Testing General Relativity with NuSTAR Data of Galactic Black Holes
Abstract
Einstein's theory of General Relativity predicts that the spacetime metric around astrophysical black holes is described by the Kerr solution. In this work, we employ state-of-the-art relativistic reflection modeling to analyze a selected set of NuSTAR spectra of Galactic black holes to obtain the most robust and precise constraints on the Kerr black hole hypothesis possible today. Our constraints are much more stringent than those from other electromagnetic techniques and, with some sources, we find stronger constraints than those currently available from gravitational waves.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- June 2021
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2012.10669
- Bibcode:
- 2021ApJ...913...79T
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysical black holes;
- Kerr black holes;
- Stellar mass black holes;
- X-ray astronomy;
- Gravitation;
- General relativity;
- 98;
- 886;
- 1611;
- 1810;
- 661;
- 641;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 15 pages, 11 figures. v2: refereed version