Related papers: QSO Lifetimes
Quasar (or QSO) elemental abundances provide unique probes of high-redshift star formation and galaxy evolution. There is growing evidence from both the emission and intrinsic absorption lines that QSO environments have roughly solar or…
A recent understanding on how quantum effects may affect black-hole evolution opens new scenarios for dark matter, in connection with the presence of black holes in the very early universe. Quantum fluctuations of the geometry allow for…
The purpose of this contribution is to review the current status of black hole demographics in light of recent advances in the study of high redshift QSOs (section 2), local AGNs (section 3) and local quiescent galaxies (section 4). I will…
The rise and the fall of the QS population are explained in terms of massive black holes forming/accreting during the assemblage of the host galaxies, and of accretion rekindled by interactions of the host with companions in a group. We…
Previous work on the quasar mass-luminosity plane indicates the possibility that quasars of the same central black hole mass might follow a common evolutionary track, independent of the properties of the host galaxy. We consider two simple…
A power-law time-dependent lightcurve for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is expected by the self-regulated black hole growth scenario, in which the feedback of AGNs expels gas and shut down accretion. This is also supported by the observed…
We present detailed clustering measurements from the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ) in the redshift range 0.8<z<2.1. Using a flux limited sample of ~14,000 objects with effective redshift z_eff=1.47, we estimate the quasar projected…
We present direct observational constraints on tachyons; particles with group velocity greater than $c$ in vacuum in a Lorentz invariant theory. Since tachyons may have no direct couplings to Standard Model particles, the most robust and…
While the dynamical origin of the variability observed in Galactic Black hole systems, such as quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs), are still a matter of debate, insight into the radiative components responsible for such behaviour can be…
We first present new Subaru narrow-band observations of the Ly$\alpha$ halo around the quasi-stellar object (QSO) CFHQ J232908$-$030158 at $z=6.42$, which appears the most luminous and extended halo at $z>5$ ($L_{Ly\alpha}=9.8\times10^{43}$…
Charged extremal black holes cannot fully evaporate through the Hawking effect and are thus long lived. Over their lifetimes, these black holes take part in a variety of astrophysical processes, including many that lead to their eventual…
Non-steady and eruptive phenomena in quasars are thought to be associated with the Eddington or super-Eddington luminous stage. Although there is no lack in hypotheses about the total duration of such a stage, the latter remains essentially…
During the last two decades solutions of black holes with various types of "hair" have been discovered. Remarkably, it has been established that many of these hairy black holes are unstable-- under small perturbations the hair may collapse.…
We consider the evolution of primordial black holes in a generalyzed Jordan-Brans-Dicke cosmological model where both the Brans-Dicke scalar field and its coupling to gravity are dynamical functions determined from the evolution equations.…
We combine the QSO samples from the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ) and the 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey (2SLAQ) in order to investigate the clustering of z~1.4 QSOs and measure the correlation function. The clustering signal in z-space,…
The effects of Wheeler's quantum foam on black hole growth are explored from an astrophysical perspective. Quantum fluctuations in the form of mini (10^-5 g) black holes can couple to macroscopic black holes and allow the latter to grow…
In a multi-wavelength survey of $13$ quasars at $5.8\lesssim z\lesssim6.5$, that were pre-selected to be potentially young, we find five objects with extremely small proximity zone sizes that may imply UV-luminous quasar lifetimes of…
The tight relationship between the masses of black holes and galaxy spheroids in nearby galaxies implies a causal connection between the growth of these two components. Optically luminous quasars host the most prodigious accreting black…
We study the growth of black holes and stellar population in spheroids at high redshift using several (sub)mm-loud QSO samples. Applying the same criteria established in an earlier work, we find that, similar to IR QSOs at low redshift, the…
In this work, we probe the well known thermodynamic phase structure of black hole through the lens of its quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs). Can QPOs be influenced by black hole phase transitions? Do they carry any signature of such…