Related papers: AGN Light Echoes and the Accretion Disc Self-Gravi…
The hard X-ray emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to originate from the hot coronae above the cold accretion discs. The hard X-ray spectral index is found to be correlated with the Eddington ratio, and the hard X-ray…
We study the influence of a strong AGN outburst on the surrounding galaxies. The AGN is assumed to reside in a group of galaxies, and an outburst excites a shock wave in the hot gas in the group. We calculate the impact of the shock wave on…
Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CLAGN) feature order-of-magnitude variability in both the continuum and broad line luminosities on months-to-years long timescales, and are currently unexplained. Simulations have demonstrated that…
Many Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are surrounded by gas which absorbs the radiation produced by accretion onto the central black hole and obscures the nucleus from direct view. The dust component of the gas greatly enhances the effect of…
During the final phases of inspiral, a massive black hole (MBH) binary experiences a recoil due to the asymmetric emission of gravitational waves. We use recent results from numerical relativity simulations together with models of the…
We collate active galactic nuclei (AGN) with reported detections of both relativistic reflection and ultra-fast outflows. By comparing the inclination of the inner disc from reflection with the line-of-sight velocity of the outflow, we show…
Self-gravity becomes competitive as an angular momentum transport process in accretion discs at large radii, where the temperature is low enough that external irradiation likely contributes to the thermal balance. Irradiation is known to…
We investigate the process of rapid star formation quenching in a sample of 12 massive galaxies at intermediate redshift (z~0.6) that host high-velocity ionized gas outflows (v>1000 km/s). We conclude that these fast outflows are most…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are intensely accreting supermassive black holes at the centers of massive galaxies. Though these objects occupy little spatial extent of the galaxy itself, they are thought to have far reaching affects,…
The nuclei of most normal galaxies contain supermassive black holes, which can accrete gas through a disk and become active. These Active Galactic Nuclei, AGN, can form jets which are observed on scales from AU to Mpc and from meter…
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are occasionally seen in pairs, suggesting that tidal encounters are responsible for the accretion of material by both central supermassive black holes (BHs). In Paper I of this series, we selected a sample of…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are believed to be powered by accretion of matter onto a supermassive black hole. A fundamental ingredient in shaping our understanding of AGN is their variability across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.…
After reviewing the basic physics of X-ray reflection in AGN, we present three case studies which illustrate the current state of X-ray reflection studies. For the low-luminosity AGN NGC4258, we find that the iron line is much narrower than…
Observational evidence accumulated over the past decade indicates that accretion discs in X-ray binaries are viscously stable unless they accrete very close to the Eddington limit. This is at odds with the most basic standard accretion disc…
We present the identification and analysis of an unbiased sample of AGN that lie within the local galaxy population. Using the MPA-JHU catalogue (based on SDSS DR8) and 3XMM DR7 we define a parent sample of 25,949 local galaxies ($z \leq…
Thick discs are nearly ubiquitous components of the discs of present-day galaxies. It has been proposed that a fraction of their stars has been accreted. Here, we aim to find whether accretion of satellites is the main thick disc formation…
Mrk 590 is a known changing-look AGN which almost turned off in 2012, and then in 2017 partially re-ignited into a repeat flaring state, unusual for an AGN. Our \emph{Swift} observations since 2013 allow us to characterise the…
We discuss the effects of strong gravity on the polarization properties of a black hole accretion disc. The intrinsic polarization is computed taking into account light scattered on the disc surface and using different approximations. The…
The colossal power output of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to be fueled by the accretion of matter onto a supermassive black hole. This central accreting region of AGN has hitherto been spatially unresolved and its structure…
Over the last few years X-ray observations of broad-line radio galaxies (BLRGs) by ASCA, RXTE and BeppoSAX have shown that these objects seem to exhibit weaker X-ray reflection features (such as the iron K\alpha line) than radio-quiet…