Related papers: The Shocking Power Sources of LINERs
(Abridge) The relationship between coronal line (CL) emission and nuclear activity in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is analyzed, for the first time, based on NIR spectra. The 8 CLs studied, of Si, S, Fe, Al and Ca elements and corresponding…
Optical emission lines are used to categorize galaxies into three groups according to their dominant central radiation source: active galactic nuclei, star formation, or low-ionization (nuclear) emission regions [LI(N)ERs] that may trace…
The accretion of matter onto a massive black hole is believed to feed the relativistic plasma jets found in many active galactic nuclei (AGN). Although some AGN accelerate particles to energies exceeding 10^12 electron Volts (eV) and are…
Broad-line regions (BLR) are one of the main components that constitute the phenomenological picture of active galaxies near the vicinity of the accreting supermassive black holes. Both theoretical and observational studies have shown that…
We compute X-ray emission lines from thermal plasma in hot accretion flows. We show that line profiles are strong probes of the gas dynamics, and we present line-ratio diagnostics which are sensitive to the distribution of mass with…
In non-star-forming, passively evolving galaxies, regions with emission lines dominated by low-ionization species are classified as Low-Ionization Emission Regions (LIERs). The ionization mechanism behind such regions has long been a…
Quasars accreting matter at very high rates (known as extreme Population A [xA] or super-Eddington accreting massive black holes) provide a new class of distance indicators covering cosmic epochs from the present-day Universe up to less…
A major uncertainty in models for photoionised outflows in AGN is the distance of the gas to the central black hole. We present the results of a massive multiwavelength monitoring campaign on the bright Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 509 to constrain…
Ly$\alpha$ emission is a standard tracer of starburst galaxies at high redshift. However, a number of local Ly$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) are X-ray sources, suggesting a possible origin of Ly$\alpha$ photons other than young, hot stars, and…
The shocks of several young supernova remnants (SNR) are often associated with very thin optical filaments dominated by Balmer emission resulting from charge-exchange and collisional excitation between neutral Hydrogen from the interstellar…
Most of the electromagnetic output of blazars (BL Lac objects and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars) comes out in the gamma-ray band, making the Large Area Telescope [0.1-100 GeV] onboard the Fermi satellite and the Cherenkov telescopes crucial…
A small number of LINERs have been seen to display variable H-alpha emission with a very broad, double-peaked profile. Recent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that such emission may be a common attribute of LINERs. The…
Using the Gemini Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (GNIRS), we have assembled a complete sample of 20 K-selected galaxies at 2.0<z<2.7 with high quality near-infrared spectra. As described in a previous paper, 9 of these 20 galaxies have strongly…
We observed the Galactic black hole candidate XTE J1650-500 early in its Fall, 2001 outburst with the XMM-Newton European Photon Imaging pn Camera (EPIC-pn). The observed spectrum is consistent with the source having been in the "very high"…
Based on recent X-ray observations, ultra-fast outflows from supermassive black holes are expected to have enough energy to dramatically affect their host galaxy but their launch and acceleration mechanisms are not well understood. We…
Active galactic nuclei are supermassive black holes surrounded by an accretion disk, two populations of clouds, bipolar jets, and a dusty torus. The clouds move in Keplerian orbits at high velocities. In particular, the broad-line region…
We present results of recent observations and theoretical modeling of data from black holes accreting at very low luminosities (L/L_Edd ~ 10^{-8}). We discuss our newly developed time-dependent model for episodic ejection of relativistic…
Weak line emission originating in the photosphere is well known from O stars and widely used for luminosity classification. The physical origin of the line emission are NLTE effects, most often optical pumping by far-UV lines. Analogous…
Using spatially-resolved spectra obtained with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer at the Keck I telescope, we investigate the nature of ionizing sources and kinematic properties of emission-line gas in a LINER galaxy SDSS…
Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by accretion onto massive black holes. Although radio-quiet objects are not as spectacular sources of very high energy photons as radio-loud ones this class of objects also represents a challenge for…