Related papers: Testing Gravity with Black Hole X-Ray Data
The relativistic broad iron lines seen in the X-ray spectra of several active galaxies and Galactic black hole systems are reviewed. Most such objects require emission from within the innermost stable orbit of a non-rotating black hole,…
The Kerr spacetime of spinning black holes is one of the most intriguing predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity. The special role this spacetime plays in the theory of gravity is encapsulated in the no-hair theorem, which…
General relativity makes clear predictions about the spacetime geometry around black holes. In the near future, new facilities will have the capability to explore the metric around SgrA$^*$, the supermassive black hole candidate at the…
We study the iron line shape expected in the reflection spectrum of accretion disks around black holes in asymptotically safe gravity. We compare the results of our simulations with the iron line shapes expected in the reflection spectrum…
Special and general relativistic effects on the X-ray emissions, especially the continuum spectra, from the accretion disks around black holes are investigated using the ray-tracing method. Because both the special and general relativistic…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a powerful technique for probing the nature of gravity around black holes in the so-called strong field regime. One of the most popular of such probes is to look at theory-agnostic deviations away from the…
Recent X-ray timing and spectral observations of black hole binaries in outburst have redefined methods for investigating the properties of Galactic black holes and the physics of accretion flows. High-frequency X-ray QPOs in 5 systems…
Binary pulsars allow us to carry out precision tests of gravity and have placed stringent bounds on a broad class of theories beyond general relativity. Current and future radio telescopes, such as FAST, SKA, and MeerKAT, may find a new…
Over the last decades X-ray spectroscopy has proven to be a powerful tool for the estimation of black hole spin and several other key parameters in dozens of AGN and black hole X-ray binaries. In this White Paper, we discuss the…
Recently the non-local gravity theory has come out to be a good candidate for an effective field theory of quantum gravity and also it can provide rich phenomenology to understand late-time accelerating expansion of the universe. For any…
The presence of spacetime singularities in physically relevant solutions of the Einstein Equations is normally interpreted as a symptom of the breakdown of classical general relativity at very high densities/curvatures. However, despite…
We uncover two mechanisms that can render Kerr black holes unstable in scalar-tensor gravity, both associated to the presence of matter in the vicinity of the black hole and the fact that this introduces an effective mass for the scalar.…
We present new calculations of X-ray polarization from black hole accretion disks in the thermally-dominated state, using a Monte-Carlo ray-tracing code in full general relativity. In contrast to many previously published studies, our…
Black hole based tests of general relativity have proliferated in recent times with new and improved detectors and telescopes. Modelling of the black hole neighborhood, where most of the radiation carrying strong-field signature originates,…
In general relativity without a cosmological constant, a classical theorem due to Hawking states that stationary black holes must be topologically spherical. This result is one of the several ingredients that collectively imply the…
X-rays produced by compact flares co-rotating with a Keplerian accretion disc are modulated in time by Doppler effects. We improve on previous calculations of these effects by considering recent models of intrinsic X-ray variability, and…
We study reflected X-ray emission that returns to the accretion disc in the strong gravitational fields around black holes using General Relativistic ray tracing and radiative transfer calculations. Reflected X-rays that are produced when…
Collapsed objects have definitely been observed: some are stellar-mass objects, the endpoint of massive stars; others, millions of times more massive, have been discovered in the cores of most galaxies. Their formation poses some…
We present preliminary results of our study of the impact of strong gravity effects on properties of the high energy radiation produced in accretion flows around supermassive black holes. We refine a model of the X-ray emission from a hot…
The black hole in the center of the Milky Way has been observed and modeled intensely during the last decades. It is also the prime target of a number of new experiments that aim to zoom into the vicinity of its horizon and reveal the inner…