Probing the Strong Gravity Region of Black Holes with eXTP

TL;DR

The paper discusses how the eXTP mission's advanced X-ray techniques can significantly enhance our understanding of black hole environments, test Einstein's theory, and improve measurements of black hole properties.

Contribution

It introduces the capabilities of eXTP to study strong gravity regions around black holes using combined spectral, timing, and polarimetric data, advancing current observational methods.

Findings

eXTP can improve black hole mass and spin measurements.

It enables testing Einstein's General Relativity in strong gravity regimes.

The mission enhances understanding of accretion processes near black holes.

Abstract

We present the novel capabilities of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission to study the strong gravity region around stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binary systems and supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. eXTP can combine X-ray spectral, timing, and polarimetric techniques to study the accretion process near black holes, measure black hole masses and spins, and test Einstein's theory of General Relativity in the strong field regime. We show how eXTP can improve the current measurements of black holes of existing X-ray missions and we discuss the scientific questions that can be addressed.