Related papers: High Redshift Supermassive Black Holes: X-ray obse…
The cosmic X-ray background (CXB), which peaks at an energy of ~30 keV, is produced primarily by emission from accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The CXB therefore serves as a constraint on the integrated SMBH growth in the…
The discoveries made over the past 20 years by Chandra and XMM-Newton surveys in conjunction with multiwavelength imaging and spectroscopic data available in the same fields have significantly changed the view of the supermassive black hole…
Long X-ray observations of bright Active Galactic Nuclei show that X-ray eclipses, with durations from a few hours to a few days, are rather common. This opens up a new window of opportunity in the search for signatures of relativistic…
We place firm upper limits on the global accretion history of massive black holes at z>5 from the recently measured unresolved fraction of the cosmic X-ray background. The maximum allowed unresolved intensity observed at 1.5 keV implies a…
The X-ray spectra of accreting stellar-mass black hole systems exhibit spectral features due to reflection, especially broad iron K alpha emission lines. We investigate the reflection by the accretion disc that can be expected in the…
The X-ray emission of neutron stars and black holes presents a rich phenomenology that can lead us to a better understanding of their nature and to address more general physics questions: Does general relativity apply in the strong gravity…
The spin distribution of massive black holes (MBHs) contains rich information on their assembly history. However, only limited information can be extracted from currently available spin measurements of MBHs owing to the small sample size…
Accreting black holes are believed to emit X-rays which then mediate information about strong gravity in the vicinity of the emission region. We report on a set of new routines for the Xspec package for analysing X-ray spectra of black-hole…
This paper surveys our current knowledge of the hard X-ray emission properties of old accreting neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries. Hard X-ray components extending up to energies of a few hundred keV have been clearly detected in…
Astronomers have discovered many potential black holes in X-ray binaries and galactic nuclei. These black holes are usually identified by the fact that they are too massive to be neutron stars. Until recently, however, there was no…
Astronomers have discovered many potential black holes in X-ray binaries and galactic nuclei. These black holes are usually identified by the fact that they are too massive to be neutron stars. Until recently, however, there was no…
Recent advances in the X-ray and soft gamma-ray observations of accreting black holes and microquasars, in particular, are reviewed. The radiative processes responsible for the emission are discussed briefly. The hybrid thermal/nonthermal…
Deep X-ray surveys are providing crucial information on the evolution of AGN and galaxies. We review some of the latest results based on the X-ray spectral analysis of the sources detected in the Chandra Deep Field South, namely: i)…
X-ray reverberation echoes are assumed to be produced in the strongly distorted spacetime around accreting supermassive black holes. This signal allows us to spatially map the geometry of the inner accretion flow - a region which cannot yet…
Observed spectra of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and luminous X-ray binaries in our Galaxy suggest that both hot (~10^9 K) and cold (~10^6 K) plasma components exist close to the central accreting black hole. Hard X-ray component of the…
I review the status of observational determinations of central masses in nearby galactic nuclei. Results from a variety of techniques are summarized, including ground-based and space-based optical spectroscopy, radio VLBI measurements of…
Understanding the dynamics behind black hole state transitions and the changes they reflect in outbursts has become long-standing problem. The X-ray reflection spectrum describes the interaction between the hard X-ray source (the power-law…
The centers of elliptical galaxies host supermassive black holes that significantly affect the surrounding interstellar medium through feedback resulting from the accretion process. The evolution of this gas and of the nuclear emission…
The thesis is mainly devoted to the study of spectral and timing characteristics of the X-ray emission from Galactic black hole candidates GRS 1915+105, GX 339-4, 4U 1630-47, XTE J1748-288, GRS 1739-278, KS/GRS 1730-312 and GRS 1737-31. The…
The X-ray Background (XRB) probably originates from the integrated X-ray emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Modelling of its flat spectrum implies considerable absorption in most AGN. Compton down-scattering means that sources in…