Related papers: Nuclear spallation in active galaxies
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are generally accepted to be powered by the release of gravitational energy in a compact accretion disk surrounding a massive black hole. Such disks are also necessary to collimate powerful radio jets seen in…
We study the incidence of nuclear obscuration on a complete sample of 1310 AGN selected on the basis of their rest-frame 2-10 keV X-ray flux from the XMM-COSMOS survey, in the redshift range 0.3<z<3.5. We classify the AGN as obscured or…
X-ray observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) show variability on timescales ranging from a few hours up to a few days. Some of this variability may be associated with occultation events by clouds in the broad line region. In this…
We examine unresolved nuclear X-ray sources in 57 brightest cluster galaxies to study the relationship between nuclear X-ray emission and accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The majority of the clusters in our sample have…
High resolution X-ray spectroscopy of the hot gas in galaxy clusters has shown that the gas is not cooling to low temperatures at the predicted rates of hundreds to thousands of solar masses per year. X-ray images have revealed giant…
Ultrashort-pulse laser ablation of metals near damage threshold is governed by homogeneous spallation, in which tensile unloading releases a nanometre-thin liquid film whose optical signatures are temporally evolving concentric Newton rings…
Neutron stars in mass-transferring binaries are accreting the hydrogen and helium rich matter from the surfaces of their companions. This article simply explains the physics associated with how that material eventually fuses to form heavier…
We propose the model of a short-lived very powerful source of high energy neutrinos. It is formed as a result of the dynamical evolution of a galactic nucleus prior to its collapse into a massive black hole and formation of high-luminosity…
Over the last five decades, AGN studies have produced a number of spectacular examples of synergies and multifaceted approaches in astrophysics. The field of AGN research now spans the entire spectral range and covers more than twelve…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) may emit highly collimated and intense jets of relativistic electrons which upscatter ambient photons. These electrons can also scatter off the cold dark matter halo of the galaxy to produce high energy photons…
We examine all possible stationary, optically thick, geometrically thin accretion disc models relevant for active galactic nuclei (AGN) and identify the physical regimes in which they are stable against the thermal-viscous hydrogen…
Precision measurements of neutron star radii can provide a powerful probe of the properties of cold matter beyond nuclear density. Beginning in the late 1970s it was proposed that the radius could be obtained from the apparent or inferred…
Significant nucleosynthesis is possible in the centrifugal pressure-supported dense and hot region of the accretion flows which deviate from Keplerian disks around black holes. We compute composition changes and energy generations due to…
The variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) has long held the promise of shedding light on their detailed structure, and possibly other astrophysical phenonema. Different emission mechanisms lead to different patterns of variability in…
We follow the nuclear reactions that occur in the accretion disks of stellar mass black holes that are accreting at a very high rate, 0.01 to 1 solar masses per second, as is realized in many current models for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The…
In the inner regions of an accretion disk around a black hole, the presence of non-thermal protons would via p-p collisions produce electrons, positrons and $\gamma$-rays. For such a scenario, the steady state electron-positron distribution…
We calculate the nuclear composition of matter in accretion disks surrounding stellar mass black holes as are thought to accompany gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We follow a mass element in the accretion disk starting at the point of nuclear…
Asymmetric, broad iron lines are a common feature in the X-ray spectra of both X-ray binaries (XRBs) and type-1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). It was suggested that the distortion of the Fe K_alpha emission results from Doppler and…
Along with compacting baryon (neutron) spacing, two very important factors come into play at once: the lack of self-stabilization within a compact neutron star (NS) associated with possible black hole (BH) horizon appearance and the phase…
During the collapse of massive stars, and the supernova type-II explosions, stellar matter reaches densities and temperatures which are similar to the ones obtained in intermediate-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The nuclear…