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

Abstract

It is thought that the spacetime metric around astrophysical black holes is well described by the Kerr solution of Einstein's gravity. However, a robust observational evidence of the Kerr nature of these objects is still lacking. Here we fit the X-ray spectrum of the stellar-mass black hole in GS 1354-645 with a disk reflection model beyond Einstein's gravity in order test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. We consider the Johannsen metric with the deformation parameters ${\alpha }_{13}$ and ${\alpha }_{22}$. The Kerr metric is recovered for ${\alpha }_{13}={\alpha }_{22}=0$. For ${\alpha }_{22}=0$, our measurements of the black hole spin and of the deformation parameter ${\alpha }_{13}$ are $a_{\ast }>0.975$ and $-0.34<{\alpha }_{13}<0.16$, respectively. For ${\alpha }_{13}=0$, we find $a_{\ast }>0.975$ and $-0.09<{\alpha }_{22}<0.42$. All the reported uncertainties are at 99% of confidence level for two relevant parameters.

6 pages, 3 figures. v2: refereed version