Black holes in the real universe and their prospects as probes of relativistic gravity
Abstract
Description
Collapsed objects have definitely been observed: some are stellar-mass objects, the endpoint of massive stars; others, millions of times more massive, have been discovered in the cores of most galaxies. Their formation poses some still-unanswered questions. But for relativists the key question is whether observations can probe the metric in the strong-field domain, and test whether it indeed agrees with the Kerr geometry predicted by general relativity.
19 pages, no figures. Chapter published in "Future of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology" ed. G. W. Gibbons et al. pp 217-235, CUP (2003)
19 pages, no figures. Chapter published in "Future of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology" ed. G. W. Gibbons et al. pp 217-235, CUP (2003)