Observational Evidence for Black Holes in the Universe Proceedings of a Conference held in Calcutta, India, January 10–17, 1998

A conference on `Observational Evidence for Black Holes in the Universe' was held in Calcutta during January 10-17, 1998. This was the first time that experts had gathered to debate and discuss topics such as: Should black holes exist? If so, how to detect them? Have we found them? This book is the essence of this gathering.
Black holes are enigmatic objects since it is impossible to locate them through direct observations. State-of-the-art theoretical works and numerical simulations have given us enough clues of what to look for. Observations, from both ground and space-based missions, have been able to find these tell-tale signatures. This book is a compendium of our present knowledge about these theories and observations. Combined, they give a thorough idea of whether black holes, galactic as well as extragalactic, have been detected or not. Forty-one experts of the subject have contributed to this volume to make it the most comprehensive to date.

Accretion Disk Theory: From the Standard Model until Advection.- Accretion Disks around Black Holes: Twenty Five Years Later.- Viscosity in Accretion Disks.- Shock Formation in Adiabatic Accretion Flows around a Kerr Black Hole.- Rotating Accretion Flows near a Black Hole: A Numerical Study.- Simulations of Shocks with Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics Method.- Nucleosynthesis in Advective Accretion Disks around Galactic and Extra-Galactic Black Holes.- Computation of Mass-Outflow Rates from Advective Accretion Disks around Black Holes.- Black Hole Solutions of Einstein’s Equations an Overview.- Water Mega Masers in NGC4258.- Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei — Observational Evidence and Some Astrophysical Consequences.- Tidal Disruption of a Star by a Massive Black Hole.- Multifrequency Monitoring of Blazars.- The OJ287 Supermassive Binary Black Hole Model and the New Unified Scheme for the Agns.- High Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from Blazars: Egret Observations.- Strong Gravity and X-Ray Spectroscopy.- My Involvement in the Early Years of Radio Astronomy.- Radio Observations of Active Galactic Nuclei: Evidence for Disks and Black Holes.- High Proper Motion Stars in the Vicinity of Sgr A*: Evidence for a Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy.- Black Holes in Our Galaxy Dynamical Evidence.- Outbursts in Black Hole X-Ray Transients: Clues from Multiwavelength Observations.- The High-Energy Spectra of Accreting Black Holes: Viewing the Matter as It Disappears Down the Schwarzschild Drain.- X-Ray Spectral Variability of Black Hole Binaries.- Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in the X-Ray Flux from the Black Hole Candidates.- X-Ray Properties of GRS 1915+105.- X-Ray Observation of Black Hole Novae.- A Transition Disk Model Fit to Cygnus X-1.- Are theX-Rays Coming from the Inside of the Accretion Disk of the Black Hole?.- List of Participants.- Author Index.