Accreting Black Holes

TL;DR

This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of black hole theory and observations, covering classifications, accretion models, spectral states, and key measurement techniques, along with phenomena like jets and black hole shadows.

Contribution

It synthesizes current knowledge on black hole types, accretion processes, observational methods, and phenomena, providing a valuable reference for researchers and students.

Findings

Classification of black holes and accretion states

Techniques for measuring black hole spins

Observational evidence of black hole phenomena

Abstract

This chapter provides a general overview of the theory and observations of black holes in the Universe and on their interpretation. We briefly review the black hole classes, accretion disk models, spectral state classification, the AGN classification, and the leading techniques for measuring black hole spins. We also introduce quasi-periodic oscillations, the shadow of black holes, and the observations and the theoretical models of jets.