently) localised quantum mechanical wave-function,…
In this paper, the orbits of a charged particle near the event horizon of a magnetized black hole are investigated. For a static black hole of mass $M$ immersed in a homogeneous magnetic field $B$, the dimensionless parameter $b=eBGM/…
Context. The problem of the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) at the centre of globular clusters is a hot and controversial topic in current astrophysical research with important implications in stellar and galaxy…
Black holes (BHs) formed by collapsing and/or merging of magnetized progenitors, have magnetic fields penetrating the event horizon, and there are several possible scenarios. Thus, the no-hair theorem that assumes the outside medium is a…
The close-limit method has given approximations in excellent agreement with those of numerical relativity for collisions of equal mass black holes. We consider here colliding holes with unequal mass, for which numerical relativity results…
We consider the steady-state density and velocity dispersion profiles of collisionless matter around a Schwarzschild black hole (BH) and its associated rate of accretion onto the BH. We treat matter, which could be stars or dark matter…
This article reviews the current status of black hole astrophysics, focusing on topics of interest to a physics audience. Astronomers have discovered dozens of compact objects with masses greater than 3 solar masses, the likely maximum mass…
In recent years, the existence of a gap in the mass spectrum of compact objects formed from stellar collapse, between the heaviest neutron stars and the lightest black holes, has been a matter of significant debate. The presence or absence…
The motion of a rapidly rotating object in curved spacetime is affected by the spin-curvature force, an effect captured in the motion of spinning test particles. Recently, Cardoso et al.~[Phys. Rev. D 105, L061501 (2022)] found an exact…
We present a simple, general, and accurate construction of the event horizons for the fusion of two neutral, rotating black holes with arbitrary orientation and values of their spins, in the extreme mass ratio limit where one black hole is…
We have recently proposed a model for a regular black hole, or an ultra-compact object, that is premised on having maximally negative radial pressure throughout the entirety of the object's interior. This model can be viewed as that of a…
The weak gravity conjecture implies the necessary existence of particles with charge-to-mass ratio $q/m \geq 1$ so that the extremal charged black hole can completely evaporate without leaving a dangerous stable extremal remnant while…
We study curvature invariants in a binary black hole merger. It has been conjectured that one could define a quasi-local and foliation independent black hole horizon by finding the level--$0$ set of a suitable curvature invariant of the…
The first LIGO-Virgo detections have confirmed the existence of massive black holes (BHs), with mass $30-40$ M$_\odot$. Such BHs might originate from massive metal-poor stars ($Z<0.3$ Z$_\odot$) or from gravitational instabilities in the…
Gravitational wave (GW) detections of binary black hole (BH) mergers have begun to sample the cosmic BH mass distribution. The evolution of single stellar cores predicts a gap in the BH mass distribution due to pair-instability supernova…
The Schwarzschild metric has a divergent energy density at the horizon, which motivates a new approach to black holes. If matter is spread uniformly throughout the interior of a supermassive black hole, with mass $M\sim M_\star= 2.34…
Regular black hole metrics involve a universal, mass-independent regulator that can be up to O(700) km while remaining consistent with terrestrial tests of Newtonian gravity and astrophysical tests of general relativistic orbits. However,…
We study black hole solutions in $R^4\times S^1$ space, using an expansion to fourth order in the ratio of the radius of the horizon, $\mu$, and the circumference of the compact dimension, $L$. A study of geometric and thermodynamic…