Astrophysical black holes: A review

Abstract

In this review, I have tried to focus on the development of the field, from the first speculations to the current lines of research. According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, black holes are relatively simple objects and completely characterized by their mass, spin angular momentum, and electric charge, but the latter can be ignored in the case of astrophysical macroscopic objects. Search for black holes in the sky started in the early 1970s with the dynamical measurement of the mass of the compact object in Cygnus X-1. In the past 10-15 years, astronomers have developed some techniques for measuring the black hole spins. Recently, we have started using astrophysical black holes for testing fundamental physics.