Related papers: Black hole spin-orbit misalignment in the X-ray bi…
In astronomy, the problem of black holes is arguably second in importance only to the problem of cosmology. A current frontier in black hole research is the measurement of spin. During the past three years, the spins of several stellar-mass…
We analyse the X-ray spectrum of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070 using observations from XMM-Newton and NuSTAR during 'hard' states of its 2018-2019 outburst. We take a fully Bayesian approach, and this is one of the first papers…
We study the basic properties of accretion flows onto binary supermassive black holes, including the cases in which a circumbinary disk is misaligned with the binary orbital plane, by means of three-dimensional Smoothed Particle…
The black hole X-ray binary (BHXRB) Swift J151857.0-572147 was discovered during its first outburst in March 2024. We review the archive of NICER observations from this outburst, focusing on the soft states. We select spectra for which the…
We discuss the timescales for alignment of black hole and accretion disc spins in the context of binary systems. We show that for black holes that are formed with substantial angular momentum, the alignment timescales are likely to be at…
An accurate and precise measurement of the spins of individual merging black holes is required to understand their origin. While previous studies have indicated that most of the spin information comes from the inspiral part of the signal,…
We constrain the spin of the black hole (BH) candidate MAXI J1727-203 using Insight-HXMT data. Due to limited HXMT observations covering only part of the outburst, NICER data were used to analyze the full outburst's state transitions, we…
We present measurements of the dimensionless spin parameters and inner-disk inclination of two stellar mass black holes. The spin parameter of SWIFT J1753.5-0127 and GRO J1655-40 are estimated by modelling the strong reflection signatures…
We describe a program that we have embarked on to estimate the spins of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. We fit the continuum X-ray spectrum of the radiation from the accretion disk using the standard thin disk model, and extract…
The first extragalactic X-ray binary, LMC X-1, was discovered in 1969. In the 1980s, its compact primary was established as the fourth dynamical black-hole candidate. Recently, we published accurate values for the mass of the black hole and…
It is widely believed that the spin of black holes in X-ray binaries is mainly natal. A significant spin-up from accretion is not possible. If the secondary has a low mass, the black hole spin cannot change too much even if the black hole…
The spins of ten stellar black holes have been measured using the continuum-fitting method. These black holes are located in two distinct classes of X-ray binary systems, one that is persistently X-ray bright and another that is transient.…
We model the overall shape of an accretion disc in a semi-detached binary system in which mass is transfered on to a spinning black hole the spin axis of which is misaligned with the orbital rotation axis. We assume the disc is in a steady…
Building upon a new dynamical model for the X-ray binary LMC X-3, we measure the spin of its black hole primary via the continuum-fitting method. We consider over one thousand thermal-state RXTE X-ray spectra of LMC X-3. Using a large…
We describe the first complete polarimetric dataset of the entire outburst of a low-mass black hole X-ray binary system and discuss the constraints for geometry and radiative mechanisms it imposes. During the decaying hard state, when the…
High-accuracy binary black hole simulations are presented for black holes with spins anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum. The particular case studied represents an equal-mass binary with spins of equal magnitude S/m^2=0.43757 \pm…
We present a study of spinning black hole binaries focusing on the spin dynamics of the individual black holes as well as on the gravitational recoil acquired by the black hole produced by the merger. We consider two series of initial spin…
We extend our recent work on black hole spin in X-ray binary systems to include an analysis of 189 archival NuSTAR observations from 24 sources. Using self-consistent data reduction pipelines, spectral models, and statistical techniques, we…
Measuring the distribution of spin tilts-the angles between the spin vectors and the binary orbital angular momentum-in stellar-mass binary black holes detected by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA would provide valuable insight into their astrophysical…
Aims. The optical emission of black hole transients increases by several magnitudes during the X-ray outbursts. Whether the extra light arises from the X-ray heated outer disc, from the inner hot accretion flow, or from the jet is currently…