Related papers: On Black Hole Mass Estimation from X-ray Spectra o…
We describe a method for the determination of black-hole masses based on information inferred from high-energy spectra. It is required that the spectral energy distribution consist of thermal and Comptonized components. One can then, in…
In the absence of direct kinematic measurements, the mass of an accreting black hole is sometimes inferred from the X-ray spectral parameters of its accretion disk; specifically, from the temperature and normalization of a disk-blackbody…
In our recent work, we demonstrated that a novel X-ray scaling method, originally introduced for Galactic black holes, could be reliably extended to estimate the mass of supermassive black holes accreting at moderate to high level. Here, we…
We present an analysis of the fundamental plane of black hole accretion, an empirical correlation of the mass of a black hole ($M$), its 5 GHz radio continuum luminosity ($\nu L_{\nu}$), and its 2-10 keV X-ray power-law continuum luminosity…
We compare standard models of accretion disks around black holes that include the appropriate zero-torque inner boundary condition and relativistic effects on the emission and propagation of radiation. The comparison is performed adopting…
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are off-nuclear X-ray sources in nearby galaxies with X-ray luminosities $\geq$ 10$^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The measurement of the black hole (BH) masses of ULXs is a long-standing problem. Here we estimate…
An open question remains whether Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) really contain intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). We carefully investigated the XMM-Newton EPIC spectra of the four ULXs that were claimed to be strong candidates of…
The X-ray spectral and timing properties of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have many similarities with the very high state of stellar-mass black holes (power-law dominated, at accretion rates greater than the Eddington rate). On the…
We selected a sample of 28 Type 1 AGNs for which a black hole mass has been inferred using the reverberation mapping technique and single epoch scaling relations. All 28 sources show clear evidence of the "Big Blue Bump" in the optical-UV…
We derive the luminosity-temperature relation for the super-critically accreting black holes (BHs) and compare it to the data on ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). At super-Eddington accretion rates, an outflow forms within the…
High-redshift ($z>2$) blazars, with relativistic jets aligned toward us, probe the most powerful end of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) population. We aim at determining the black hole masses and mass accretion rates of high-$z$ blazars in…
We discuss two methods to estimate black hole (BH) masses using X-ray data only: from the X-ray variability amplitude and from the photon index Gamma. The first method is based on the anti-correlation between BH mass and X-ray variability…
There are two proposed explanations for ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with luminosities in excess of $10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$. They could be intermediate-mass black holes (more than 100-1,000, solar masses, $M_\odot$) radiating at…
The nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) -- off-nuclear extra-galactic sources with luminosity, assumed isotropic, $\gtrsim 10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ -- is still debated. One possibility is that ULXs are stellar black holes accreting…
We present general relativistic radiation MHD simulations of super-Eddington accretion on a $10M_\odot$ black hole. We consider a range of mass accretion rates, black hole spins, and magnetic field configurations. We compute the spectra and…
We describe a new method to estimate the mass of black holes in Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs). The method is based on the recently discovered ``variability plane'', populated by Galactic stellar-mass black-hole candidates (BHCs) and…
Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are accreting black holes for which their X-ray properties have been seen to be different to the case of stellar-mass black hole binaries. For most of the cases their intrinsic energy spectra are well…
We summarize indirect empirical arguments used for estimating black hole (BH) masses in ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). The interpretation of the X-ray data is still too model-dependent to provide tight constraints, but masses <~ 100…
Estimation of the black hole mass in bright X-ray sources of nearby galaxies is crucial to the understanding of these systems and their formation. However, the present allowed black hole mass range spans five order of magnitude (10Msun < M…
We have analyzed the archival XMM-Newton data of the bright Ultra-Luminous X-ray Source (ULX) M82 X-1 with an 105 ksec exposure when the source was in the steady state. Thanks to the high photon statistics from the large effective area and…