Related papers: How well can we measure supermassive black hole sp…
X-ray reflection is a very powerful method to assess the spin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGN), yet this technique is not universally accepted. Indeed, complex reprocessing (absorption, scattering) of the…
Black hole spin is a quantity of great interest to both physicists and astrophysicists. We review the current status of spin measurements in supermassive black holes (SMBH). To date, every robust SMBH spin measurement uses X-ray reflection…
I review the current status of X-ray reflection (a.k.a. broad iron line) based black hole spin measurements. This is a powerful technique that allows us to measure robust black hole spins across the mass range, from the stellar-mass black…
Spin measurements of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) provide crucial constraints on the accretion processes that power active galactic nuclei (AGN), fuel outflows, and trigger black hole growth. However, spin measurements are mainly…
Measuring the spins of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGN) can inform us about the relative role of gas accretion vs. mergers in recent epochs of the life of the host galaxy and its AGN. Recent advances in…
We determined the spin value of supermassive black hole (SMBH) in active galactic nuclei (AGN) with investigated ultraviolet-to-optical spectral energy distribution, presented in the sample of Shang et al. (2005). The estimates of the spin…
X-ray reflection spectroscopy has evolved as one of the leading methods to measure black hole spins. However, the question is whether its measurements are subjected to systematic biases, especially considering the possible discrepancy…
We estimated the spin values of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) for a large set of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies assuming the inclination angle between the line of sight and the axis of the…
The Suzaku AGN Spin Survey is designed to determine the supermassive black hole spin in six nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) via deep Suzaku stares, thereby giving us our first glimpse of the local black hole spin distribution. Here, we…
Relativistic reflection features are commonly observed in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes. In the presence of high quality data and with the correct astrophysical model, X-ray reflection spectroscopy can be quite a powerful tool…
The spin of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is directly related to the radiative efficiency of accretion on to the hole, and therefore impacts the amount of fuel required for the black hole to reach a certain mass. Thus, a knowledge of the…
Mass and spin are two fundamental properties of astrophysical black holes. While some established, indirect methods are adopted to measure both these properties of active galactic nuclei (AGN) when viewed relatively face-on, very few…
Angular momentum, or spin, is a fundamental property of black holes (BHs), yet it is much more difficult to estimate than mass or accretion rate (for actively accreting systems). In recent years, high-quality X-ray observations have allowed…
Cygnus X-1 is a well-studied persistent black hole X-ray binary. Recently, the three parameters needed to estimate the black hole spin of this system, namely the black hole mass $M$, the orbital inclination $i$ and the source distance $D$,…
The spin of a black hole is an important quantity to study, providing a window into the processes by which a black hole was born and grew. Further, spin can be a potent energy source for powering relativistic jets and energetic particle…
The co-evolution of a supermassive black hole with its host galaxy through cosmic time is encoded in its spin. At $z>2$, supermassive black holes are thought to grow mostly by merger-driven accretion leading to high spin. However, it is…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has imaged the shadow of the supermassive black hole in M87. A library of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GMRHD) models was fit to the observational data, providing constraints on black hole…
This is the third paper in a series describing the spectroscopic properties of a sample of 39 AGN at $z \sim 1.5$, selected to cover a large range in black hole mass ($M_{BH}$) and Eddington ratio ($L/L_{Edd}$). In this paper, we continue…
We investigate the presence of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary signatures and the feasibility of identifying them through X-ray reflection spectra. The X-ray emitting region is modeled as a set of two mini-disks bound to the…
An accurate and precise measurement of the spins of individual merging black holes is required to understand their origin. While previous studies have indicated that most of the spin information comes from the inspiral part of the signal,…