Related papers: How Spatially Resolved Polarimetry Informs Black H…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has recently published the first images of the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Imaging Sgr A* is plagued by two major challenges: variability on short…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) recently released the first horizon-scale images of the black hole in M87. Combined with other astronomical data, these images constrain the mass and spin of the hole as well as the accretion rate and…
We study the effects of emission geometry on the capability to constrain black hole parameters from measurements of the shadow and inner-shadow of a Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole. We investigate the capability to constrain mass, charge,…
General relativity predicts that black hole images ought to display a bright, thin (and as-of-yet-unresolved) ring. This "photon ring" is produced by photons that explore the strong gravity of the black hole, flowing along trajectories that…
Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) images of the supermassive black hole M87* depict an asymmetric ring of emission. General relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) models of M87* and its accretion disk predict that the amplitude and location…
Recent developments in the spectropolarimetric study of compact objects, specifically black holes (stellar and massive) and neutron stars are reviewed. The lectures are organized around five topics: disks, jets, outflows, neutron stars and…
Photon rings near the edge of a black hole shadow is supposed to be a unique tool to validate general relativity and provide reliable measurements of principal black hole parameters: spin and mass. Such measurements are possible though only…
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), launched on December 9, 2021, enables X-ray polarimetric observations with unprecedented sensitivity in the 2-8 keV energy range. X-ray polarization allows us to test accretion disk, corona,…
X-ray polarisation measurement is a unique tool which may provide crucial information regarding the emission mechanism and the geometry of various astrophysical sources, like neutron stars, accreting black holes, pulsar wind nebulae, AGNs,…
Gravitational lensing near a black hole is strong enough that light rays can circle the event horizon multiple times. Photons emitted in multiple directions at a single event, perhaps because of localized, impulsive heating of accreting…
General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) simulations are an indispensable tool in studying accretion onto compact objects. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) frequently uses libraries of ideal GRMHD simulations to interpret…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) experiment that aims to observe supermassive black holes with an angular resolution that is comparable to the event horizon scale. The South Pole occupies an…
Simulated images of a black hole surrounded by optically thin emission typically display two main features: a central brightness depression and a narrow, bright "photon ring" consisting of strongly lensed images superposed on top of the…
A star crossing the tidal radius of a supermassive black hole will be spectacularly ripped apart with an accompanying burst of radiation. A few tens of such tidal disruption events (TDEs) have now been identified in the optical wavelengths,…
We study event horizons of non-axisymmetric black holes and show how features found in axisymmetric studies of colliding black holes and of toroidal black holes are non-generic and how new features emerge. Most of the details of black hole…
Low-collisionality plasma in a magnetic field generically develops anisotropy in its distribution function with respect to the magnetic field direction. Motivated by the application to radiation from accretion flows and jets, we explore the…
Measurements of the angular momentum (spin) of astrophysical black holes are extremely important, as they provide information on the black hole formation and evolution. We present simulated observations of a X-ray binary system with the…
Astrophysical black holes are embedded in surrounding dark and baryonic matter that can measurably perturb the spacetime. We construct a self-consistent spacetime describing a slowly rotating black hole embedded in an external matter…
The flaring events observed in the Sagittarius A* supermassive black hole system can be attributed to the non-homogeneous nature of the near-horizon accretion flow. Bright regions in this flow may be associated with density or temperature…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global submillimeter wavelength very long baseline interferometry array, unveiled event-horizon-scale images of the supermassive black hole M87* as an asymmetric bright emission ring with a diameter of $…