Related papers: Stellar processes near AGN
Strong iron lines are a common feature of the optical spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and quasars from $z\sim 6-7$ to the local Universe, and [Fe/Mg] ratios do not show cosmic evolution. During active episodes, accretion disks…
Active Galactic Nuclei can produce extremely powerful jets. While tightly collimated, the scale of these jets and the stellar density at galactic centers implies that there will be many jet/star interactions, which can mass-load the jet…
The brightest steady sources of radiation in the universe, active galactic nuclei (AGN), are powered by gas accretion onto a central supermassive black hole (SMBH). The large sizes and accretion rates implicated in AGN accretion disks are…
Observations at low redshift have begun to tease out the star formation rate in active galaxies (AGN), which marks the beginning of the black hole-star formation connection over cosmic time. Star formation appears to depend on AGN type,…
Over the last 15 years, around a hundred very young stars have been observed in the central parsec of our Galaxy. While the presence of young stars forming one or two stellar disks at approx. 0.1 pc from the supermassive black hole (SMBH)…
The presence of young massive stars orbiting on eccentric rings within a few tenths of a parsec of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic centre is challenging for theories of star formation. The high tidal shear from the black hole…
Radiation, winds and jets from the active nucleus of a massive galaxy can interact with its interstellar medium leading to ejection or heating of the gas. This can terminate star formation in the galaxy and stifle accretion onto the black…
We present a new implementation of the GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA) semi-analytic model, that features an improved modelling of the process of cold gas accretion onto supermassive black hole (SMBHs), derived from both analytic…
Galactic outflows, driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN), play a crucial role in galaxy formation and in the self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes (BHs). AGN feedback couples to and affects gas, rather than stars, and in many,…
It is often assumed that the strong gravitational field of a super-massive black hole disrupts an adjacent molecular cloud preventing classical star formation in the deep potential well of the black hole. Yet, young stars have been observed…
Both observational and theoretical evidence point at outflows originating from accretion disks as fundamental ingredients of active galactic nuclei (AGN). These outflows can have more than one component, for example an unbound supersonic…
Orientation of parsec-scale accretion disks in AGN is likely to be nearly random for different black hole feeding episodes. Since AGN accretion disks are unstable to self-gravity on parsec scales, star formation in these disks will create…
Star-forming disc galaxies such as the Milky Way need to accrete $\gsim$ 1 $M_{\odot}$ of gas each year to sustain their star formation. This gas accretion is likely to come from the cooling of the hot corona, however it is still not clear…
High resolution X-ray spectroscopy of the hot gas in galaxy clusters has shown that the gas is not cooling to low temperatures at the predicted rates of hundreds to thousands of solar masses per year. X-ray images have revealed giant…
The putative dusty torus is a key ingredient of the unification scheme of active galactic nuclei (AGN), but its origin remains a mystery. Here we put forward a new physical model to explain how a large number of small dusty gas clumps form…
We propose a plausible mechanism to explain the formation of the so-called "obscuring tori" around active galactic nuclei (AGNs) based on three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations including radiative feedback from the central source. The…
The "torus" obscurer of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is poorly understood in terms of its density, substructure and physical mechanisms. Large X-ray surveys provide model boundary constraints, for both Compton-thin and Compton-thick levels…
The material surrounding accreting supermassive black holes connects the active galactic nucleus (AGN) with its host galaxy and, besides being responsible for feeding the black hole, provides important information on the feedback that…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are highly energetic astrophysical sources powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes in galaxies, which present unique observational signatures covering the full electromagnetic spectrum (and more) over…
We develop a model for the outer gravitationally unstable regions of accretion disks around massive black holes, for primeval or solar abundances. First we study star formation and evolution in a purely gaseous marginally unstable disk, and…