Testing the nature of astrophysical black hole candidates

14.7.2014
Prof. Dr. Cosimo Bambi

Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai
Astrophysical black hole candidates are thought to be the Kerr black holes predicted in general relativity, but the actual nature of these objects has still to be verified. The study of the properties of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the gas in the accretion disk can potentially test the geometry of the space­time around these bodies and confirm the Kerr black hole paradigm. While some exotic solutions can already be ruled out by current data, it is intrinsically difficult to probe the metric around black hole candidates, because non­Kerr objects may mimic the features of Kerr black holes with different spin parameter.