Related papers: Quasar Mass Functions Across Cosmic Time

I present an elementary primer of black hole physics, including its general relativity basis, all peppered with astrophysical illustrations. Following a brief review of the process stellar collapse to a black hole, I discuss the…

We construct a mass or energy function for the non-Nariai class Schwarzschild-de Sitter black hole spacetime in the region between the black hole and the cosmological event horizons. The mass function is local, positive definite, continuous…

We discuss the method, and potential systematic effects therein, used for measuring the mass of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. We restrict our discussion to the method that relies on the validity of Kepler's laws; we refer to…

The mass density of massive black holes observed locally is consistent with the hard X-ray Background provided that most of the radiation produced during their growth was absorbed by surrounding gas. A simple model is proposed here for the…

I recall how the discovery of quasars occurred more than forty years ago, and the strong debates marking out their story. It led to the discovery of Massive Black Holes, which are now known to be present in almost all galaxies, and it…

One of the possible explanations for dark matter is that of compact dark objects of baryonic origin, such as black holes or even planets. Accumulating evidence, including the discovery of merging stellar mass black holes through…

Massive black holes are key inhabitants of the nuclei of galaxies. Moreover, their astrophysical relevance has gained significant traction in recent years, thanks especially to the amazing results that are being (or will be) delivered by…

In light of increasing observational evidence supporting the existence of ultra-compact objects, we adopt the term astrophysical black hole to refer to any object having a huge mass confined within a sufficiently small region of spacetime.…

If compact baryonic objects contribute significantly to the dark matter in our Galaxy, their mass function will present vital clues for galaxy formation theories and star formation processes in the early Universe. Here we discuss what one…

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…

We present the first measurement of the black hole (BH) mass function for broad-line active galaxies in the local Universe. Using the ~9000 broad-line active galaxies from the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we…

Much progress has been made in measuring black hole (BH) masses in (non-active) galactic nuclei using the tight correlation between stellar velocity dispersions (sigma) in galaxies and the mass of their central BH. The use of this…

Measurement of accelerated expansion in the Universe led to propose a new cosmic fluid as its cause: dark energy. Its various incarnations offer a wealth of models whose relevance it is important to discriminate via contacts with…

An extraordinary recent development in astrophysics was the discovery of the fossil relationship between central black hole mass and the stellar mass of galactic bulges. The physical process underpinning this relationship has become known…

Reverberation mapping methods have been used to measure masses in about three dozen AGNs. The consistency of the virial masses computed from line widths and time delays, the relationship between black hole mass and host-galaxy stellar bulge…

Around a million quasars have been catalogued in the Universe by probing deeper and using new methods for discovery. However, the hardest ones to find seem to be the rarest and brightest specimen. In this work, we study the properties of…

A combination of ground-based and spacecraft observations has uncovered two black holes of 10 billion solar masses in the nearby Universe. The finding sheds light on how these cosmic monsters co-evolve with galaxies.

Since a black hole does not emit light from its interior, nor does it have a surface on which light from nearby sources can be reflected, observational study of black hole physics requires observing the gravitational impact of the black…

We use the clustering of galaxies around distant active-galactic nuclei to derive an estimate of the relationship between galaxy and black hole mass that obtained during the ancient quasar epoch, at redshifts 2 <~ z <~ 3, when giant black…

The determination of the central black hole mass is crucial to the understanding of AGN physics. In this paper we briefly review some methods that are currently used to estimate the black hole mass of AGNs. Particularly we demonstrate the…