Related papers: Exploring possible relations between optical varia…
[Abridged] Optically thick, geometrically thin accretion disks around supermassive black holes are thought to contribute to broad-line emission in type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, observed emission line profiles most often…
AGN, powered by accretion onto SMBHs, are thought to be scaled up versions of Galactic black hole X-ray binaries (BH-XRBs). In the past few years evidence of such correspondence include similarities in the broadband shape of the X-ray…
Continuum and emission-line variability of active galactic nuclei provides a powerful probe of microarcsecond scale structures in the central regions of these sources. In this contribution, we review basic concepts and methodologies used in…
We report that moderately eccentric flows around supermassive black holes (SMBHs), formed via either circumnuclear gas accretion or tidal disruption events, generate eccentricity cascades (from >0.8 to 0.2 outward), explaining…
The mass estimator used to calculate black hole (BH) masses in broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) relies on a virial coefficient (the "$f$ factor") that is determined by comparing reverberation-mapped (RM) AGNs with measured bulge…
We assembled a sample of Seyfert 1 galaxies, QSOs and Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (LLAGNs) observed by ASCA, whose central black hole masses have been measured. We found that the X-ray variability (which is quantified by the…
Among the most extreme objects in the Universe, active galactic nuclei (AGN) are luminous centers of galaxies where a black hole feeds on surrounding matter. The variability patterns of the light emitted by an AGN contain information about…
New black-hole mass estimates are presented for a sample of 72 AGN covering three decades in optical luminosity. Using a sub-sample of Seyfert galaxies, which have black-hole mass estimates from both reverberation mapping and stellar…
Estimates of the mass of super-massive black holes (BHs) in distant active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be obtained efficiently only through single-epoch spectra, using a combination of their broad emission-line widths and continuum…
We have explored spectral line profiles due to spiral patterns in accretion discs around black holes. A parametrization was employed for the shape and emissivity of spiral waves, which can be produced by non-axisymmetric perturbations…
We measure the optical variability in $\sim$ 16500 low-redshift (z $\sim$ 0.1) galaxies to map the relations between AGN activity and galaxy stellar mass, specific star-formation rate, half-light radius and bulge-to-total ratio. To do this,…
The advent of new time domain surveys and the imminent increase in astronomical data expose the shortcomings in traditional time series analysis (such as power spectra analysis) in characterising the abundantly varied, complex and…
We present results from infrared spectroscopic projects that aim to test the relation between the mass of a black hole, M_BH, and the velocity dispersion of the stars in its host-galaxy bulge. We demonstrate that near-infrared,…
Under the unified model for active galactic nuclei (AGNs), narrow-line (Type 2) AGNs are, in fact, broad-line (Type 1) AGNs but each with a heavily obscured accretion disk. We would therefore expect the optical continuum emission from Type…
We investigate the broad line profiles emitted from a system supermassive binary black hole (SMBBH) having elliptical orbits and low mass ratio of $m_2/m_1\sim 0.1$. Our model assumes a super Eddington accretion flow in the case of a…
We calibrate reverberation-based black hole masses in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by using the correlation between black hole mass, M, and bulge/spheroid stellar velocity dispersion, sigma. We use new measurements of sigma for 6 AGNs and…
We analyze the broadband photometric light curves of Seyfert 1 galaxies from the Sergeev et al. (2005) sample and find that a) perturbations propagating across the continuum emitting region are a general phenomenon securely detected in most…
Accreting black holes on all mass scales (from stellar to supermassive) appear to follow a nonlinear relation between X-ray luminosity, radio luminosity and BH mass, indicating that similar physical processes drive the central engines in…
We carried out a systematic analysis of time lags between X-ray energy bands in a large sample (32 sources) of unabsorbed, radio quiet active galactic nuclei (AGN), observed by XMM-Newton. The analysis of X-ray lags (up to the…
We recorded spectra of the highly variable Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk110 in a variability campaign with the 9.2m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in order to study the detailed line profile variations of the broad emission lines.…