Related papers: The AGN-Disk Dynamics Connection
The growth of black holes (BHs) in disk galaxies lacking classical bulges, which implies an absence of significant mergers, appears to be driven by secular processes. Short bars of sub-kiloparsec radius have been hypothesized to be an…
(Abridged) We review the results of the first multi-scale, hydrodynamical simulations of mergers between galaxies with central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) to investigate the formation of SMBH binaries in galactic nuclei. We demonstrate…
Stellar bars are a common feature in massive disc galaxies. On a theoretical ground, the response of gas to a bar is generally thought to cause nuclear starbursts and, possibly, AGN activity once the perturbed gas reaches the central…
Observations of distant bright quasars suggest that billion solar mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs) were already in place less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Models in which light black hole seeds form by the collapse of…
The central regions of disk galaxies are hosts to supermassive black holes whose masses show a tight correlation with the properties of surrounding stellar bulges. While the exact origin of this dependency is not clear, it can be related to…
The dense and gaseous environments of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can catalyze repeated mergers of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), potentially explaining the high-mass tail of binary black hole (BBH) mergers observed by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA…
A fundamental role is attributed to supermassive black holes (SMBH), and the feedback they generate, in the evolution of galaxies. But theoretical models trying to reproduce the relation between the SMBH mass and stellar velocity dispersion…
The influence of central black holes on the dynamical evolution of bars in disk galaxies is examined. In particular, we use numerical simulation to estimate the minimum mass black hole (BH) needed to destroy a bar. Initially, bars form in…
Steady state accretion discs larger than ~ 0.01-0.1 pc are known to be gravitationally unstable for the accretion rates needed to explain super-massive black hole (SMBH) activity. We propose that SMBH are fed by a succession of mass…
The Galactic center stellar disk and the circumnuclear ring provide a unique opportunity to study in detail the dynamics and physical conditions of distant molecular disks in the nuclei of galaxies. One of the key questions is how these…
The recently confirmed correlation between the mass of SMBH and bulges of galaxies (and their central velocity dispersion), suggest a common formation scenario for galaxies and their central black holes. Common fueling can be invoked…
We explore the evolution of stellar mass black hole binaries (BHBs) which are formed in the self-gravitating disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Hardening due to three-body scattering and gaseous drag are effective mechanisms that reduce…
Recent Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations have revealed that a majority of active galactic nuclei (AGN) at z ~ 1-3 are resident in isolated disk galaxies, contrary to the usual expectation that AGN are triggered by mergers. Here we…
The merger rate of stellar-mass black hole binaries (sBHBs) inferred by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) suggests the need for an efficient source of sBHB formation. Active galactic nucleus (AGN) disks…
We report idealized simulations that mimic the growth of galaxy disks embedded in responsive halos and bulges. The disks manifested an almost overwhelming tendency to form strong bars that we found very difficult to prevent. We found that…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have been detected in the centers of most nearby massive galaxies. Galaxies today are the products of billions of years of galaxy mergers, but also billions of years of SMBH activity as active galactic…
The majority of massive black holes (MBHs) likely hosted gas discs during their lifetimes. These could either be long-lived active galactic nuclei (AGN) discs, or shorter-lived discs formed following singular gas infall events, as was…
We present a study on the dynamics of massive BHs in galaxy mergers, obtained from a series of high-resolution N-Body/SPH simulations. The presence of a gaseous component is essential for the rapid formation of an eccentric (Keplerian) BH…
The characteristics of the galactic bars that are prone to suffer a damaging impact from a massive central black hole are examined using flat stellar disks. We construct three disk model groups that consist of exponential disks with one…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are a ubiquitous component of the nuclei of galaxies. It is normally assumed that, following the merger of two massive galaxies, a SMBH binary will form, shrink due to stellar or gas dynamical processes and…