Unveiling the impact of black hole spin on flickering of light emitted from matter around the black hole

Scientists from ARIES, DST, Poland, and MJP Rohilkhand University modeled accretion shocks around spinning black holes, explaining how black hole spin influences quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in X-ray binary systems.

• The study was led by Mr. Sanit Debnath and Dr. Indranil Chattopadhyay from the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES).
• Researchers used a computer simulation developed by the Numerical and Theoretical Astrophysics Group at ARIES to model viscous accretion flows around black holes.
• In slowly spinning black holes, viscosity pushes the shock farther away, producing low-frequency QPOs; rapidly spinning black holes pull the shock closer, producing wider frequency ranges.
• For black holes with very high spin, predicted QPO frequencies can exceed 100 Hz for a black hole about ten times the mass of the Sun.
• The findings were published in the Journal of High Energy Astrophysics (JHEAP).