Related papers: The Galactic Center Weather Forecast
(Abridged) We study stability of gas accretion in Active Galactic Nuclei. Our grid based simulations cover a radial range from 0.1 to 200 pc. Here, as in previous studies by our group, we include gas radiative cooling as well as heating by…
Millimeter polarimetry of Sgr A* probes the linearly polarized emission region on a scale of $\sim 10$ Schwarzschild radii ($R_S$) as well as the dense, magnetized accretion flow on scales out to the Bondi radius ($\sim 10^5 R_S$) through…
We suggest that the energy source of the observed diffuse gamma-ray emission from the direction of the Galactic center is the Galactic black hole Sgr A*, which becomes active when a star is captured at a rate of $\sim 10^{-5} $ yr^{-1}.…
We report on a successful, simultaneous observation and modelling of the millimeter (mm) to near-infrared (NIR) flare emission of the Sgr A* counterpart associated with the supermassive black hole at the Galactic centre (GC). We present a…
We report results from very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) observations of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center, Sgr A*, at 1.3 mm (230 GHz). The observations were performed in 2013 March using six VLBI stations in…
Bright Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by accretion of mass onto the super massive black holes at the centers of the host galaxies. For fainter objects star formation may significantly contribute to the luminosity. We summarize…
Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, undergoes large-amplitude near-infrared (NIR) flares that can coincide with the continuous rotation of the NIR emission region. One promising explanation…
Images of supermassive black hole accretion flows contain features of both curved spacetime and plasma structure. Inferring properties of the spacetime from images requires modeling the plasma properties, and vice versa. The Event Horizon…
Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless…
Sgr A*, the putative black hole in our Galactic Center (GC), is extraordinary dim in all frequencies. Apparently the black hole is unable to accrete at the Bondi accretion rate for some reason. Another mystery of Sgr A* is the recently…
Millimeter wave Very Long Baseline Interferometry (mm-VLBI) provides access to the emission region surrounding Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, on sub-horizon scales. Recently, a closure phase of…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global very long baseline interferometry array operating at millimetre wavelengths, is spatially resolving the immediate environments of black holes for the first time. The current observations of the…
Sgr A* exhibits flaring in the infrared several times each day, occasionally accompanied by flaring in X-rays. The infrared flares are believed to arise through synchrotron emission from a transient population of accelerated electrons. The…
We consider the absorption and scattering of X-rays observed from the Galactic center. One objective is to characterize the intrinsic X-ray emission from the central black hole, SgrA*, in its quiescent and flaring states. We correct the…
Sgr A*, the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy, varies in radio through X-ray emission on hourly time scales. The flare activity is thought to arise from the innermost region of an accretion flow onto Sgr A*. We present…
A dense ionized cloud of gas has been recently discovered to be moving directly toward the supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, at the Galactic Center. In June 2013, at the pericenter of its highly eccentric orbit, the cloud will be…
The galactic black hole binary systems give an observational template showing how the accretion flow changes as a function of increasing mass accretion rate, or L/L_Edd. These data can be synthetised with theoretical models of the accretion…
Starting in 2012, we began an unprecedented observational program focused on the supermassive black hole in the center of our Galaxy, Sgr A*, utilizing the High Energy Transmission Gratings Spectrometer (HETGS) instrument on the Chandra…
Precision measurements of the stars in short-period orbits around the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center are now being used to constrain general relativistic effects, such as the gravitational redshift and periapse precession.…
The Galactic Center black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a prime observing target for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which can resolve the 1.3 mm emission from this source on angular scales comparable to that of the general…