Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei

Thumbnail Image

Date

Authors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

Description

I review the status of observational determinations of central masses in nearby galactic nuclei. Results from a variety of techniques are summarized, including ground-based and space-based optical spectroscopy, radio VLBI measurements of luminous water vapor masers, and variability monitoring studies of active galactic nuclei. I will also discuss recent X-ray observations that indicate relativistic motions arising from the accretion disks of active nuclei. The existing evidence suggests that supermassive black holes are an integral component of galactic structure, at least in elliptical and bulge-dominated galaxies. The black hole mass appears to be correlated with the mass of the spheroidal component of the host galaxy. This finding may have important implications for many astrophysical issues.
To appear in Observational Evidence for Black Holes in the Universe, ed. S. K. Chakrabarti (Dordrecht: Kluwer). LaTex, 30 pages including embedded figures and tables

Keywords

Astrophysics

Citation

URI

http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/12284

Consulte el texto completo en el siguiente enlace:

https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9803307
 http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9803307

Collections

arXiv