Measuring the Angular Momentum of Supermassive Black Holes PDF Download

Author: Laura Brenneman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461477719
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 57

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Book Description
Measuring the spin distribution of supermassive black holes is of critical importance for understanding how these black holes and their host galaxies form and evolve over time, yet this type of study is only in its infancy. This brief describes how astronomers measure spin in supermassive black holes using X-ray spectroscopy. It also reviews the constraints that have been placed on the spin distribution in local, bright active galaxies over the past six years, and the cosmological implications of these constraints. Finally, it summarizes the open questions that remain in this exciting new field of research and points toward future discoveries soon to be made by the next generation of space-based observatories.

Author: Fulvio Melia
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691222541
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Here, one of the world's leading astrophysicists provides the first comprehensive and logically structured overview of the many ideas and discoveries pertaining to the supermassive black hole at the galactic center known as Sagittarius A*. By far the closest galactic nucleus in the universe, Sagittarius A* alone can provide us with a realistic expectation of learning about the physics of strong gravitational fields, and the impact of such fields on the behavior of matter and radiation under severe physical conditions. Its proximity may even provide the opportunity to directly test one of general relativity's most enigmatic predictions--the existence of closed pockets of space-time hidden behind an event horizon. The plethora of research on Sagittarius A* since its discovery in 1974 has long seemed an interwoven pattern of loose threads. No one has successfully synthesized this growing body of work into a manageable, coherent book both for professional researchers and for students taking courses focusing on black holes and galactic nuclei--until now. With Fulvio Melia's The Galactic Supermassive Black Hole, readers finally have at their disposal a one-volume crucible of essential ideas, logically streamlined but with thorough references for those wishing to explore the various topics in greater depth.

Author: Tommy Wiklind
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642323626
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
New observations of the period between the cosmic recombination and the end of reionization are posing intriguing questions about where the first generations of stars were formed, how the first galaxies were assembled, whether these galaxies have low redshift counterparts, and what role the early galaxies played in the reionization process. Combining the new observational data with theoretical models can shed new light on open issues regarding the star formation process, its role in the reionization of the Universe, and the metal enrichment in galaxies at those early epochs. This volume brings together leading experts in the field to discuss our current level of understanding and what may come in the near future as our observational as well as theoretical tools improve. The book confronts the theory of how the first stars, black holes, and galaxies formed with current and planned observations. This synthesis is very timely, just ahead of the establishment of major new facilities, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a next-generation, millimeter/sub-millimeter observatory in the Atacama desert (ALMA), and ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT). Together, they will revolutionize the study of the most distant objects in the Universe. This volume is aimed at beginning graduate students but can also serve as a reference work for active researchers in the field. Apart from presenting the fundamental concepts involved, it also provides an introduction to the methods and techniques used. The book will also be useful to anyone with an astrophysical background who needs an effective starting point for learning about the first stars and galaxies.

Author: A.J. Barger
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402024711
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Quasars, and the menagerie of other galaxies with "unusual nuclei", now collectively known as Active Galactic Nuclei or AGN, have, in one form or another, sparked the interest of astronomers for over 60 years. The only known mechanism that can explain the staggering amounts of energy emitted by the innermost regions of these systems is gravitational energy release by matter falling towards a supermassive black hole --- a black hole whose mass is millions to billions of times the mass of our Sun. AGN emit radiation at all wavelengths. X-rays originating at a distance of a few times the event horizon of the black hole are the emissions closest to the black hole that we can detect; thus, X-rays directly reveal the presence of active supermassive black holes. Oftentimes, however, the supermassive black holes that lie at the centers of AGN are cocooned in gas and dust that absorb the emitted low energy X-rays and the optical and ultraviolet light, hiding the black hole from view at these wavelengths. Until recently, this low-energy absorption presented a major obstacle in observational efforts to map the accretion history of the universe. In 1999 and 2000, the launches of the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray Observatories finally broke the impasse. The impact of these observatories on X-ray astronomy is similar to the impact that the Hubble Space Telescope had on optical astronomy. The astounding new data from these observatories have enabled astronomers to make enormous advances in their understanding of when accretion occurs.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780716695899
Category : Black holes (Astronomy)
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
"An introduction to quasars and black holes with information about their formation and characteristics. Includes diagrams, fun facts, a glossary, a resource list, and an index"--Provided by publisher.

Author: Nicholas Chamberlain Stone
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319126768
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
This book provides a general introduction to the rapidly developing astrophysical frontier of stellar tidal disruption, but also details original thesis research on the subject. This work has shown that recoiling black holes can disrupt stars far outside a galactic nucleus, errors in the traditional literature have strongly overestimated the maximum luminosity of “deeply plunging” tidal disruptions, the precession of transient accretion disks can encode the spins of supermassive black holes, and much more. This work is based on but differs from the original thesis that was formally defended at Harvard, which received both the Roger Doxsey Award and the Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award from the American Astronomical Society.

Author: Andrew King
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108864627
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Written by an international leader in the field, this is a coherent and accessible account of the concepts that are now vital for understanding cutting-edge work on supermassive black holes. These include accretion disc misalignment, disc breaking and tearing, chaotic accretion, the merging of binary supermassive holes, the demographics of supermassive black holes, and the defining effects of feedback on their host galaxies. The treatment is largely analytic and gives in-depth discussions of the underlying physics, including gas dynamics, ideal and non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics, force-free electrodynamics, accretion disc physics, and the properties of the Kerr metric. It stresses aspects where conventional assumptions may be inappropriate and encourages the reader to think critically about current models. This volume will be useful for graduate or Masters courses in astrophysics, and as a handbook for active researchers in the field. eBook formats include colour figures while print formats are greyscale only.

Author: Fulvio Melia
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521814058
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
In the past, they were recognized as the most destructive force in nature. Now, following a cascade of astonishing discoveries, supermassive black holes have undergone a dramatic shift in paradigm. Astronomers are finding out that these objects may have been critical to the formation of structure in the early universe, spawning bursts of star formation, planets, and even life itself. They may have contributed as much as half of all the radiation produced after the Big Bang, and as many as 200 million of them may now be lurking through the vast expanses of the observable cosmos. In this elegant, non-technical account, Melia conveys for the general reader the excitement generated by the quest to expose what these giant distortions in the fabric of space and time have to say about our origin and ultimate destiny.

Author: Mario Livio
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139495674
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Black holes, once considered to be of purely theoretical interest, play an important role in observational astronomy and a range of astrophysical phenomena. This volume is based on a meeting held at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which explored the many aspects of black hole astrophysics. Written by world experts in areas of stellar-mass, intermediate-mass and supermassive black holes, these review papers provide an up-to-date overview of developments in this field. Topics discussed range from black hole entropy and the fate of information to supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, and from the possibility of producing black holes in collider experiments to the measurements of black hole spins. This is an invaluable resource for researchers currently working in the field, and for graduate students interested in this active and growing area of research.

Author: Peter G. Jonker
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9789402421453
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 589

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Book Description
This volume provides an overview of the fast-developing field of tidal disruption events. For several decades, astronomers speculated that a hapless star could wander too close to a massive black hole and be torn apart by tidal forces. Yet it is only with the recent advent of wide-field transient surveys that such events have been detected. Written by a team of prominent researchers, the chapters detail the discoveries made so far in this burgeoning field of study across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma-rays through X-rays, ultra-violet, optical, infrared, and radio. In addition, they show how tidal disruption events can be used to study the properties of otherwise undetectable supermassive black holes; the populations and dynamics of stars in galactic nuclei; the physics of black hole accretion, including the potential to detect relativistic effects near a SMBH; and the physics of (radio) jet formation and evolution in a pristine environment. Finally, the book outlines important outstanding questions about TDEs. With more than 100 color images, the volume will be useful to researchers and others interested in learning more about this promising area of astrophysics. Previously published in Space Science Reviews in the Topical Collection “The Tidal Disruption of Stars by Massive Black Holes”