Related papers: The Quasar Accretion Disk Size -- Black Hole Mass …
Models of jet production in black hole systems suggest that the properties of the accretion disk - such as its mass accretion rate, inner radius, and emergent magnetic field - should drive and modulate the production of relativistic jets.…
Our recent radio observation using the Giant Meter Radio Telescope (GMRT) of the galactic black hole transient A0620-00 at 1.280GHz revealed a micro-flare of a few milli-Jansky. Assuming an equipartition of magnetic energy and the…
This paper sets out to measure the timescale of quasar variability with a view to new understanding of the size of accretion discs in active galactic nuclei. Previous attempts to measure such timescales have been based on sparsely sampled…
We investigate how accretion episodes onto massive black holes power quasars and AGN while they accumulate mass into the holes. We compute both the trend and the stochastic component to the trigger of the accretion events, as provided by…
The gravitationally lensed quasar HE 1104-1805 has been observed at a variety of wavelengths ranging from the mid-infrared to X-ray for nearly 20 years. We combine flux ratios from the literature, including recent Chandra data, with new…
The central black-hole masses of a sample of 30 luminous quasars are estimated using H-beta FWHM measurements from a combination of new and previously-published nuclear spectra. The quasar black-hole mass estimates are combined with…
We examine the accretion process in a thin disk surrounding a supermassive black hole within the framework of Einstein-Maxwell-scalar (EMS) gravity. Our investigation aims to elucidate how variations in model parameters affect different…
We use X-ray and optical microlensing measurements to study the shape of the dark matter density profile in the lens galaxies and the size of the (soft) X-ray emission region. We show that single epoch X-ray microlensing is sensitive to the…
We have examined a sample of 13 sub-Eddington supermassive black holes hosted by galaxies spanning a variety of morphological classifications to further understand the empirical fundamental plane of black hole activity. This plane describes…
We studied optical-ultraviolet spectral energy distribution of 10 weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) which lie at redshifts z = 0.19 and 1.43 < z < 3.48. The theoretical models of their accretion disk continua are created based on the…
Microlensing has proven an effective probe of the structure of the innermost regions of quasars, and an important test of accretion disk models. We present light curves of the lensed quasar HE 0435-1223 in the R band and in the ultraviolet,…
We compare all the available observational data on the redshift evolution of the total stellar mass and star formation rate density in the Universe with the mass and accretion rate density evolution of supermassive black holes, estimated…
Gas falling quasi-spherically onto a black hole forms an inner accretion disc if its specific angular momentum $l$ exceeds $\lmin\sim r_gc$ where $r_g$ is the Schwarzschild radius. The standard disc model assumes $l\gg\lmin$. We argue that,…
We study energy flows in geometrically thick accretion discs, both optically thick and thin, using general relativistic, three-dimensional simulations of black hole accretion flows. We find that for non-rotating black holes the efficiency…
Gravitational lensing assists in the detection of quasar hosts by amplifying and distorting the host light away from the unresolved quasar core images. We present the results of HST observations of 30 quasar hosts at redshifts 1 < z < 4.5.…
The optical/ultraviolet (UV) variability of quasars has been discovered to be correlated with other quasar properties, such as luminosity, black hole mass and rest-frame wavelength. However,the origin of variability has been a puzzle so…
We present black hole masses and accretion rates for 182 Type 1 AGN in COSMOS. We estimate masses using the scaling relations for the broad Hb, MgII, and CIV emission lines in the redshift ranges 0.16<z<0.88, 1<z<2.4, and 2.7<z<4.9. We…
We study the energetics of a black hole-accretion disk system with magnetic connection: a Keplerian disk is connected to a Kerr black hole by a large-scale magnetic field going through the transition region. We assume that the magnetic…
The standard thin accretion disc model predicts that discs around stellar mass black holes become radiation pressure dominated and thermally unstable once their luminosity exceeds L>0.02 L_Edd. Observationally, discs in the high/soft state…
Stellar-mass black holes in the low-hard state may hold clues to jet formation and basic accretion disk physics, but the nature of the accretion flow remains uncertain. A standard thin disk can extend close to the innermost stable circular…