Related papers: The Black Hole Explorer: Using the Photon Ring to …
(abridged) The black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a prime target for next-generation Earth-space very-long-baseline interferometry missions such as the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX), which aims to probe baselines of the order of 20…
There are now multiple direct probes of the region near black hole horizons, including direct imaging with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). As a result, it is now of considerable interest to identify what aspects of the underlying…
The Event Horizon Telescope image of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87 is dominated by a bright, unresolved ring. General relativity predicts that embedded within this image lies a thin "photon ring," which is composed of an…
The direct detection of a bright, ring-like structure in horizon-resolving images of M87* by the Event Horizon Telescope is a striking validation of general relativity. The angular size and shape of the ring is a degenerate measure of the…
The Event Horizon Telescope Consortium is on the verge to provide the first telescopic image of massive black holes SgrA* and M87* surrounded by accretion disks, at a resolution scale comparable to the size of their event horizons. Well…
It is known that magnetic fields exist near black holes and photons can go around black holes due to strong gravity. Utilizing these facts, we can probe hypothetical pseudoscalar particles, so-called axions. In fact, photons can be…
Recently, the image of a Schwarzschild black hole with an accretion disk has been revisited, and it showed that the "photon ring", defined as highly bent light rays that intersect the disk plane more than twice, is extremely narrow 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…
Images of black holes encode both astrophysical and gravitational properties. Detecting highly-lensed features in images can differentiate between these two effects. We present an accretion disk emission model coupled to the Adaptive…
Following the 2019 release by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration of the first pictures of a supermassive black hole, there has been an explosion of interest in black hole images, their theoretical interpretation, and their potential…
Direct electromagnetic observation of the orbital motion of a sub-parsec, supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) would provide the first conclusive proof of such systems existing. Widely considered to be the sources of gravitational waves,…
The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) is under study for the proposed Black Hole Finder Probe, one of the three Einstein Probe missions in NASA's proposed Beyond Einstein Program. EXIST would have unique capabilities: it…
Under very general assumptions on the accretion flow geometry, images of a black hole illuminated by electromagnetic radiation display a sequence of photon rings (demagnified and rotated copies of the direct image) which asymptotically…
When surrounded by a transparent emission region, black holes are expected to reveal a dark shadow caused by gravitational light bending and photon capture at the event horizon. To image and study this phenomenon, we have assembled the…
The images of supermassive black holes in M87 and our galaxy captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) might open up a new way for exploring black hole physics at the horizon scale. Theoretically, this could provide insights into…
Astrophysical black holes are usually surrounded by an accretion disk. At least parts of these accretion disks consist of a plasma in which light rays with different energies are dispersed. However, we usually do not know the exact…
We review the recent multifrequency studies of galactic black hole binaries, aiming at revealing the underlying emission processes and physical properties in these systems. The optical and infrared observations are important for determining…
Recent advances in technology coupled with the progress of observational radio astronomy methods resulted in achieving a major milestone of astrophysics - a direct image of the shadow of a supermassive black hole, taken by the Earth-based…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) recently released the first linearly polarized images of the accretion flow around the supermassive black hole Messier 87*, hereafter \m{}. The spiraling polarization pattern found in EHT images favored…
The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (EHTC) has presented first - dynamic-range limited - images of the black hole shadows in M87 and Sgr A*. The next generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT) will provide higher sensitivity and…