Related papers: Supermassive Black Holes
In the last decades, luminous accreting super-massive black holes have been discovered within the first Gyr after the Big Bang, but their origin is still an unsolved mystery. We discuss our state-of-the-art theoretical knowledge of their…
Understanding how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) form in the early universe is one of the most challenging problems in astrophysics. Their high abundance in the first billion years, as observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, hints…
Supermassive black holes inhabit galactic nuclei, and their presence influences in crucial ways the evolution of the stellar distribution. The low-density cores observed in bright galaxies are probably a result of black hole infall, while…
The article summarizes the observational evidence for the existence of massive black holes, as well as the current knowledge about their abundance, their mass and spin distributions, and their cosmic evolution within and together with their…
In a recent paper we pointed out that supermassive black holes, with masses ranging from $10^5$ to $10^{10} M_\odot$ form naturally at cosmic dawn if the dark matter is QCD axions or axion-like particles with mass $m > 10^{-16}\,…
Recent observations indicate that many if not all galaxies host massive central black holes. In this paper we explore the influence of black holes on the lensing properties. We model the lens as an isothermal ellipsoid with a finite core…
Massive binary black holes form at the centre of galaxies that experience a merger episode. They are expected to coalesce into a larger black hole, following the emission of gravitational waves. Coalescing massive binary black holes are…
Rotating black holes are the most powerful source of energy in the known universe, and are the cause of some of the most spectacular and extreme astronomical phenomena. The goal of this article is to analyze in simple terms the physics of…
A brief review of the recent astronomical data, indicating that the universe is abundantly populated by heavy black holes (BH), is presented. Conventional astrophysics and cosmology cannot explain such a high population of BHs. A mechanism…
Super-massive black holes are fundamental ingredients in our theoretical understanding of galaxy formation. They are likely the only sources energetic enough to regulate star formation within massive dark matter halos, but observational…
Most of the galaxies harbor supermassive Black Holes (SMBH) in their center. Some of them are observed in very high redshifts. We explore the possibility that SMBH form from the coherent waves of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) which are…
The very careful Event Horizon Telescope estimate of the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Giant CD galaxy M87, allied with recent high quality photometric and spectroscopic measurements, yields a proper dark/luminous…
The Center of our Galaxy is a peculiar region where a number of crucial astrophysical phenomena take place, from star formation to SN explosions and accretion onto a massive black hole. The quest for a massive black hole in the Galactic…
Surveys with the Hubble Space Telescope find supermassive black holes (BHs) of 10**6 to 10**9.5 solar masses in every galaxy that has an elliptical-galaxy-like "bulge" component. BHs appear to be standard equipment in galaxy bulges. At the…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are nowadays believed to reside in most local galaxies, and the available data show an empirical correlation between bulge luminosity - or stellar velocity dispersion - and black hole mass, suggesting a…
Recent observations have found a large number of supermassive black holes already in place in the first few hundred million years after Big Bang. The channels of formation and growth of these early, massive black holes are not clear, with…
Black holes are the densest form of energy, and in the presence of compact dimensions black objects may take one of several forms including the black-hole and the black-string, the simplest relevant background being R^{3+1} * S^1. Recent…
Stellar-mass black holes (BHs), with masses comparable to stars, are a major constituent of our Milky Way galaxy. This chapter describes the landscape of challenging, and long-sought efforts to identify these objects in the Galaxy. The…
We have compelling evidence for stellar-mass black holes (BHs) of ~5-80 M_sun that form through the death of massive stars. We also have compelling evidence for so-called supermassive BHs (10^5-10^10 M_sun) that are predominantly found in…
The center of our Galaxy is known to host a massive compact object, Sgr A$^*$, which is commonly considered as a super-massive black hole of $\sim 4\times 10^6$ M$_\odot$. It is surrounded by a dense and massive nuclear star cluster, with a…