Related papers: Testing black hole equatorial reflection symmetry …
Astrophysical black holes are expected to be described by the Kerr metric. This is the only stationary, vacuum, axisymmetric metric, without electromagnetic charge, that satisfies Einstein's equations and does not have pathologies outside…
The unprecedented image of the M87* supermassive black hole has sparked some controversy over its usefulness as a test of the general relativistic Kerr metric. The criticism is mainly related to the black hole's quasi-circular shadow and…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a powerful tool for testing the Kerr hypothesis and probing the strong gravity regime around accreting black holes. Most tests of General Relativity (GR) assume that the spacetime around a black hole is…
The Kerr spacetime is symmetric with respect to a well-defined equatorial plane. When testing the equatorial reflection symmetry of an isolated black hole, one is at the same time testing the Kerr hypothesis in General Relativity. In this…
Inspired by the observations of supermassive black hole M87* in \emph{Event Horizon Telescope }(EHT) experiment, a remarkable surge in black hole physics is to use the black hole shadow's observables to distinguish general relativity (GR)…
A mathematically consistent rotating black hole model in loop quantum gravity (LQG) is yet lacking. The scarcity of rotating black hole solutions in LQG substantially hampers the development of testing LQG from observations, e.g., from the…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observation unveiled the first image of supermassive black hole Sgr A* showing a shadow of diameter $\theta_{sh}= 48.7 \pm 7\,\mu$as with fractional deviation from the Schwarzschild black hole shadow…
Astrophysical black holes (BHs) are universally expected to be described by the Kerr metric, a stationary, vacuum solution of general relativity (GR). Indeed, by imaging M87$^\star$ and Sgr A$^\star$ and measuring the size of their shadows,…
The Event Horizon Telescope, a global submillimeter wavelength very long baseline interferometry array, produced the first image of supermassive black hole M87* showing a ring of diameter $\theta_d= 42\pm 3\,\mu$as, inferred a black hole…
Several works over the past years have discussed the possibility of testing fundamental physics using Very Long Baseline Interferometry horizon-scale black hole (BH) images, such as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) images of M87$^*$ and…
The images of supermassive black holes surrounded by optically-thin, radiatively-inefficient accretion flows, like those observed with the Event Horizon Telescope, are characterized by a bright ring of emission surrounding the black-hole…
In general relativity, the angular radius of the shadow of a black hole is primarily determined by its mass-to-distance ratio and depends only weakly on its spin and inclination. If general relativity is violated, however, the shadow size…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global 230 GHz VLBI array, achieves an angular resolution of ${\approx} 20\,\mu{\rm as}$, sufficient to resolve the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). This resolution may soon enable…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has recently observed the image and shadow of the supermassive compact object Sagittarius A$^*$ (Sgr A$^*$). According to the EHT collaboration, the observed image is consistent with the expected appearance…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) recently released an image of the supermassive black hole Sgr A* showing an angular shadow diameter $d_{sh}= 48.7 \pm 7\,\mu$as and Schwarzschild shadow deviation $\delta =…
In this paper, we review our current efforts to test General Relativity in the strong field regime by studying the reflection spectrum of supermassive black holes. So far we have analyzed 11 sources with observations of NuSTAR, Suzaku,…
The equatorial symmetry of the Kerr black hole is generically broken in models of quantum gravity. Nevertheless, most phenomenological models start from the assumption of equatorial symmetry, and little attention has been given to the…
The recent detection of gravitational waves from black hole coalescences and the first image of the black hole shadow enhance the possibilities of testing gravitational theories in the strong-field regime. In this paper, we study the…
Observations of the black hole shadow of supermassive black holes, such as Sagittarius A* at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, allow us to study the properties of black holes and the nature of strong-field gravity. According to the Kerr…
In general relativity, the Kerr metric uniquely represents the geometry surrounding an isolated, rotating black hole. An identification of significant non-Kerr features in some astrophysical source would then provide a `smoking-gun' for the…