An introduction to astrophysical black holes and their dynamical production

Abstract

Astrophysical black-hole candidates provide the most abundant, and possibly the only, evidence of the existence of black holes in nature. These lectures are aimed at providing a basic theoretical introduction to the mathematical properties of astrophysical black holes and to the dynamical processes leading to their formation. In particular, I will first concentrate on the process of gravitational collapse as this will illustrate how an isolated black hole can be produced under rather general physical conditions. Next, I will discuss how the properties of a black hole can be investigated by studying the motion of test particles and the various classes of orbits they follow. Finally, I will consider the process of formation of a black hole from the merger of a binary system of black holes. In particular, I will show that it is possible to predict the mass and spin of the final black hole simply in terms of the properties of the two initial black holes.