Related papers: The Nuclear Disk in M87: A Review
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images and spectra of the nucleated dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 205 are combined with 3-integral axisymmetric dynamical models to constrain the mass (M_BH) of a putative nuclear black hole. This is only the…
We investigate the presence of a central black hole (BH) in B023-G078, M31's most massive globular cluster. We present high-resolution, adaptive-optics assisted, integral-field spectroscopic kinematics from Gemini/NIFS that shows a strong…
A maximum likelihood analysis of the NGC 4258 maser positions and velocities reveals a ~2 sigma deviation from Keplerian motion in the projected rotation curve of the high-velocity features, corresponding to a ~9 km/s, or 0.8%, flattening…
We present the results of a new HI, optical, and H-alpha interferometric study of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 157. Our combined C- and D-array observations with the VLA show a large-scale, ring-like structure in the neutral hydrogen…
Several examples of thin, Keplerian, sub-parsec megamaser disks have been discovered in the nuclei of active galaxies and used to precisely determine the mass of their host black holes. We show that there is an empirical linear correlation…
The M31 nucleus contains a supermassive black hole embedded in a massive stellar disk of apsidally-aligned eccentric orbits. It has recently been shown that this disk is slowly precessing at a rate consistent with zero. Here we demonstrate…
The Circumnuclear Disk (CND) is a torus of dust and molecular gas rotating about the galactic centre and extending from approximately 1.6pc to 7pc from the central massive black hole, SgrA*. Large Velocity Gradient modelling of the…
Context: Accreting black holes (BHs) may be surrounded by a highly magnetized plasma threaded by a poloidal magnetic field. Non-thermal flares and high energy components could originate from a hot, collisionless and nearly force-free…
We calculate the structure of accretion disk around a spinning black hole for accretion rates 0.01 - 10 M_sun/s. The model is fully relativistic and treats accurately the disk microphysics including neutrino emissivity, opacity, electron…
The silhouette cast by the horizon of the supermassive black hole in M87 can now be resolved with the emerging millimeter very-long baseline interferometry (VLBI) capability. Despite being ~2000 times farther away than SgrA* (the…
There is now dynamical evidence for massive dark objects at the center of several galaxies, but suggestions that these are supermassive black holes are based only on indirect astrophysical arguments. The recent unprecedented measurement of…
We report on high angular resolution polarimetric observations of the nearby radio galaxy M87 using the Very Long Baseline Array at 24 GHz ($\lambda=$1.3 cm) and 43 GHz ($\lambda=$7 mm) in 2017-2018. New images of the linear polarization…
We analyze the nuclear stellar dynamics of the SB0 galaxy NGC 1023, utilizing observational data both from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope and from the ground. The stellar kinematics measured from…
We present high spatial resolution near-infrared spectra and images of the nucleus of Centaurus A (NGC 5128) obtained with NAOS-CONICA at the VLT. The adaptive optics corrected data have a spatial resolution of 0.06" (FWHM) in K- and 0.11"…
We investigate the dynamical evolution of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) in a nuclear star cluster hosting a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and both a spherical and a flattened disk-like distribution of stellar-mass objects. We use…
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has recently released the first image of a black hole (BH), opening a new window onto tests of general relativity in the strong field regime. In this paper, we derive constraints on the nature…
We present the first results from a 500 ksec Chandra ACIS-I observation of M87. At soft energies (0.5-1.0 keV), we detect filamentary structures associated with the eastern and southwestern X-ray and radio arms. Many filaments are spatially…
We present optical images of the nucleus of the nearby radio galaxy M84 (NGC 4374 = 3C272.1) obtained with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Our three images cover the H$\alpha$ + [N II]…
We present a kinematic study of the nuclear stellar disk in M31 at infrared wavelengths using high spatial resolution integral field spectroscopy. The spatial resolution achieved, FWHM = 0."12 (0.45 pc at the distance of M31), has only…
The long-term rates of change of all the Keplerian orbital elements of a two-body system acted upon by a remote massive pointlike object are analytically worked out, to the Newtonian quadrupolar level, without any restriction either on the…