The quasar SDSS J105041.35+345631.3 (z = 0.272) has broad emission lines blueshifted by 3500 km s relative to the narrow lines and the host galaxy. Such an object may be a candidate for a recoiling supermassive black hole, a binary black hole, a superposition of two objects, or an unusual geometry for the broad emission-line region (BLR). The absence of narrow lines at the broad line redshift a...

Einstein's equations are known to lead to the formation of black holes and spacetime singularities. This appears to be a manifestation of the mathematical phenomenon of finite-time blowup: a formation of singularities from regular initial data. We present a simple hyperbolic system of two semi-linear equations inspired by the Einstein equations. We explore a class of solutions to this system wh...

Einstein's equations are known to lead to the formation of black holes and spacetime singularities. This appears to be a manifestation of the mathematical phenomenon of finite-time blowup: a formation of singularities from regular initial data. We present a simple hyperbolic system of two semi-linear equations inspired by the Einstein equations. We explore a class of solutions to this system wh...

The central black-hole masses of 85 radio-loud quasars are estimated using available data of Hβ line-width and optical continuum luminosity. The vast majority of the quasars in this sample have black-hole masses larger than 108M⊙, while a few quasars may contain relatively smaller black-holes. It is found that the radio-loudness decreases with the black-hole mass.

The masses of the central black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) can be estimated using the broad emission-lines as a probe of the virial mass inside the BLR. Using reverberation mapping to determine the size of the Broad Line Region (BLR) and the width of the variable component of the line profile Hβ line it is possible to find quite accurate virial mass estimates for AGN with adequate d...

The classical unified model is challenged by the presence of various kinds of Seyfert 2 galaxies. We assemble a sample composed of 243 nearby Seyfert galaxies with redshifts z ≤ 0.05 to test the unification scheme. The sample contains 94 broad line Seyfert 1s (BLS1s), 44 narrow line Seyfert 1s (NLS1s), 36 X-ray absorbed hidden broad line region (BLR) Seyfert 2s (HBLR S2s), 42 X-ray absorbed non...

Here we analyze how the angular momenta (spins) of black holes in the centers of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) affect the shape of the FeKα line emitted from their accretion disks. For that purpose, we compared the observed line profile in the case of radio galaxy 3C 405 (Cygnus A) with its profiles, obtained by numerical simulations based on ray-tracing method in the Kerr metric. Our results sh...