Related papers: Constraining Quasar Relativistic Reflection Region…
Spatially resolved spectroscopic data from the CIRPASS integral field unit (IFU) on Gemini are used to measure the gravitational lensing of the 4-image quasar Q2237+0305 on different size scales. A method for measuring the substructure…
Spectral features can arise by reflection of coronal X-rays on a black hole accretion disc. The resulting profile bears various imprints of strong gravitational field acting on the light emitting gas. The observed shape of the reflection…
We present the results of the first long-term (2.2 years) spectroscopic monitoring of a gravitationally lensed quasar, namely the Einstein Cross Q2237+0305. The goal of this paper is to present the observational facts to be compared in…
We present the first study of an Iwasawa-Taniguchi/X-ray Baldwin effect for Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (AGN). We report a statistically significant anti-correlation between the rest-frame equivalent width (EW) of the narrow core…
We report on Chandra X-ray observations of four narrow-line quasar candidates at z~6, selected from the SHELLQs project, based on the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. These objects are characterised by narrow (FWHM<310 km/s), luminous…
Extremely strong ionized Fe emission lines, with the equivalent width reaching about 4000 eV, were discovered with ASCA from a few Galactic compact objects, including AX J2315-0592, RX J1802.1+1804 and AX J1842.8-0423. These objects are…
Future X-ray instrumentation is expected to allow us to significantly improve the constraints derivedfrom the Fe K lines in AGN, such as the black-hole angular momentum (spin) and the inclination angle of the putative accretion disk. We…
The fundamental parameters describing the coronal spectrum of an accreting black hole are the slope $\Gamma$ of the power-law continuum and the energy $E_{cut}$ at which it rolls over. Remarkably, this parameter can be accurately measured…
X-ray data for quasar 4C 74.26 have previously been modeled with a broad Fe K$\alpha$ emission line and reflection continuum originating in the inner part of the accretion disk around the central supermassive black hole (SMBH), i.e. the…
When an image of a strongly lensed quasar is microlensed, the different components of its spectrum are expected to be differentially magnified owing to the different sizes of the corresponding emitting region. Chromatic changes are expected…
When surrounded by a transparent emission region, black holes are expected to reveal a dark shadow caused by gravitational light bending and photon capture at the event horizon. To image and study this phenomenon, we have assembled the…
We have analyzed spectra of the Galactic black hole GX 339-4 obtained through simultaneous 76 ksec XMM-Newton/EPIC-pn and 10 ksec RXTE observations during a bright phase of its 2002-2003 outburst. An extremely skewed, relativistic Fe…
We present a microlensing analysis of updated light curves in three filters, $g$--band, $r$--band, and $H$--band, for the gravitationally lensed quasars Q0957+561 and SBS0909+532. Both systems display prominent microlensing features which…
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectroscopy of the Seyfert 1.5 galaxy, NGC 3227, confirms previous reports that the broad H-alpha emission line flux is time variable, decreasing by a modest ~ 11% between 1999 and 2000 in response to a…
We present a new model to calculate reflection spectra of thin accretion disks in Kerr spacetimes. Our model includes the effect of returning radiation, which is the radiation that is emitted by the disk and returns to the disk because of…
We present the results of a multi-epoch and multi-instrument study of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy MCG-05-23-16 aiming at the determination of its spin. We have analyzed high quality X-ray data of MCG-05-23-16…
The X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to come from a combination of inverse Compton scattering of photons from the accretion disk and reprocessing of the direct X-ray emission by reflection. We present hard (10-80…
In regions with strongly varying electron density, radio emission can be magnified significantly by plasma lensing. In the presence of magnetic fields, magnification in time and frequency will be different for two circular polarizations. We…
Accretion around black holes is very often characterized by distinctive X-ray reflection features (mostly, iron inner-shell transitions), which arise due to the primary radiation being reprocessed by a dense and relatively colder medium,…
We detect variability of the Fe Ka emission line in the spectrum of X-ray pulsar 4U 1626-67, correlated with changes in its luminosity and in the shape of its pulse profile. Analysis of archival Chandra and RXTE observations revealed the…