Related papers: Radio quasars and the link with GAIA
With the unique advantage that radio galaxies have in delineating the central super-massive black hole axis along their radio axes they make useful probes for unseen central engine processes. In this paper I bring to attention the…
Gaia will open up a huge volume of new parameter space in which to explore the physics of AGN and black hole evolution. We address the question as to how far along the relativistic jets blazar radio, optical and gamma ray emission…
The space astrometry mission GAIA will construct a dense optical QSO-based celestial reference frame. For consistency between the optical and radio positions, it will be important to align the GAIA frame and the International Celestial…
A common question about compact objects in high energy astrophysics is whether it is possible to distinguish black hole from neutron star systems with some other property that is not the mass of the compact object. Up to now a few…
We present a detailed, fully nonlinear study of binary systems involving one black hole and one boson star, considering the effects of both a quartic self-interaction and a solitonic potential for the scalar field. First, we show the…
Because of the contamination of jets, using the size -- continuum luminosity relation can overestimate the broad line region (BLR) size and black hole mass for radio-loud AGNs. We propose a new relation between the BLR size and $H_{\beta}$…
The recent detections of GW150914 and GW151226 imply an abundance of stellar-mass binary-black-hole mergers in the local universe. While ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are limited to observing the final moments before a binary…
The Gaia celestial reference frame (Gaia-CRF) will benefit from a close assessment with independent methods, such as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) measurements of radio stars at bright magnitudes. However, obtaining full…
The search and study of close pairs of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is important in the study of galaxy mergers which can possibly trigger active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity, and in the context of their evolution into the…
Many Galactic black hole and neutron star sources in low X-ray mass binaries show QPOs (quasi periodic oscillations) in their observed X-ray fluxes, i.e. peaks in the Fourier variability power spectra. Pairs of twin peaks are observed, and…
All stellar mass black holes have hitherto been identified by X-rays emitted by gas that is accreting onto the black hole from a companion star. These systems are all binaries with black holes below 30 M$_{\odot}$$^{1-4}$. Theory predicts,…
We discuss radio observations of a sample of radio-weak and radio-intermediate quasars which demonstrate that - just like their radio-loud counterparts - radio-weak quasars too have relativistic jets in their nuclei. Moreover, a VLA survey…
A new technique is presented for determining the black-hole masses of high-redshift quasars from optical spectroscopy. The new method utilizes the full-width half maximum (FWHM) of the low-ionization MgII emission line and the correlation…
We review the properties of 40 X-ray binaries that contain either a confirmed black hole or a black hole candidate. After discussing briefly the significance of these Galactic black holes to both astronomy and physics, we present basic data…
We present the summary of the recent investigations of double black hole binaries in context of their formation and merger rates. In particular we discuss the spectrum of black hole masses, the formation scenarios in the local Universe and…
It is anticipated that future space-born missions, such as Gaia, will be able to determine in optical domain positions of more than 100,000 bright quasars with sub-mas accuracies that are comparable to very long baseline interferometry…
Radio and gamma-ray emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) are thought to share a common origin, related to the ejection phenomena in the vicinity of supermassive black holes. Thanks to its sensitivity, surveying capability, and broad…
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) at sub-millimeter waves has the potential to image the shadow of the black hole in the Galactic Center, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), and thereby test basic predictions of the theory of general…
V4641 Sagittarii (V4641 Sgr) is a unique Galactic microquasar system featuring a stellar-mass black hole accreting matter from a massive companion. One of its intriguing features is the presence of relativistic radio jets almost…
With the hundreds of merging binary black hole (BH) signals expected to be detected by LIGO/Virgo, LISA and other instruments in the next few years, the modeling of astrophysical channels that lead to the formation of compact-object…