Related papers: VSOP Observations of a Sub-Parsec Accretion Disk
The physical conditions in the inner parsec of accretion disks believed to orbit the central black holes in active galactic nuclei can be probed by imaging the absorption (by ionized gas in the disk) of background emission from a radio…
The structure of AGN accretion disks on sub-parsec scales can be probed through free-free absorption of synchrotron emission from the base of symmetric radio jets. We present new VLBA observations of the nearby FR-I radio galaxy NGC 4261 at…
We observed the nuclear region of NGC 4261 (3C270) with the VLBA at two frequencies (1.6 and 8.4 GHz) simultaneously. We find that the position angle of the parsec-scale radio axis agrees, within the errors, with the position angle of the…
NGC 4261 (3C 270) is a low-luminosity radio galaxy with two symmetric kiloparsec-scale jets. Earlier Hubble Space Telescope observations indicated the presence of a hundred-parsec scale disk of cool dust and gas surrounding a central,…
The clumpy maser disks observed in some galactic nuclei mark the outskirts of the accretion disk that fuels the central black hole and provide a potential site of nuclear star formation. Unfortunately, most of the gas in maser disks is…
Very-long-baseline interferometry can image the parsec-scale structure of radio jets, but the accretion disk close to the black hole remains invisible. One way to probe this accretion flow is provided by X-ray flux density monitoring and…
It seems to be a widely accepted opinion that the types of accretion disks (or flows) generally realized in the nuclei of radio galaxies and in further lower mass-accretion rate nuclei are inner, hot, optically thin, radiatively inefficient…
Observations of Galactic black hole sources are traditionally done in the classical X-ray range (2 -- 10 keV) due to sensitivity constraints. Most of the accretion power, however, is radiated above 10 keV and the study of these sources in…
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…
The cold molecular gas in the circumnuclear disk (CND) of radio galaxies provides critical information for understanding the mass accretion onto active galactic nuclei. We present the first detection and maps of HCN J=1-0 and HCO+ J=1-0…
We have used the VLBA to produce a high dynamic range image of the nucleus of NGC 6251 at 1.6 GHz and snapshot images at 5.0, 8.4, and 15.3 GHz to search for emission from a parsec-scale counterjet. Previous VLBI images at 1.6 GHz have set…
We consider the implications of recent infrared and radio observations of the nucleus of NGC 4258. There is no direct evidence that the nucleus has been steadily accreting on the viscous timescale of the outer masing disk, which is >~ 10^9…
Orientation of parsec-scale accretion disks in AGN is likely to be nearly random for different black hole feeding episodes. Since AGN accretion disks are unstable to self-gravity on parsec scales, star formation in these disks will create…
We report on the X-ray properties of the radio galaxy NGC 4261, combining information from the XMM, Chandra, and SAX satellites. Goals of this study are to investigate the origin of the X-rays from this low-power radio galaxy and the nature…
We report multifrequency phase-referenced observations of the nearby radio galaxy NGC 4261, which has prominent two-sided jets, using the Very Long Baseline Array at 1.4-43 GHz. We measured radio core positions showing observing frequency…
Active galaxies contain a supermassive black hole at their center, which grows by accreting matter from the surrounding galaxy. The accretion process in the central ~10 parsecs has not been directly resolved in previous observations, due to…
Nearly simultaneous VLBA observations of 3C 84, the radio source associated with NGC 1275, have been made at multiple frequencies to study the free-free absorption of the northern, or "counterjet", feature found by Walker, Romney, and…
In order to constrain the properties of dense and warm gas around active galactic nuclei, we have searched Infrared Space Observatory spectra of local active galactic nuclei for the signature of the 4.7micron fundamental ro-vibrational band…
Traditionlly, gravitational wave emission from a coalescing binary system is computed using point mass approximations without considering any accretion disk. However, it is believed that in many of the galactic nuclei, there are…
Gas falling quasi-spherically onto a black hole forms an inner accretion disc if its specific angular momentum $l$ exceeds $\lmin\sim r_gc$ where $r_g$ is the Schwarzschild radius. The standard disc model assumes $l\gg\lmin$. We argue that,…