Related papers: Black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei: observation…
Blazars are Active Galactic Nuclei characterized by relativistic jets launched in the vicinity of the central engine (i.e. a supermassive black hole), that are oriented close to our line of sight. Their peculiar orientation makes them very…
According to the currently favored picture, relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are launched in the vicinity of the black hole by magnetic fields extracting energy from the spinning black hole or the accretion disk. In 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 active galactic nucleus (AGN) phenomena results from a supermassive black hole accreting its surrounding gaseous and dusty material. The infrared (IR) regime provides most of the information to characterize the dusty structures that…
We discuss accretion flows on massive black holes in which different elements of the flow (clumps) have velocities that may differ substantially. We estimate the consequence of collisions between these clumps as they come close to the…
The nuclear regions of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) likely host clumpy clouds that occasionally obscure the central X-ray source, causing eclipse events. These events offer a unique opportunity to study the properties and origins of such…
We review ASCA results on a search for low luminosity active nuclei at the center of nearby normal galaxies. More than a dozen low-luminosity AGN have been discovered with 2-10 keV luminosity in the range 10^{40-41} ergs/s. Their X-ray…
Super-Massive Black Holes reside in galactic nuclei, where they exhibit episodic bright flares due to accretion events. Taking into account relativistic effects, namely, the boosting and lensing of X-ray flares, we further examine the…
The massive black hole (BH) population in dwarf galaxies ($M_{\rm BH} \lesssim 10^5~M_\odot$) can provide strong constraints on the origin of BH seeds. However, traditional optical searches for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) only reliably…
We investigate the possible presence of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in dwarf galaxies and other nearby galaxies to identify candidates for follow-up confirmation and dynamical mass measurements. We use the Wide-field Infrared Survey…
We review the recent multifrequency studies of galactic black hole binaries, aiming at revealing the underlying emission processes and physical properties in these systems. The optical and infrared observations are important for determining…
An introduction is given to a meeting on the role of massive and stellar black holes in powering non-thermal activity in a rich variety of cosmic sources. Relevant properties of magnetized, spinning black holes are summarized and their…
We present an analysis of the optical nuclear spectra from the active galactic nuclei (AGN) in a sample of giant low surface brightness (GLSB) galaxies. GLSB galaxies are extreme late type spirals that are large, isolated and poorly evolved…
Variability of active galactic nuclei is not well understood. One possible explanation is existence of supermassive binary black holes (SMBBH) in their centres. It is expected that major mergers are common in the Universe. It is expected…
Black holes are popping up all over the place: in compact binary X-ray sources and GRBs, in quasars, AGNs and the cores of all bulge galaxies, in binary black holes and binary black hole-neutron stars, and maybe even in the LHC! Black holes…
The empirical relationship between the broad line region size and the source luminosity in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is used to obtain black holes (BH) masses for a large number of quasars in three samples. The largests BH masses found…
A mass correlation of central black holes and their spheroids ~0.002(within a factor of three) is suggested by Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and various ground-based CCD photometries of early type galaxies. The near-IR images of quasar hosts…
We investigate the triggering mechanism and the structural properties of obscured luminous active galactic nuclei from a detailed study of the rest-frame $B$ and $I$ HST images of 29 nearby ($z\approx 0.04-0.4$) optically selected type 2…
The highly energetic outflows from Active Galactic Nuclei detected in X-rays are one of the most powerful mechanisms by which the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) interacts with the host galaxy. The last two decades of high resolution…
There is strong observational evidence that AGN, Galactic X-ray transients and (probably) $\gamma$-ray bursts are associated with black holes, and that these sources are able to form collimated, ultrarelativistic outflows. There is much…