Probing the space-time geometry around black hole candidates with the resonance models for high-frequency QPOs and comparison with the continuum-fitting method

TL;DR

This paper investigates the space-time geometry around black hole candidates using resonance models for high-frequency QPOs, comparing results with the continuum-fitting method, and explores non-Kerr geometries to resolve observational inconsistencies.

Contribution

It extends resonance models to non-Kerr space-times and compares their implications with continuum-fitting measurements, highlighting potential resolutions of observational conflicts.

Findings

Resonance models become more complex in non-Kerr geometries.

Kerr-based methods show inconsistencies in measurements.

Non-Kerr models with specific resonance ratios may reconcile observations.

Abstract

Astrophysical black hole candidates are thought to be the Kerr black hole predicted by General Relativity. In order to confirm the Kerr-nature of these objects, we need to probe the geometry of the space-time around them and see if the observations are consistent with the predictions of the Kerr metric. That can be achieved, for instance, by studying the properties of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the gas in the accretion disk. The high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations observed in the X-ray flux of some stellar-mass black hole candidates might do the job. As the frequencies of these oscillations depend only very weakly on the observed X-ray flux, it is thought they are mainly determined by the metric of the space-time. In this paper, I consider the resonance models proposed by Abramowicz and Kluzniak and I extend previous results to the case of non-Kerr space-times. The emerging picture is more complicated than the one around a Kerr black hole and there is a larger number of possible combinations between different modes. I then compare the bounds inferred from the twin peak high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations observed in three micro-quasars (GRO J1655-40, XTE J1550-564, and GRS 1915+105) with the measurements from the continuum-fitting method of the same objects. For Kerr black holes, the two approaches do not provide consistent results. In a non-Kerr geometry, this conflict may be solved if the observed quasi-periodic oscillations are produced by the resonance $\nu_\theta : \nu_r = 3:1$, where $\nu_\theta$ and $\nu_r$ are the two epicyclic frequencies. It is at least worth mentioning that the deformation from the Kerr solution required by observations would be consistent with the one suggested in another recent work discussing the possibility that steady jets are powered by the spin of these compact objects.