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We discuss the capability of a third-generation ground-based detector such as the Einstein Telescope (ET) to enhance our astrophysical knowledge through detections of gravitational waves emitted by binaries including intermediate-mass and…
The discovery of a pulsar (PSR) in orbit around a black hole (BH) is expected to provide a superb new probe of relativistic gravity and BH properties. Apart from a precise mass measurement for the BH, one could expect a clean verification…
Black hole (BH) masses that have been measured by reverberation mapping in active galaxies fall significantly below the correlation between bulge luminosity and BH mass determined from spatially resolved kinematics of nearby normal…
Recently, we showed that the possibility of an interstellar mission to the closest black hole, while highly speculative and extremely challenging, is not completely unrealistic within the next few decades. Since such a mission might last…
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are the missing link in the cosmic hierarchy of black holes, bridging the gap between stellar-mass black holes and supermassive ones. They also serve as unique laboratories for testing strong-field…
Next-generation ground-based gravitational wave observatories will observe mergers of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) out to high redshift. Such IMBHs can form through runaway tidal encounters in the cores of dense stellar clusters.…
Recent gravitational wave (GW) observations have enabled us to look beyond the standard paradigm of gravitational physics, namely general relativity (GR). Along with the mass and the angular momentum, which typical astrophysical black holes…
Theoretical models predict that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) exist in globular clusters (GCs), but observational evidence remains elusive. Millisecond pulsars (MSPs), which are abundant in GCs and have served as precise probes for…
The analysis of the properties of the X-ray radiation emitted from geometrically thin accretion disks around black holes can be a powerful tool to test General Relativity in the strong field regime. This chapter reviews the state-of-the-art…
Extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are compact binary systems characterized by a mass-ratio $q=m/M$ in the range $~10^{-9}-10^{-4}$ and represent primary gravitational wave (GW) sources for the forthcoming Laser Interferometer Space…
The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galaxy centers still remains uncertain. There are two possible ways of their formation - from massive ($10^5 - 10^6 M_{\odot}$) and low-mass ($100 M_{\odot}$) BH nuclei. The latter scenario…
This paper reports on an unmodeled, all-sky search for gravitational waves from merging intermediate mass black hole binaries (IMBHB). The search was performed on data from the second joint science run of the LIGO and Virgo detectors (July…
A number of observations hints for the presence of an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) in the core of three globular clusters: M15 and NGC 6752 in the Milky Way, and G1, in M31. However the existence of these IMBHs is far form being…
Black holes are the sources of the strongest gravitational fields that can be found today in the Universe and are ideal laboratories for testing Einstein's theory of General Relativity in the strong field regime. In this letter, I show that…
The next generation of gravitational-wave experiments, such as Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer and LISA, will test the primordial black hole scenario. We provide a forecast for the minimum testable value of the abundance of primordial…
The current gravitational wave (GW) detectors have successfully observed many binary compact objects, and the third generation ground-based GW detectors such as Einstein telescope and space-borne detectors such as LISA will start their GW…
We describe a systematic framework for computing the conservative potential of a compact binary system using modern tools from scattering amplitudes and effective field theory. Our approach combines methods for integration and matching…
A discussion of the entropy of the universe leads to the suggestion of very many intermediate-mass black holes between thirty and three hundred thousand solar masses in the halo. It is consistent with observations on wide binaries as well…
Recent numerical simulations have suggested the possibility of forming double intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) via the collisional runaway scenario in young dense star clusters. The two IMBHs formed would exchange into a common binary…
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) by definition have masses of $M_{\rm IMBH} \sim 10^{2-5}~M_\odot$, a range with few observational constraints. Finding IMBHs in globular star clusters (GCs) would validate a formation channel for…