Related papers: Spikey: Self-Lensing Flares from Eccentric SMBH Bi…
We study gravitational lensing in the strong-field limit using the rotating quantum-corrected black hole (RQCBH) with an additional parameter $\alpha$ besides mass $M$ and spin parameter $a$. We discover a decrease in the deflection angle…
We used a model of a relativistic accretion disk around a supermassive black hole (SMBH), based on ray-tracing method in the Kerr metric, to study the variations of the composite Fe K$\alpha$ line emitted from two accretion disks around…
Abridged: Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) separated by (sub)-pc scales represent one of the latest stages of hierarchical galaxy assembly. However, many of these objects are hidden behind large columns of gas and dust at the…
In recent numerical simulations \citep{matsubayashi07,lockmann08}, it has been found that the eccentricity of supermassive black hole(SMBH) - intermediate black hole(IMBH) binaries grows toward unity through interactions with stellar…
A well-known active galaxy of the blazar type, S5 0716+714, is characterized by a particularly high variability duty cycle on short-time scales at optical frequencies. As such, the source was subjected to numerous monitoring programs,…
Recent spectroscopic analysis has set an upper limit to the age of the S-stars, the ~30 B-type stars in highly eccentric orbits around the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the Galactic center. The inferred age (<15 Myr) is in tension with…
Supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries residing at the core of merging galaxies are recently found to be strongly affected by the rotation of their host galaxies. The highly eccentric orbits that form when the host is counterrotating emit…
The variability of quasars across multiple wavelengths is a useful probe of physical conditions in active galactic nuclei. In particular, variable accretion rates, instabilities, and reverberation effects in the accretion disk of a…
The light curve of the microlensing event KMT-2021-BLG-0912 exhibits a very short anomaly relative to a single-lens single-source form. We investigate the light curve for the purpose of identifying the origin of the anomaly. We model the…
At cosmological distances, gravitational lensing can provide a direct measurement of supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses irrespective of their luminosities. Here, we directly estimate the mass of a SMBH in the brightest cluster galaxy…
DQ Tau is a young low-mass spectroscopic binary, consisting of two almost equal-mass stars on a 15.8 d period surrounded by a circumbinary disk. Here, we analyze DQ Tau's light curves obtained by Kepler K2, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and…
Detecting compact objects by means of their gravitational lensing effect on an observed companion in a binary system has already been suggested almost four decades ago. However, these predictions were made even before the first observations…
We present observations of the double-peaked broad H$\alpha$ profile emitted by the active nucleus of NGC 7213 using the the Gemini South Telescope in 13 epochs between 2011 September 27 and 2013 July 23. This is the first time that the…
Optical periodicity QSOs found by transient surveys are suggested to be sub-parsec supermassive binary black holes (BBHs). An intriguing interpretation for the periodicity of some of those QSOs is that the continuum is radiated from the…
A long-term spectroscopic and photometric survey of the most luminous and massive stars in the vicinity of the super-massive black hole Sgr A* revealed two new binaries; a long-period Ofpe/WN9 binary, GCIRS 16NE, with a modest eccentricity…
Analyzing the available photometry from the Kepler satellite and other databases, we performed detailed light curve modeling of 10 eclipsing binary systems that were found to exhibit a periodic modulation of their orbital periods. All of…
Supermassive black hole binary systems (SMBHBs) are thought to emit the recently discovered nHz gravitational wave background; however, not a single individual nHz source has been confirmed to date. Long-term radio-monitoring at the Owens…
Based on Kepler data, we present the results of a search for white-light flares on 1049 close binaries. We identify 234 flare binaries, on which 6818 flares are detected. We compare the flare-binary fraction in different binary morphologies…
We carried out light curve solutions of ten detached eclipsing eccentric binaries observed by Kepler. The formal errors of the derived parameters from the light curve solutions are below 1%. Our results give indications that the components…
We measured the near-infrared orbital light curve of the black hole binary A0620-00 in 1995 and 1996. The light curves show an asymmetric, double-humped modulation with extra emission in the peak at orbital phase 0.75. There were no…