RELXILL_NK: a relativistic reflection model for testing Einstein's gravity

Abstract

Einstein's theory of general relativity was proposed over 100 years ago and has successfully passed a large number of observational tests in the weak field regime. However, the strong field regime is largely unexplored, and there are many modified and alternative theories that have the same predictions as Einstein's gravity for weak fields and present deviations when gravity becomes strong. RELXILL_NK is the first relativistic reflection model for probing the spacetime metric in the vicinity of astrophysical black holes and testing Einstein's gravity in the strong field regime. Here we present our current constraints on possible deviations from Einstein's gravity obtained from the black holes in 1H0707-495, Ark 564, GX 339-4, and GS 1354-645.

arXiv comment8 pages, 6 figures. Talk given at the "International Conference on Quantum Gravity" (26-28 March 2018, Shenzhen, China). To appear in the conference proceedings

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• A study of the strong gravity region of the black hole in GS 1354-645
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