Related papers: Is There a Disc in the Superluminal Quasars?
The flux of the [OIII] line is considered to be a good indicator of the bolometric emission of quasars. The observed continuum emission from the accretion disc should instead be strongly dependent on the inclination angle theta between the…
Recent hard X-ray spectroscopy of active galactic nuclei has strongly suggested that double-peaked, very broad Fe K emission arises from an accretion disk around the central engine. Model fitting of the observed Fe K emission line profile…
Microlensing by the stellar population of lensing galaxies provides an important opportunity to spatially resolve the accretion disc structure in strongly lensed quasars. Disc sizes estimated this way are on average larger than the…
Models of active galactic nuclei often invoke a close physical association between the broad-line region and the accretion disk. We evaluate this theoretical expectation by investigating the relationship between the inclination angle of the…
Given the anisotropic emission from quasar accretion discs, their viewing angle affects estimates of the quasar luminosity, black-hole mass and Eddington ratio. Discs appear overluminous when viewed pole-on and underluminous when viewed at…
A tight non-linear relation exists between the X-ray and UV emission in quasars (i.e. $L_{\rm X}\propto L_{\rm UV}^{\gamma}$), with a dispersion of $\sim$0.2~dex over $\sim$3~orders of magnitude in luminosity. Here we propose a modified…
Rapid, large amplitude variability at optical to X-ray wavelengths is now seen in an increasing number of Seyfert galaxies and luminous quasars. The variations imply a global change in accretion power, but are too rapid to be communicated…
We reexamine the hypothesis that the optical/UV/soft X-ray continuum of Active Galactic Nuclei is thermal emission from an accretion disk. Previous studies have shown that fitting the spectra with the standard, optically thick and…
We continue our study of the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 11 AGN at 1.5 < z < 2.2, with optical-NIR spectra, X-ray data and mid-IR photometry. In a previous paper we presented the observations and models; in this paper we explore…
Spectroscopy of X-ray emission lines emitted in accretion discs around supermassive black holes is one of the most powerful probes of the accretion flow physics and geometry, while also providing in principle observational constraints on…
The effect of the observed continuum emitted from a relativistic jet on the measurement of the full width half maximum (FWHM) of an emission line is analyzed. If the jet contribution is not properly subtracted, the FWHM of the line could…
We propose a modified version of the observed non-linear relation between the X-ray (2 keV) and the ultraviolet (2500 \AA) emission in quasars (i.e. $L_{\rm X}\propto L_{\rm UV}^{\gamma}$) which involves the full width at half-maximum,…
We show from modeling the Fe Kalpha line in the ASCA spectra of four X-ray bright narrow emission line galaxies (Seyfert types 1.9 and 2) that two equally viable physical models can describe the observed line profile. The first is discussed…
The broad iron K$\alpha$ emission line, commonly seen in the X-ray spectrum of Seyfert nuclei, is thought to originate when the inner accretion disk is illuminated by an active disk-corona. We show that relative motion between the disk and…
Continuum spectrum emitted by the accretion disk around quasars hold a wealth of information regarding the strong gravitational field produced by the massive central object. Such strong gravity regime is often expected to exhibit deviations…
An accretion flow onto a supermassive black hole is the primary process powering quasars. However, a geometry of this flow is not well constrained. Both global MHD simulations and observations suggest that there are several emission…
According to the standard model, an active galactic nucleus (AGN) consists of an inner accretion disk with a jet around a central massive black hole, and a number of outer broad line regions (BLRs) and narrow line regions (NLRs). The…
The presence of the warm absorber of considerable optical depth is seen in many AGN. We show that this medium may affect significantly the optical/UV spectrum of an AGN by backscattering a fraction of the total radiation flux towards the…
The thesis concerns the analysis of the Active Galactic Nuclei. These are galaxies with an active core. The most luminous type of Active Galactic Nuclei is Quasar. It contains the supermassive black hole at the center. One of the least…
Surprisingly, the relict cosmological constant has a crucial influence on properties of accretion discs orbiting black holes in quasars and active galactic nuclei. We show it by considering basic properties of both the geometrically thin…