In classical loss cone theory, stars are supplied to a central black hole via gravitational scattering onto low angular momentum orbits. Higher feeding rates are possible if the gravitational potential near the black hole is non-axisymmetric and the orbits are chaotic. Motivated by recently published, self-consistent models, we evaluate rates of stellar capture and disruption in triaxial nuclei...

Understanding the end state of black hole evaporation, the microscopic origin of black hole entropy, the information loss paradox, and the nature of the singularity arising in gravitational collapse these are outstanding challenges for any candidate quantum theory of gravity. Recently, a midisuperspace model of quantum gravitational collapse has been solved using a lattice regularization scheme...

Special and general relativistic effects on the X-ray emissions, especially the continuum spectra, from the accretion disks around black holes are investigated using the ray-tracing method. Because both the special and general relativistic effects are more important at distances closer to the black hole, the relativistic modifications to the emitted X-ray spectra are more significant at higher ...

In our program of studying numerically the so-called Bondi-Hoyle accretion in the fully relativistic regime, we present here first results concerning the evolution of matter accreting supersonically onto a rotating (Kerr) black hole. These computations generalize previous results where the non-rotating (Schwarzschild) case was extensively considered. We parametrize our initial data by the asymp...

We present spatially extended gas kinematics at parsec-scale resolution for the nuclear regions of four nearby disk galaxies, and model them as rotation of a gas disk in the joint potential of the stellar bulge and a putative central black hole. The targets were selected from a larger set of long-slit spectra obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Survey of Nearby Nuclei with S...

We report the detection of Sgr A*, the radio source associated with our Galaxy’s central massive black hole, at 330 MHz with the Very Large Array. Implications for the spectrum and emission processes of Sgr A* are discussed and several hypothetical geometries of the central region are considered. Subject headings: Galaxy: center — Galaxy: nucleus