Top Research Papers on Black Holes

In the second part of the book, I argue that the four biggest mysteries of modern physics and astronomy—dark matter, dark energy, black holes, and the Big Bang—sink their roots into the physics of the infinitely small. And I argue that gravitational waves may shed new light on, and possibly solve, each of these four mysteries. I start here by introducing the problem of dark matter, the mysterious substance that permeates the Universe at all scales and describe the gravitational waves observations that might soon elucidate its nature. The next time you see the Sun shining in the sky, consider t...

The observational challenges that were met to show that a supermassive black hole exists at the center of the authors' galaxy are discussed and numerical simulations have become possible for the merger of black hole binaries.

Chapter 3 used the Schwarzschild metric to obtain predictions for the Solar System. In this chapter, that metric is derived as the unique static, spherically symmetric solution of the vacuum Einstein field equations. For the Solar System, this vacuum solution must be joined to an “interior solution” describing the interior of the Sun. Such solutions are discussed briefly. If, on the other hand, one assumes “vacuum all the way down,” the solution describes a black hole. The chapter analyzes the geometry and physics of the nonrotating black hole: the event horizon, the Kruskal-Szekeres extension...

We discuss event horizons and black holes. First Birkhoff’s theorem is derived, and we consider the general nature of spherically symmetric spaces. Then the concepts of null surface, Killing horizon and event horizon are defined and related to one another. Cosmic censorship is briefly discussed. The Schwarzshild horizon is discussed in detail. The divergence or otherwise of redshift, acceleration, speed and proper time is obtained for infalling observers and for Schwarzschild observers. Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates are introduced and used to discuss gravitational collapse. The growth of t...

The observational evidence for black holes is reviewed, some recent developments involving cosmic censorship and the statistical origin of black hole entropy are described, and some of their properties are described.

In 2015, a huge scientific collaboration called LIGO discovered gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are huge ripples in spacetime that occur as a result of astrophysical events, like collisions between massive things in outer space. In 2015, the LIGO scientists found a signal that came from two black holes merging. This was huge scientific news, and resulted in the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for Rai Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Barry Barish.

The unlucky star that wanders too close to a supermassive black hole faces a catastrophic end. Initially, it bulges slightly due to tidal forces, just as Earth’s oceans bulge in response to the Moon’s gravity. Over the next half-hour or so, increasing gravitational stress rips the star apart. Stellar remains spread in a wide spiral; the gas that isn’t ejected at high speeds circles back to feed the black hole, glowing brighthot before it disappears into its gaping maw. Astronomers first proposed that stars could become victim to tidal shredding by black holes in 1975, but it took two decades f...

Black holes seem like something out of science fiction, but they are real. Now that we understand the relevant properties of gravity we can separate fact from fiction. We start by defining black holes and showing how they differ fromthe simple Newtonian idea of “no escape.” Time and space seem to swap meaning inside the black hole, so that “forward in time” is a direction that points toward the center of the black hole. We then look at the astrophysical evidence that black holes really exists: how we can observe them, as well as the limits to our observations.We then examine facts andmyths abo...

. Observations of active galactic nuclei are interpreted in terms of a theoretical model involving accretion onto a massive black hole. Optical quasars and Seyfert galaxies are associated with holes accreting near the Eddington rate and radio galaxies with sub-critical accretion. It is argued that magnetic fields are largely responsible for extracting energy and angular momentum from black holes and disks. Recent studies of electron-positron pair plasmas and their possible role in establishing the emergent X-ray spectrum are reviewed. The main evolutionary properties of active galactic nuclei ...

Lecture notes for a 'Part III' course 'Black Holes' given in DAMTP, Cambridge. The course covers some of the developments in Black Hole physics of the 1960s and 1970s.

We discuss the implications of new relations between the masses, X-ray luminosities and radio luminosities of black holes, as well as the properties of the next generation of radio telescopes, for the goal of finding isolated accreting black holes. Because accreting black holes have radio-to-X-ray flux ratios that increase with decreasing luminosity in Eddington units, and because deep surveys over large fields of view should be possible with planned instrumentation such as LOFAR, radio surveys should be significantly more efficient than X-ray surveys for finding these objects.

What are black holes? Composed? And how do they look? What happens to the information inside it? More importantly, what happens to you if you enter the black hole? Believe me the most terrifying thing you can hear about the universe, is having something like black holes. Worse, it falls into one.

They are out there in the sky in huge numbers. They are the most astonishing objects in the universe. Their existence was predicted and understood before we detected them. They behave precisely as the theory predicted. Yet, we do not know what happens at their center, nor in their future. But this confusion is our key towards what we most lack in fundamental physics: understanding quantum gravity.

SU(3) Einstein-Yang-Mills-dilaton theory possesses sequences of static spherically symmetric sphaleron and black hole solutions for the SU(2) and the SO(3) embedding. The solutions depend on the dilaton coupling constant γ, approaching the corresponding Einstein-Yang-Mills solutions for γ → 0, and Yang-Millsdilaton solutions in flat space for γ → ∞. The sequences of solutions tend to Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton solutions with different magnetic charges. The solutions satisfy analogous relations between the dilaton field and the metric for general γ. Thermodynamic properties of the black hole solu...

Black holes are among the most intriguing objects in modern physics. Their influence ranges from powering quasars and other active galactic nuclei, to providing key insights into quantum gravity. We review the observational evidence for black holes, and briefly discuss some of their properties. We also describe some recent developments involving cosmic censorship and the statistical origin of black hole entropy.

"A luminous star, of the same density as the Earth, and whose diameter should be two hundred and fifty times larger than that of the Sun, would not, in consequence of its attraction, allow any of its rays to arrive at us; it is therefore possible that the largest luminous bodies in the universe may, through this cause, be invisible." -Pierre Laplace, The System of the World, Book 5, Chapter VI (1798).

Multidimensional cosmological, static spherically symmetric and Euclidean configurations are described in a unified way for gravity interacting with several dilatonic fields and antisymmetric forms, associated with electric and magnetic p -branes. Exact solutions are obtained when certain vectors, built from the input parameters of the model, are either orthogonal in the minisuperspace, or form mutually orthogonal subsystems. Some properties of black hole solutions are indicated, in particular, a no-hair-type theorem and restrictions emerging in models with multiple times. From the non-existen...

write, read or speak it, people in a totalitarian system are able, when I think of the future even willing, to live in an entirely different reality; and this is what terrifies me most. For example, our colleagues in the Writers Union or in the publishing houses know only too well about us, but because they dare not take the slightest risk, it is they who tell us to be quiet. I am writing about Orwell and I have to confess: I was able to read a typed copy of the samizdat Czech translation produced by 'Padlock Editions', which I had to return within 48 hours. I have no way of verifying whether ...

The metric of Gibbons-Maeda black hole in the presence of a cosmological constant is constructed and verified. The dilaton potential with respect to the cosmological constant is obtained. It is found that the cosmological constant is coupled to the dilaton field. PACS number(s): 04.20.Ha, 04.50.+h, 04.70.Bw Typeset using REVTEX E-mail: gaocj@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn E-mail: zhangsn@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn 1

Who says you can't get anything out of a black hole? In the past two years, astronomers have taken unprecedented aim at the first black hole ever found, Cygnus X-1. Using a vast armada of instruments, they have pinpointed Cygnus X-1's distance, which has let them measure the black hole's mass and even determine how fast it spins. These feats have then motivated two other astronomical teams to decipher the black hole's past and forecast its future. The flurry of recent activity concerning an object astronomers discovered nearly half a century ago has one simple cause: for the first time, we kno...