Quasi-periodic oscillations as a tool for testing the Kerr metric: A comparison with gravitational waves and iron line

Abstract

QPOs are a common feature in the X-ray power density spectrum of black hole binaries and a potentially powerful tool to probe the spacetime geometry around these objects. Here we discuss their constraining power to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis within the relativistic precession model. We compare our results with the constraints that can be obtained from gravitational waves and iron line. We find that QPOs may provide very precise measurements, but they are strongly affected by parameter degeneracy, and it is difficult to test the Kerr metric with this approach in the absence of independent observations to constrain the mass or the spin.

6 pages, 2 figures. v2: refereed version

References in corpus (11)

• The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• Detection of gravitational waves from black holes: Is there a window for alternative theories?
• Transient Black Hole Binaries
• A code to compute the emission of thin accretion disks in non-Kerr space-times and test the nature of black hole candidates
• Kerr Black Holes are Not Unique to General Relativity
• Testing the space-time geometry around black hole candidates with the analysis of the broad K$\alpha$ iron line
• Probing the space-time geometry around black hole candidates with the resonance models for high-frequency QPOs and comparison with the continuum-fitting method
• Perturbed Kerr Black Holes can probe deviations from General Relativity
• Constraints on the spacetime geometry around 10 stellar-mass black hole candidates from the disk's thermal spectrum
• Note on the effect of a massive accretion disk in the measurements of black hole spins

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
• Testing the Kerr black hole hypothesis using X-ray reflection spectroscopy
• Shadow casted by a Konoplya-Zhidenko rotating non-Kerr black hole
• Testing Kerr Black Hole Mimickers with Quasi-Periodic Oscillations from GRO J1655-40
• Constraint on parameters of a rotating black hole in Einstein-bumblebee theory by quasi-periodic oscillations
• Harmonic oscillations of neutral particles in the $\gamma$-metric
• Electromagnetic fields of slowly rotating magnetized compact stars in conformal gravity
• Testing gravity of a disformal Kerr black hole in quadratic degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor theories by quasi-periodic oscillations
• Testing No-Hair Theorem by Quasi-Periodic Oscillations: the quadrupole of GRO J1655$-$40
• Testing the Kerr metric with X-ray Reflection Spectroscopy of Mrk 335 Suzaku data
• Energy extraction from a Konoplya-Zhidenko rotating non-Kerr black hole
• Selected spherical photon orbits around a deformed Kerr black hole
• Testing Gravity with Black Hole X-Ray Data
• Testing Ghasemi-Nodehi-Bambi metric parameters with quasi-periodic oscillations
• Constraining Cubic Curvature Corrections to General Relativity with Quasi-Periodic Oscillations
• Tests of General Relativity using black hole X-ray data
• Novel very-high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations of compact, non-singular objects
• Repetitive Penrose process in Konoplya-Zhidenko rotating non-Kerr black holes
• Quasi-periodic oscillatory motion of particles orbiting a distorted deformed compact object
• Rings of light caused by gravitational waves