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We explore low angular momentum accretion flows onto black holes formed after the collapse of massive stellar cores. In particular, we consider the state of the gas falling quasi-spherically onto stellar-mass black holes in the…
The rotation rate in pre-supernova cores is an important ingredient which can profoundly affect the post-collapse evolution and associated energy release in supernovae and long gamma ray bursts (LGRBs). Previous work has focused on whether…
We consider accretion onto newborn black holes following the collapse of rotating massive stellar cores, at the threshold where a centrifugally supported disk gives way to nearly radial inflow for low angular momentum. For realistic initial…
A variety of arguments suggest that the most common form of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), those longer than a few seconds, involve the formation of black holes in supernova-like events. Two kinds of ``collapsar'' models are discussed, those in…
We investigate the collapsar scenario for the long gamma ray bursts. The energetics % of explosions in the $\gamma$-ray band are consistent with the binding energy of a progenitor star. The events duration times, lightcurve profiles,…
A variety of current models for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) suggest a common engine - a black hole of several solar masses accreting matter from a disk at a rate 0.01 to 10 solar masses per second. Using a numerical model for relativistic disk…
It has long been believed that accretion onto supermassive black holes powers quasars, but there has been relatively few observational constraints on the spins of the black holes. We address this problem by estimating the average radiative…
Many models of Gamma Ray Bursts invoke a central engine consisting of a black hole of a few solar masses accreting matter from a disk at a rate of a fraction to a few solar masses per second. Popham et al. and Narayan et al. have shown…
We use the integrated spectrum of the X-ray background and quasars Spectral Energy Distribution to derive the contribution of quasars to the energy output of the Universe. We find a lower limit for the energy from accretion onto black holes…
The collapse of a massive star with low angular momentum content is commonly argued to result in the formation of a black hole without an accompanying bright transient. Our goal in this Letter is to understand the flow in and around a…
The collapsar model is the most promising scenario to explain the huge release of energy associated with long duration gamma-ray-bursts (GRBs). Within this scenario GRBs are believed to be powered by accretion through a rotationally support…
Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most relativistic objects known so far, involving, on one hand an ultra-relativistic motion with a Lorentz factor $\Gamma > 100$ and on the other hand an accreting newborn black hole. The two main routes…
We present the first calculation of gravitational wave emission produced in the gravitational collapse of uniformly rotating neutron stars to black holes in fully three-dimensional simulations. The initial stellar models are relativistic…
We investigate the possible total radiated energy produced by a binary black hole system containing non-vanishing total angular momentum. For the scenearios considered we find that the total radiated energy does not exceed 1%. Additionally…
The capture and inspiral of compact stellar masses into massive black holes is an important source of low-frequency gravitational waves (with frequencies of ~1-100mHz), such as those that might be detected by the planned Laser…
In this paper, we consider angular momentum fluctuations of a Schwartzschild black hole in thermal equilibrium with radiation which, for the sake of simplicity is here modeled by a scalar field. Important, we do not set the black hole…
We suggest that an extreme Kerr black hole with a mass $\sim 10^6M_\odot$, a dimensionless angular momentum $A\sim 1$ and a marginal stable orbital radius $r_{ms}\sim 3r_s\sim 10^{12}M_6 cm$ located in a normal galaxy, may produced a…
The influence of disc radiation capture upon black hole rotational evolution is negligible for radiatively inefficient discs. For the standard thin disc model it is a slight but potentially important effect leading to the equilibrium spin…
I present results from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a gaseous envelope collapsing onto a black hole. These results support the notion that the collapsar model is one of most promising scenarios to explain the huge release of…
For the collapsar scenario to be effective in the production of Gamma Ray Bursts, the infalling star's angular momentum $J(r)$ must be larger than the critical angular momentum needed to form an accretion disk around a blackhole (BH),…