Related papers: Black Holes in Active Galaxies
The AGN Black Hole Mass Database is a compilation of all published spectroscopic reverberation-mapping studies of active galaxies. We have created a public web interface, where users may get the most up-to-date black hole masses from…
There is overwhelming evidence for the presence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of most nearby galaxies. The mass estimates for these remnant black holes from the stellar kinematics of local galaxies and the quasar…
Models of superdense star clusters at the center of galaxies are investigated to see whether such objects can be stable and long-lived based on evaporation and collision time-scales and stability criteria. We find that physically reasonable…
Measuring of the masses of galactic supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is an important task, since they correlate with the host galaxy properties and play an important role in evolution of galaxies. Here we present a new method for measuring…
The supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy can be weighed, in rare but realistic cases, when the galaxy acts as a strong gravitational lens. The central image that should be produced by the lens is either destroyed or…
X-ray studies of high-redshift (z > 4) active galaxies have advanced substantially over the past few years, largely due to results from the new generation of X-ray observatories. As of this writing X-ray emission has been detected from…
Active galaxies contain a supermassive black hole at their center, which grows by accreting matter from the surrounding galaxy. The accretion process in the central ~10 parsecs has not been directly resolved in previous observations, due to…
We describe techniques for measuring the central masses of galaxies using emission-line kinematics observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. For accurate results, it is necessary to model various instrumental effects, particularly the…
We review the current state of dynamical modeling for galaxies in terms of being able to measure both the central black hole mass and stellar orbital structure. Both of these must be known adequately to measure either property. The current…
We analyze published reverberation mapping data for three Seyfert galaxies (NGC 3227, NGC 3516, and NGC 4593) to refine the mass estimate for the supermassive black hole in the center of each object. Treatment of the data in a manner more…
The masses of the supermassive black-holes found in galaxy bulges are correlated with a multitude of galaxy properties, leading to suggestions that galaxies and black-holes may evolve together. The number of reliably measured black-hole…
We review briefly direct and indirect methods of measuring the masses of black holes in galactic nuclei, and then focus attention on supermassive black holes in active nuclei, with special attention to results from reverberation mapping and…
Obscured or narrow-line active galaxies offer an unobstructed view of the quasar environment in the presence of a luminous and vigorously accreting black hole. We exploit the large new sample of optically selected luminous narrow-line…
Supermassive black holes have been discovered at the centers of galaxies, and also in globular clusters. The data shows correlations between the black hole mass and the elliptical galaxy mass or globular cluster mass. It is shown that this…
The masses of the central black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) can be estimated using the broad emission-lines as a probe of the virial mass. Using reverberation mapping to determine the size of the Broad Line Region (BLR) and the…
The spectrum of the hard X-ray background records the history of accretion processes integrated over the cosmic time. Several observational and theoretical evidences indicate that a significant fraction of the energy density is obscured by…
The black hole mass function of supermassive black holes describes the evolution of the distribution of black hole mass. It is one of the primary empirical tools available for mapping the growth of supermassive black holes and for…
An empirical relationship, of particular interest for studies of high redshift active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and quasars, between the masses of their central black-holes and rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) parameters measured in single-epoch…
A tight correlation of black hole mass and central velocity dispersion has been found recently for both active and quiescent galaxies. By applying this correlation, we develop a simple method to derive the inclination angles for a sample of…
A significant fraction of local galaxies show evidence of nuclear activity. I argue that the bulk of this activity, while energetically not remarkable, derives from accretion onto a central massive black hole. The statistics of nearby…