Related papers: High Redshift Supermassive Black Holes: X-ray obse…
Ever since the discovery of the first Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), substantial observational and theoretical effort has been invested into understanding how massive black holes have evolved across cosmic time. Circum-nuclear obscuration is…
Recent models of super-massive black hole (SMBH) and host galaxy joint evolution predict the presence of a key phase where accretion, traced by obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) emission, is coupled with powerful star formation. Then…
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…
Most of the local active galactic nucleus (AGN) population is obscured and much of the X-ray background originates in obscured AGNs. The contribution of obscured accretion to the growth of massive black holes is discussed here. The recent…
The low-mass end of the supermassive black hole mass function is unknown and difficult to determine. Here we discuss our successful program to find active nuclei of late type "normal" galaxies using X-ray detections and multiwavelength…
Accretion is a universal astrophysical process that plays a key role in cosmic history, from the epoch of reionization to galaxy and stellar formation and evolution. Accreting stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries are one of the best…
We examine the X-ray - radio correlation in Galactic black hole sources. We highlight some of the results which extend the flux-flux relations to sources with very high accretion rates. Some of the recent results indicate that the…
Thanks to extensive observations with X-ray missions and facilities working in other wavelengths, as well as rapidly--advancing numerical simulations of accretion flows, our knowledge of astrophysical black holes has been remarkably…
We compare all the available observational data on the redshift evolution of the total stellar mass and star formation rate density in the Universe with the mass and accretion rate density evolution of supermassive black holes, estimated…
The quiescent state is the dominant accretion mode for black holes on all mass scales. Our knowledge of the X-ray spectrum is limited due to the characteristic low luminosity in this state. Herein, we present an analysis of the sample of…
Accretion disks around stellar-mass black holes offer unique opportunities to study the fundamental physics of standard thin disks, super-Eddington disks, and structure that may be connected to flux variability. These local analogues of…
X-ray spectral modeling is a powerful tool for studying the immediate environment of accreting objects, including supermassive black holes. Several models, either phenomenological or physically driven, have been developed over the past…
Recent X-ray timing and spectral observations of black hole binaries in outburst have redefined methods for investigating the properties of Galactic black holes and the physics of accretion flows. High-frequency X-ray QPOs in 5 systems…
Luminous accreting stellar mass and supermassive black holes produce power-law continuum X-ray emission from a compact central corona. Reverberation time lags occur due to light travel time-delays between changes in the direct coronal…
The properties of X-ray emission from accreting black holes are reviewed. The contemporary observational picture and current status of theoretical understanding of accretion and formation of X-ray radiation in the vicinity of the compact…
The deep X-ray surveys performed by the two major X-ray observatories on flight, Chandra and XMM, are being resolving the bulk of the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) in the 2-10 keV energy band, where the sky flux is dominated by…
We review results from cosmic X-ray surveys of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) over the past ~ 15 yr that have dramatically improved our understanding of growing supermassive black holes in the distant universe. First, we discuss the utility…
Many upcoming surveys, particularly in the radio and optical domains, are designed to probe either the temporal and/or the spatial variability of a range of astronomical objects. In the light of these high resolution surveys, we review the…
The luminosities of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) require an exotic solution with either super-critical accretion modes onto stellar mass black holes or sub-critical accretion onto intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) being invoked.…
Over the last decades X-ray spectroscopy has proven to be a powerful tool for the estimation of black hole spin and several other key parameters in dozens of AGN and black hole X-ray binaries. In this White Paper, we discuss the…