Related papers: The Evolution of Black Hole Mass and Spin in Activ…
Warped accretion discs in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) exert a torque on the black hole that tends to align the rotation axis with the angular momentum of the outer disc. We compute the magnitude of this torque by solving numerically for…
The mass of super massive black holes at the centre of galaxies is tightly correlated with the mass of the galaxy bulges which host them. This observed correlation implies a mechanism of joint growth, but the precise physical processes…
We compute the evolution of a quasi-spherical, slowly rotating accretion flow around a black hole, whose mass and spin evolve adequately to the mass-energy transfer through the horizon. Our model is relevant for the central engine driving a…
There is compelling evidence that most -if not all- galaxies harbour a super-massive black hole (SMBH) at their nucleus, hence binaries of these massive objects are an inevitable product of the hierarchical evolution of structures in the…
We investigate the local supermassive black hole (SMBH) density function and relative mass accretion rates of all active galactic nuclei (AGNs) identified in a volume-limited sample of infrared (IR) bright galaxies (L_IR > 3 x 10^9 L_sun)…
Spin measurements of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) provide crucial constraints on the accretion processes that power active galactic nuclei (AGN), fuel outflows, and trigger black hole growth. However, spin measurements are mainly…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) grow primarily through gas accretion, observed as active galactic nuclei (AGNs). While mergers can drive luminous AGN episodes, secular processes may fuel a substantial portion of cosmic BH growth. Whether…
The growth of supermassive black holes appears to be driven by galaxy mergers, violent merger-free processes and/or `secular' processes. In order to quantify the effects of secular evolution on black hole growth, we study a sample of active…
Mini-black holes made of dark matter that can potentially form in the interior of neutron stars have been always thought to grow by accreting the matter of the core of the star via a spherical Bondi accretion. However, neutron stars have…
We investigate the alignment processes of spinning black holes and their surrounding warped accretion disks in a frame of two different types of feeding at the outer boundaries. We consider (1) fixed flows in which gas is continually fed…
I review accretion and outflow in active galactic nuclei. Accretion appears to occur in a series of very small--scale, chaotic events, whose gas flows have no correlation with the large--scale structure of the galaxy or with each other. The…
We show that black holes grow substantially by accretion at close to Eddington rates. Using a complete sample of soft X-ray selected AGNs, Grupe & Mathur (2004) have shown that narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies, as a class, lie below the…
Active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback from accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is an essential ingredient of galaxy formation simulations. The orbital evolution of SMBHs is affected by dynamical friction that cannot be predicted…
There is strong evidence that supermassive black holes reside in all galaxies that contain a stellar spheroid and their mass is tightly correlated with properties such as stellar bulge mass and velocity dispersion. There are also strong…
Recent observations indicate that the mass of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) correlate differently with different galaxy stellar components. Comparing such observations with the results of "ab initio" galaxy formation models can provide…
The co-evolution of a supermassive black hole with its host galaxy through cosmic time is encoded in its spin. At $z>2$, supermassive black holes are thought to grow mostly by merger-driven accretion leading to high spin. However, it is…
Proto-stellar clusters, likely progenitors of globular clusters, are compact with typical mass $\sim 10^6\,{\rm M}_\odot$ and size $\sim 1\,{\rm pc}$, as revealed recently by JWST observations at $z\sim 10$. Sufficiently high compactness…
Simulations of binary black hole mergers indicate that asymmetrical gravitational wave (GW) emission can cause black holes to recoil at speeds up to thousands of km/s. These GW recoil events can dramatically affect the coevolution of…
The main requirements for fueling an active galactic nucleus and to form massive black holes are reviewed. Low-luminosity AGN can be fueled easily from the local star clusters, near the nucleus, and the various stellar processes are…
Stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) embedded in active galactic nucleus (AGN) discs are possible progenitors of black-hole mergers detected in gravitational waves by LIGO/VIRGO. To better understand the hydrodynamical evolution of BBHs…