The spin measurement of black holes in active galactic nucleus

Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei

Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei

The most viable scenario for modelling of active galactic nuclei includes a supermassive black hole (with the mass of 106−109 Solar masses) accreting the galaxian matter from its vicinity. The release of the gravitational energy of the infalling matter is ultimately responsible for the large radiative output of those objects, and in some cases, for formation and acceleration of powerful relativ...

The Masses of Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei

Reverberation mapping methods have been used to measure masses in about three dozen AGNs. The consistency of the virial masses computed from line widths and time delays, the relationship between black hole mass and host-galaxy stellar bulge velocity dispersion, and the consistency with black hole masses estimated from stellar dynamics in the two cases in which such determinations are possible a...

Masses of Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei

We present a progress report on a project whose goal is to improve both the precision and accuracy of reverberation-based blackhole masses. Reverberation masses appear to be accurate to a factor of about three, and the black-hole mass/bulge velocity dispersion (M–σ) relationship appears to be the same in active and quiescent galaxies. 1. The Importance of Reverberation Masses A detailed knowled...

Spin orientation of supermassive black holes in active galaxies

Accretion of gas onto a central supermassive black hole is generally accepted to be the source of the emitted energy in active galactic nuclei. The broad emission lines we observe in their optical spectra are probably formed in the wind of an accretion disk at distances of light days to light years from the central black hole. The variable fraction of the emission lines originates at typical di...