活动星系核中黑洞质量与宇宙学红移的研究

收集了209个活动星系核（46个平谱射电类星体,78个BLLac天体,85个射电星系）样本,估算出爱丁顿吸积率,讨论了黑洞质量、热光度、红移量和爱丁顿吸积率之间的关系,得出了以下结论：（1）活动星系核的一个演化序列为：平谱射电类星体（FsRQ）——BL Lac天体——射电星系（RG）的演化;（2）三类星体的中心黑洞质量、红移量和热光度有较大差异：皆为FSRQ〉BLLac〉RG;（3）吸积率与热光度之间的相关性很强,吸积率的变化将导致热光度的变化。     

活动星系核的演化与吸积率

红移,中心黑洞质量和吸积率是类星体演化的重要参数,通过三种方法计算了405个类星体和Seyfert星系样本的中心黑洞质量,并分析了中心黑洞质量和吸积率的分布,进而验证了：1.类星体-Seyfert星系的演化序列;2.平谱射电类星体（FSRQ）-BL Lac天体-射电星系（RG）的演化序列。     

赛弗特工星系黑洞质量与宇宙学红移的研究

对214个SeyfertI星系（其中147个窄线SeyfertI星系（NLSIs）,67个宽线Seyfert工星系（BLSIs））的红移、热光度、爱丁顿比、黑洞质量的分布进行研究,并讨论了红移和热光度、爱丁顿比的关系。得到了以下结论：1）窄线SeyfertI星系的红移、热光度、爱丁顿比都大于宽线SeyfertI星系的红移、热光度、爱丁顿比;2）窄线SeyfertI星系的黑洞质量小于宽线SeyfertI星系的黑洞质量;3）在大样本下SeyfertI星系从窄线Seyfert工星系到宽线SeyfertI星系演化,与他人用其他方法得到的结果是一致的。     

Seyfert1和Seyfert2星系黑洞质量与宇宙学红移的研究

收集了359个Seyfert星系的观测数据(其中Seyfert 1星系观测数据283个,Seyfert 2星系观测数据76个).对红移、爱丁顿比、黑洞质量的分布进行研究,并讨论了红移和爱丁顿比的关系.得到了以下结论:1)Seyfert 1星系的红移平均值大于Seyfert 2星系的红移平均值;2)Seyfert 1星系的爱丁顿比平均值小于Seyfert 2星系的爱丁顿比平均值;3)Seyfert 1星系黑洞质量的平均值小于Seyfert 2星系黑洞质量的平均值.     

两类BL Lac天体和FSRQs之间的关系

收集了109个blazar天体（HBLs 51个,LBLs 40个,FSRQs 18个）的相关观测数据,对该样本的黑洞质量、吸积率、热光度和红移的分布规律进行了统计分析,讨论了吸积率与热光度、黑洞质量与热光度之间的关系,结果发现：（1）存在一个从FSRQs经LBLs到HBLs的演化序列;（2）爱丁顿吸积率是影响blazar天体三个子类之间演化序列的主要因素;（3）blazar天体三个子类的热光度需要进行多普勒效应改正.     

费米耀变体伽马射线光度和中心黑洞质量的研究

通过分析所收集耀变体样本的红移、多普勒因子、内秉伽马光度、黑洞质量、内秉吸积率的分布得到:与蝎虎天体相比,平谱射电类星体有更大的平均红移、多普勒因子、内秉伽马射线光度、黑洞质量、内秉吸积率.利用线性回归和Pearson偏相关分析的方法,得到内秉伽马射线光度和黑洞质量以及内秉吸积率之间都有很好的相关性,这表明伽马射线的产生和黑洞质量及吸积都有关系,同时也表明喷流的产生和黑洞自旋及吸积有关系.     

射电类星体辐射压的研究

收集了20个射电宁静类星体(radio quiet quasars,RQQs)和97个射电噪类星体(radio loud quasars,RLQs)的红移、5 100的单色光度、Hβ发射线宽度、射电噪度、5 GHz射电光学流量密度、热光度.分别计算了考虑辐射压影响和没有考虑辐射压影响的黑洞质量和爱丁顿比,利用总的5GHz射电光学流量密度计算了射电光度.分析了它们之间的相关性,得到如下结论:RQQs考虑辐射压的黑洞质量与射电噪度、5 GHz射电光度、热光度的相关性比RLQs考虑辐射压的黑洞质量和射电噪度、5 GHz射电光度、热光度的相关性弱;考虑辐射压后,RQQs的黑洞质量和红移的相关性比RLQs的强,RQQs的黑洞质量Mma108 M☉,而且它的吸积未超爱丁顿吸积;由于辐射压对宽线云有影响,且大多数人认为RQQs可能来自吸积盘,表明宽线区和吸积盘可能有关联;考虑辐射压的RQQs和RLQs的黑洞质量与射电噪度、5 GHz射电光度、热光度的相关性比没有考虑辐射压黑洞质量与射电噪度、5GHz射电光度、热光度的相关性好;考虑辐射压后,RQQs和RLQs的黑洞质量—射电噪度分布、黑洞质量—Ηβ发射线宽度分布、射电噪度—爱丁顿比分布的不同说明辐射压对RQQs和RLQs的不同会产生影响.     

活动星系核的演化研究

活动星系核的演化研究在能量产生、辐射机制等基本问题的研究中占有重要的地位。首先对活动星系核的基本性质及分类进行了简单的介绍,然后根据搜集到的数据,通过分析发光度、中心黑洞质量、吸积率与红移的关系图,进一步支持了活动星系核的演化存在的两个演化序列的观点:一个是平谱射电类星体FSRQ逐步过渡到BL Lac天体,然后过渡到射电星系RG,最后过渡到椭圆星系;另一个是从类星体Quasars过渡Seyfert星系,然后过渡到正常漩涡星系。     

宇宙中的双黑洞

在星系形成的等级结构模型中,亚星系的结构先形成,之后再不断地通过并合形成越来越大的星系.伴随着星系的并合,星系中心的大质量黑洞也不断经历并合.在富气体星系的并合过程中,气体落入星系的中心,可能触发恒星的形成和黑洞的吸积.黑洞不断通过并合和气体吸积,从小到大形成现在观测到的在不同红移处的超大质量黑洞,因此,在星系的演化过程中,不同红移处必然存在很多大质量黑洞双体系统,甚至三体系统.本文将主要对宇宙中大质量双黑洞的观测和理论做一个简要的评述.美国升级后的激光干涉引力波天文台宣称首次直接探测到了引力波,该引力波源为几十倍太阳质量黑洞双星的并合.这么大质量的致密双黑洞是如何形成的?它们的并合率为什么这么高?本文也会简单提及恒星级双黑洞的形成和演化模型.     

射电宁静的活动星系核的光变研究进展

一部分星系的核区存在剧烈的非恒星活动起源的多波段电磁辐射,这类星系被称为活动星系,其核心称为活动星系核.一般认为,超大质量黑洞(其质量是数百万倍乃至数百亿倍太阳质量)通过其强大的引力吸积周围气体形成的吸积盘是活动星系核的中心引擎.理解这一物理过程和测量超大质量黑洞的物理参数,对认识强引力场下的磁流体物理、超大质量黑洞的宇宙增长历史和活动星系核的反馈以及宇宙大尺度结构形成有重要的意义.多波段连续谱的光变(即光度随时间的变化行为)是活动星系核的鲜明特征,可以被用来从时域的角度测量宇宙学距离上的活动星系核的中心引擎的结构、尺寸和超大质量黑洞的质量以及自旋.本文介绍了活动星系核光变行为的基本概念,概述利用光变研究活动星系核物理过程和测量超大质量黑洞质量等方面的主要进展,并对活动星系核的光变研究领域进行展望.     

Active galactic nuclei as scaled-up Galactic black holes

A long-standing question is whether active galactic nuclei (AGN) vary like Galactic black hole systems when appropriately scaled up by mass. If so, we can then determine how AGN should behave on cosmological timescales by studying the brighter and much faster varying Galactic systems. As X-ray emission is produced very close to the black holes, it provides one of the best diagnostics of their behaviour. A characteristic timescale--which potentially could tell us about the mass of the black hole--is found in the X-ray variations from both AGN and Galactic black holes, but whether it is physically meaningful to compare the two has been questioned. Here we report that, after correcting for variations in the accretion rate, the timescales can be physically linked, revealing that the accretion process is exactly the same for small and large black holes. Strong support for this linkage comes, perhaps surprisingly, from the permitted optical emission lines in AGN whose widths (in both broad-line AGN and narrow-emission-line Seyfert 1 galaxies) correlate strongly with the characteristic X-ray timescale, exactly as expected from the AGN black hole masses and accretion rates. So AGN really are just scaled-up Galactic black holes.     

An ultraviolet-optical flare from the tidal disruption of a helium-rich stellar core

The flare of radiation from the tidal disruption and accretion of a star can be used as a marker for supermassive black holes that otherwise lie dormant and undetected in the centres of distant galaxies. Previous candidate flares have had declining light curves in good agreement with expectations, but with poor constraints on the time of disruption and the type of star disrupted, because the rising emission was not observed. Recently, two 'relativistic' candidate tidal disruption events were discovered, each of whose extreme X-ray luminosity and synchrotron radio emission were interpreted as the onset of emission from a relativistic jet. Here we report a luminous ultraviolet-optical flare from the nuclear region of an inactive galaxy at a redshift of 0.1696. The observed continuum is cooler than expected for a simple accreting debris disk, but the well-sampled rise and decay of the light curve follow the predicted mass accretion rate and can be modelled to determine the time of disruption to an accuracy of two days. The black hole has a mass of about two million solar masses, modulo a factor dependent on the mass and radius of the star disrupted. On the basis of the spectroscopic signature of ionized helium from the unbound debris, we determine that the disrupted star was a helium-rich stellar core.     

The suppression of star formation by powerful active galactic nuclei

The old, red stars that constitute the bulges of galaxies, and the massive black holes at their centres, are the relics of a period in cosmic history when galaxies formed stars at remarkable rates and active galactic nuclei (AGN) shone brightly as a result of accretion onto black holes. It is widely suspected, but unproved, that the tight correlation between the mass of the black hole and the mass of the stellar bulge results from the AGN quenching the surrounding star formation as it approaches its peak luminosity. X-rays trace emission from AGN unambiguously, whereas powerful star-forming galaxies are usually dust-obscured and are brightest at infrared and submillimetre wavelengths. Here we report submillimetre and X-ray observations that show that rapid star formation was common in the host galaxies of AGN when the Universe was 2-6 billion years old, but that the most vigorous star formation is not observed around black holes above an X-ray luminosity of 10(44) ergs per second. This suppression of star formation in the host galaxy of a powerful AGN is a key prediction of models in which the AGN drives an outflow, expelling the interstellar medium of its host and transforming the galaxy's properties in a brief period of cosmic time.     

Magnification of light from many distant quasars by gravitational lenses

Exceptionally bright quasars with redshifts up to z = 6.28 have recently been discovered. Quasars are thought to be powered by the accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. Their maximum (Eddington) luminosity depends on the mass of the black hole, and the brighter quasars are inferred to have black holes with masses of more than a few billion solar masses. The existence of such massive black holes poses a challenge to models for the formation of structures in the early Universe, as it requires their formation within one billion years of the Big Bang. Here we show that up to one-third of known quasars with z approximately equal to 6 will have had their observed flux magnified by a factor of ten or more, as a consequence of gravitational lensing by galaxies along the line of sight. The inferred abundance of quasar host galaxies, as well as the luminosity density provided by the quasars, has therefore been substantially overestimated.