Related papers: Massive Black Holes Across Cosmic Time
Massive black holes are ubiquitous, occurring at the centres of all massive galaxies and possibly many low mass ones. They are no ornament which just happens to be there, but play a role vital to the growth and structure of the host galaxy.…
This article discusses stellar dynamical evidence for supermassive black holes in inactive and weakly active galaxies.
Black Holes are possibly the most enigmatic objects in our Universe. From their detection in gravitational waves upon their mergers, to their snapshot eating at the centres of galaxies, black hole astrophysics has undergone an observational…
The origin of supermassive black holes in the galactic nuclei is quite uncertain in spite of extensive set of observational data. We review the known scenarios of galactic and cosmological formation of supermassive black holes. The common…
Our understanding of space and time is probed to its depths by black holes. These objects, which appear as a natural consequence of general relativity, provide a powerful analytical tool able to examine macroscopic and microscopic…
The existence of massive black holes was postulated in the sixties, when the first quasars were discovered. In the late nineties their reality was proven beyond doubt, in the Milky way and a handful nearby galaxies. Since then, enormous…
This paper summarizes the observations which provide the best evidence for the presence of black holes in active galactic nuclei. This includes: X-ray variability; kinematical studies using optical emission lines as well as the distribution…
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…
The most compelling evidences for the existence of stellar-mass black holes have been obtained through observations of X-ray binary systems. The application of classical methods and the development of new techniques have allowed us to…
Significant progress has been made in the last few years on understanding how supermassive black holes form and grow. In this paper, we begin by reviewing the spectral signatures of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) ranging from radio to hard…
A new model for the formation of active galaxies is described. A key feature of this model is the idea that the birth of black holes in the centers of supergiant galaxies is strongly influenced by the large-scale distribution of matter in…
Black holes are among the most extreme objects that can be found in the Universe and an ideal laboratory for testing fundamental physics. This article will briefly review the basic properties of black holes as expected from general…
Supermassive black holes have generally been recognized as the most destructive force in nature. But in recent years, they have undergone a dramatic shift in paradigm. These objects may have been critical to the formation of structure in…
The past 10 years have witnessed a change of perspective in the way astrophysicists think about massive black holes (MBHs), which are now considered to have a major role in the evolution of galaxies. This appreciation was driven by the…
Binary black holes occupy a special place in our quest for understanding the evolution of galaxies along cosmic history. If massive black holes grow at the center of (pre-)galactic structures that experience a sequence of merger episodes,…
In this small review we present the actual state the knowledge about weighting black holes. Black holes can be found in stellar binary systems in our Galaxy and in other nearby galaxies, in globular clusters, which we can see in our and…
A review of the astronomical data of several last years on an astonishingly high amount of black holes in the contemporary and early ($z\sim 10$) universe is presented. Also the data on the recently observed peculiar stars in the Galaxy are…
This article gives a brief overview of the direct and indirect evidence in support of the standard paradigm that active galactic nuclei are powered by supermassive black holes.
The dynamical evidence for black holes (BHs) in galactic nuclei is reviewed, with emphasis on recent improvements in spatial resolution, methods for analyzing galaxy spectra and dynamical modeling. M31, M32 and M87 are discussed in some…
After a brief historical introduction, we summarize current efforts and accomplishments in the study of supermassive black holes.