Related papers: Determining sub-parsec supermassive black hole bin…
The specific characteristic of the SED of serendipitously discovered post-AGB binaries, allowed us to launch a very extensive multi-wavelength study of evolved objects, selected on the basis of very specific selection criteria. Those…
When binary black holes are embedded in a gaseous environment, a rotating disk surrounding them, the so-called circumbinary disk, will be formed. The binary exerts a gravitational torque on the circumbinary disk and thereby the orbital…
The optical and UV emission from sub-parsec massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to vary periodically, on timescales comparable to the binary's orbital time. If driven by accretion rate…
Ongoing ground-based radial-velocity observations seeking to detect circumbinary planets focus on single-lined binaries even though over nine in every ten binary systems in the solar-neighbourhood are double-lined. Double-lined binaries are…
Sub-parsec (sub-pc) binary supermassive black holes (BSBHs) should be common from galaxy mergers, yet direct evidence has been elusive. We present HST/WFC3IR F160W imaging for a sample of 8 candidate sub-pc BSBHs at redshifts z~0.1--0.5, as…
Astrometric observations of resolved binaries provide estimates of orbital periods and will eventually lead to measurement of dynamical masses. Only a few very low mass star and brown dwarf masses have been measured to date, and the…
We present fully relativistic predictions for the electromagnetic emission produced by accretion disks surrounding spinning and nonspinning supermassive binary black holes on the verge of merging. We use the code Bothros to post-process…
One objective of the Polstar spectropolarimetry mission is to characterize the degree of nonconservative mass transfer that occurs at various stages of binary evolution, from the initial mass reversal to the late Algol phase. The proposed…
We present a new dynamical study of the black hole X-ray transient GRS1915+105 making use of near-infrared spectroscopy obtained with X-shooter at the VLT. We detect a large number of donor star absorption features across a wide range of…
We present the first near-IR milli-arcsecond-scale image of a post-AGB binary that is surrounded by hot circumbinary dust. A very rich interferometric data set in six spectral channels was acquired of IRAS08544-4431 with the new RAPID…
Recent advances in technology coupled with the progress of observational radio astronomy methods resulted in achieving a major milestone of astrophysics - a direct image of the shadow of a supermassive black hole, taken by the Earth-based…
Interferometry provides one of the possible routes to ultra-high angular resolution for X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy. Sub-micro-arc-second angular resolution, necessary to achieve objectives such as imaging the regions around the event…
In this paper, we investigate the interferometric signatures of hairy Schwarzschild black holes (hSBHs) that have either single or double photon spheres. Our interest mainly stems from two considerations: (i) the photon ring structure in…
We study a novel electromagnetic signature of supermassive black hole binaries whose inspiral starts being dominated by gravitational wave (GW) emission. Recent simulations suggest that the binary's member BHs can continue to accrete gas…
Black holes in X-ray binaries are often assumed to be rotating perpendicular to the plane of the accretion disk and parallel to the orbital plane of the binary. While the Bardeen-Petterson effect forces the inner part of the accretion disk…
The gravitational waves from Massive black-hole (MBH) binaries are expected to be detected by pulsar timing arrays in the next few years. While they are a promising source for multimessenger observations as binary AGN, few convincing…
Transition disks have large central cavities that have been spatially resolved during recent years. Cavities and other substructures in circumstellar disks are often interpreted as signposts to massive companions. We aim to search for…
Horizon-scale imaging with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has provided transformative insights into supermassive black holes but its resolution and scope are limited by ground-based constraints such as the size of the Earth, its…
We show that a 10 year Gaia mission could astrometrically detect the orbital motion of ~1 sub-parsec separation supermassive black hole binary in the heart of nearby, bright active galactic nuclei (AGN). Candidate AGN lie out to a redshift…
Recent X-ray timing and spectral observations of black hole binaries in outburst have redefined methods for investigating the properties of Galactic black holes and the physics of accretion flows. High-frequency X-ray QPOs in 5 systems…