Related papers: Donald Lynden-Bell: A Biographical Memoir
We describe how cosmology has converged towards a beautiful model of the Universe: the Big Bang Universe. We praise this model, but show there is a dark side to it. This dark side is usually called ``the cosmological problems'': a set of…
A modification of the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian by introducing a coupling between the Weyl tensor and the stress-energy tensor was proposed to explain flat galactic rotation curves without the exotic (non-baryonic) dark matter (DM) [1].…
Between 1974 and 1975, Stephen Hawking revolutionized the world of physics by proposing that black holes have temperature, entropy, and evaporate gradually. The objective of this article is to offer a brief and updated introduction to these…
Accretion of stars on massive black holes (MBHs) can feed MBHs and generate tidal disruption events (TDEs). We introduce a new physically motivated model to self-consistently treat TDEs in cosmological simulations, and apply it to the…
Violent relaxation has been proposed half a century ago to bear responsibility for non-collisional dynamics and formation of gravitationally bound systems of extended celestial objects (agglomeration of stars, galaxies, clusters of…
A century ago, in 1911 and 1913, Plummer and then Reynolds introduced their models to describe the radial distribution of stars in `nebulae'. This article reviews the progress since then, providing both an historical perspective and a…
Tidal Disruption of stars by super massive central black holes from dense star clusters is modeled by high-accuracy direct $N$-body simulation. The time evolution of the stellar tidal disruption rate, the effect of tidal disruption on the…
Cool weakly ionized gaseous rotating disk, are considered by many models as the origin of the evolution of protoplanetary clouds. Instabilities against perturbations in such disks play an important role in the theory of the formation of…
We present a phenomenological model for understanding the origins and evolution of galaxy morphologies from a phenomenological perspective. The model includes an observationally motivated prescription for star formation in galaxy disks, as…
These notes aim to provide an introduction to the basics of black hole thermodynamics. After explaining Bekenstein's original proposal that black holes have entropy, we discuss Hawking's discovery of black hole radiation, its analog for…
We use numerical stochastic-viscous hydrodynamic simulations and new analytical results from thin disc theory to probe the turbulent variability of accretion flows, as observed at high energies. We show that the act of observing accretion…
The well-known ``displace, cut, and reflect'' method used to generate cold disks from given solutions of Einstein equations is extended to solutions of Einstein-Maxwell equations. Four exact solutions of the these last equations are used to…
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) mark a regime where traditional vacuum models fail to capture the full dynamics, especially due to interaction between stellar debris and pre-existing accretion disks. We…
The optical spectral energy distributions of two tidal disruption flares identified by van Velzen et al. (2011) in archival SDSS data, are found to be well-fit by a thin-accretion-disk model. Furthermore, the inferred Supermassive Black…
The nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy offers many opportunities for effective and inspirational astronomy outreach. Gravitational waves, the "ripples in space-time" predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity, are…
Models postulating the existence of additional spacelike dimensions of macroscopic or even infinite size, while viewing our observable universe as merely a 3-brane living in a higher-dimensional bulk were a major breakthrough when proposed…
The hydrodynamics of low-angular-momentum, multi-transonic, axisymmetric, inviscid accretion flow onto a rotating black hole has been systematically investigated using three distinct disc geometries and two thermodynamic equations of state,…
Black holes are a common feature of the Universe. They are observed as stellar mass black holes spread throughout galaxies and as supermassive objects in their centres. Observations of stars orbiting close to the centre of our Galaxy…
We perform 3D general relativistic smoothed particle hydrodynamics (GRSPH) simulations of tidal disruption events involving 1 $M_\odot$ stars and $10^6 M_\odot$ rotating supermassive black holes. We consider stars on initially elliptical…
Nuclear spirals can provide a wealth of information about the nuclear potential in disc galaxies. They are unlikely to form in nuclei with solid-body rotation, yet they are present in a majority of galactic centres. Their morphology varies…