Related papers: Identifying Supermassive Black Hole Binaries with …
Galaxy mergers are expected to produce multiple supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in close-separation, but the detection of such SMBHs has been difficult. 2MASS J165939.7$+$183436 is a red active galactic nucleus (AGN) that is a prospective…
Hierarchical structure formation inevitably leads to the formation of supermassive binary black holes (BBHs) with a sub-parsec separation in galactic nuclei. However, to date there has been no unambiguous detection of such systems. In an…
Emission from two massive black holes (MBHs) bound in a close binary is expected to be modulated by different processes, such as the Doppler boost due to the orbital motion, accretion rate variability generated by the interaction with a…
Double-peaked narrow emission lines in active galactic nucleus (AGN) spectra can be produced by AGN outflows, rotation, or dual AGNs, which are AGN pairs in ongoing galaxy mergers. Consequently, double-peaked narrow AGN emission lines are…
Double-peaked H$\alpha$ emission profiles can serve as potential signatures of accreting intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), particularly those residing outside galactic nuclei. Such features are expected to arise from rotating disk-like…
The profiles of broad emission lines in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) provide critical insights into the geometry and kinematics of the broad-line region (BLR), which in turn influence the uncertainties in estimating the masses of central…
Coalescing massive black hole binaries are powerful emitters of gravitational waves, in the LISA sensitivity range for masses M_BH ~ 10^{4-7} M_sun. According to hierarchical galaxy merger models, binary black holes should form frequently,…
We present a new observational test to identify massive black hole binaries in large multi-epoch spectroscopical catalogues and to probe the real nature of already proposed binary candidates. The test is tailored for binaries with…
The structure of the broad emission line region (BLR) in active galactic nuclei (AGN) remains unclear. We test in this paper a flattened configuration model for BLR. The virial theorem, by taking into account the disc shape of BLR, allows…
We propose a new spectral signature for supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) with circumbinary gas disks: a sharp drop in flux blueward of the Lyman limit. A prominent edge is produced if the gas dominating the emission in the Lyman…
Identifying methods to discover dual AGN has proven to be challenging. Several indirect tracers have been explored in the literature, including X/S-shaped radio morphologies and double-peaked (DP) emission lines in the optical spectra.…
Theoretically, bound binaries of massive black holes are expected as the natural outcome of mergers of massive galaxies. From the observational side, however, massive black hole binaries remain elusive. Velocity shifts between narrow and…
We present observations of the double-peaked broad H$\alpha$ profile emitted by the active nucleus of NGC 7213 using the the Gemini South Telescope in 13 epochs between 2011 September 27 and 2013 July 23. This is the first time that the…
One percent of redshift z~0.1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) show velocity splitting of a few hundred km/s in the narrow emission lines in spatially integrated spectra. Such line profiles have been found to arise from the bulk motion of…
Supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries are expected in a Lambda CDM cosmology given that most (if not all) massive galaxies contain a massive black hole at their center. So far, however, direct evidence for such binaries has been elusive.…
As a major feature in spectra of active galactic nuclei, broad emission lines deliver information of kinematics and spatial distributions of ionized gas surrounding the central supermassive black holes (SMBHs), that is the so-called…
It has been proposed that when the peaks of the broad emission lines in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are significantly blueshifted or redshifted from the systemic velocity of the host galaxy, this could be a consequence of orbital motion…
PG1302-102 is thought to be a supermassive binary black hole (BBH) system according to the periodical variations of its optical and UV photometry, which may be interpreted as being due to the relativistic Doppler boosting of the emission…
An increasing number of AGNs exhibit broad, double-peaked Balmer emission lines, which arise from the outer regions of the accretion disk which fuels the AGN. The line profiles vary on timescales of 5--10 years. Our group has monitored a…
We discuss the polarization of broad emission lines in the type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The polarization depends on the geometry of the broad line region (BLR), and also on the polarization mechanism, or distribution of the…