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Related papers: Recoiling supermassive black hole in changing-look…

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We present a model that explains some extreme variability phenomena observed in active galactic nuclei (AGN). In this model, an orbiting companion interacts with the accretion disk surrounding the central supermassive black hole (SMBH).…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-06-26 Sierra A. Dodd , Xiaoshan Huang , Shane W. Davis , Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz

The population of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is composed by quiescent SMBHs, such as those seen in local galaxies including the Milky Way's, and active ones, resulting in quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGN). Outside our…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-04-05 Marco Tucci , Marta Volonteri

Aims. We reported the discovery that a changing-look AGN SDSS J101152.98+544206.4 (J1011+5442 for short) gradually returns to the type 1 state after a short period between 2014 and 2019 in the faint type 1.9 state. Methods. Motivated by the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-12-24 Bing Lyu , Xue-Bing Wu , Yuxuan Pang , Huimei Wang , Rui Zhu , Yuming Fu , Qingwen Wu , Zhen Yan , Wenfei Yu , Hao Liu , Shi-Ju Kang , Junjie Jin , Jinyi Yang , Feige Wang

From the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, we identify 14 off-nuclear broad (FWHM>1000 km/s) Halpha and/or Hbeta emission line sources that indicate spatially offset active galactic nuclei (AGN) candidates.…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-12-02 R. Scott Barrows , Julia M. Comerford , James Negus , Francisco Muller-Sanchez

A search for recoiling supermassive black hole candidates recently yielded the best candidate thus far, SDSS J092712.65+294344.0 reported by Komossa et al. Here we propose the alternative hypothesis that this object is a supermassive black…

Astrophysics · Physics 2011-02-11 Tamara Bogdanovic , Michael Eracleous , Steinn Sigurdsson

GRS 1915$+$105 was the stellar-mass black hole that best reproduced key phenomena that are also observed in Type-1 active galactic nuclei. In recent years, however, it has evolved to resemble a Type-2 or Compton-thick AGN. Herein, we report…

We report spectropolarimetric observations of the quasar E1821+643 (z=0.297), which suggest that it may be an example of gravitational recoil due to anisotropic emission of gravitational waves following the merger of a supermassive black…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-19 Andrew Robinson , Stuart Young , David J. Axon , Preeti Kharb , James E. Smith

It has been proposed that when the peaks of the broad emission lines in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are significantly blueshifted or redshifted from the systemic velocity of the host galaxy, this could be a consequence of orbital motion…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2011-01-31 C. Martin Gaskell

Numerical relativity simulations predict that coalescence of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries not only leads to a spin flip but also to a recoiling of the merger remnant SMBHs. In the literature, X-shaped radio sources are popularly…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-03 F. K. Liu , Dong Wang , Xian Chen

In the sixth of the series of papers reporting on a large reverberation mapping (RM) campaign of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with high accretion rates, we present velocity-resolved time lags of H$\beta$ emission lines for nine objects…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-03-23 Pu Du , Kai-Xing Lu , Chen Hu , Jie Qiu , Yan-Rong Li , Ying-Ke Huang , Fang Wang , Jin-Ming Bai , Wei-Hao Bian , Ye-Fei Yuan , Luis C. Ho , Jian-Min Wang

Variability of active galactic nuclei is not well understood. One possible explanation is existence of supermassive binary black holes (SMBBH) in their centres. It is expected that major mergers are common in the Universe. It is expected…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-02-23 Marijana Smailagić , Edi Bon

Here we present the long-term optical spectral monitoring of a changing-look active galactic nuclei (AGN) NGC 3516 that covers 22 years (from 1996 to 2018). We explore a variability in the broad lines and continuum, finding that the…

Since their discovery more than 60 years ago, accreting supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) were recognized as highly variable sources, requiring an extremely compact, dynamic environment. Their variability traces to…

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can be ejected from their galactic centers due to gravitational wave recoil or the slingshot mechanism following a galaxy merger. If an ejected SMBH retains its inner accretion disk, it may be visible as an…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-11-11 Anavi Uppal , Charlotte Ward , Suvi Gezari , Priyamvada Natarajan , Nianyi Chen , Patrick LaChance , Tiziana Di Matteo

Changing-look (CL) AGN are unique probes of accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs), especially when simultaneous observations in complementary wavebands allow investigations into the properties of their accretion flows. We present…

Mrk926 is known to be a highly variable AGN with very broad line profiles. We studied the continuum and line profile variations of this object with high temporal resolution in order to determine its broad-line region structure and to derive…

While performing a survey to detect recoiling supermassive black holes, we have identified an unusual source having a projected offset of 800 pc from a nearby dwarf galaxy. The object, SDSS J113323.97+550415.8, exhibits broad emission lines…

The extremes of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) variability offer valuable new insights into the drivers and physics of AGN. We discuss some of the most extreme cases of AGN variability; the highest amplitudes, deep minima states, extreme…

We present a comprehensive long-term, multi-epoch spectral and timing study of the Seyfert 1 Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) Mrk~1040, utilizing X-ray observations spanning from 2009 to 2024 ($\sim$15 years). The source exhibits pronounced…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-01-01 Prantik Nandi , Narendranath Layek , Sandip K Chakrabarti , Sachindra Naik , Priyadarshee P. Dash

We study the optical variability characteristics of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) from the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) AGN catalogue by utilising approximately five years of optical light curves from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF)…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-08-12 Vivek Kumar Jha , Debbijoy Bhattacharya , Hum Chand