Epicyclic oscillations of fluid bodies:: II.: Strong gravity

Fluids in external gravity may oscillate with frequencies characteristic of the epicyclic motions of test particles. We explicitly demonstrate that global oscillations of a slender, perfect fluid torus around a Kerr black hole admit incompressible vertical and radial epicyclic modes. Our results may be directly relevant to one of the most puzzling astrophysical phenomena-high (hundreds of hertz) frequency quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) detected in x-ray fluxes from several black hole sources. Such QPOs are pairs of stable frequencies in the 3/2 ratio. It seems that they originate a few gravitational radii away from the black hole and thus their observations have the potential to become an accurate probe of super-strong gravity.