Behaviour of relativistic black hole accretion sufficiently close to the horizon

This work introduces a novel formalism to investigate the role of the spin of astrophysical black holes in determining the behaviour of matter falling onto such accretors. Equations describing the general relativistic hydrodynamic accretion flow in the Kerr metric are formulated, and stationary solutions for such flow equations are provided. The accreting matter may become multi-transonic, allowing a stationary shock to form for certain initial boundary conditions. Such a shock determines the disc geometry and can drive strong outflows. The properties of matter extremely close to the event horizon are studied as a function of the Kerr parameter, leading to the possibility of detecting a new spectral signature of black hole spin.