出版社：SISSA, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati
摘要：A remarkable property of an astrophysical black hole is that it is completely described by just its mass and spin. Our research group is dedicated to measuring these two fundamental properties of the black hole primaries found in X-ray binary systems. We measure spin bymodeling the thermal X-ray continuum spectrum that originates in the innermost regions of the accretion disk. We fit for the disk’s inner radius, which we identify with the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) predicted by GR. By measuring this radius in concert with optical estimates for the black hole mass, orbital inclination angle and distance of the system, we uniquely determine a black hole’s spin. I will present an overview of our spin measurements and discuss progress which would be enabled with a large collecting area X-ray timing instrument.
