Active Galactic Nuclei

Francoise Combes is a professor at the College de France, an astrophysicist at Paris Observatory and member of the Academy of Sciences. She is currently working on the formation and evolution of galaxies, their co-evolution with supermassive black holes and dark matter models.

• Chapter 1. Active Galactic Nuclei: Competition Between Accretion and Ejection 1Suzy COLLIN-ZAHN1.1. History: discovery and initial observations 11.2. Important observational properties 71.3. Interpretation I: thermal processes 191.4. Interpretation II: theoretical models 351.5. Towards a unified vision of AGNs 501.6. References 60Chapter 2. The Galactic Black Hole 65Mark MORRIS2.1. Historical emergence of the Galactic black hole 652.2. The mass of the Galactic black hole 672.3. General relativity and the Galactic black hole 692.4. The accretion flow: radiative signatures of the Galactic black hole 722.5. Dynamics of the accretion flow 862.6. Outflows from the GBH 882.7. Perspectives 922.8. References 93Chapter 3. AGN Accretion Disks 101Jean-Pierre LASOTA3.1. Introduction 1013.2. Black holes 1023.3. Disk driving mechanism; viscosity 1073.4. Geometrically thin Keplerian disks 1103.5. Disk instabilities 1313.6. Beyond thin disks 1393.7. Disk coronae 1463.8. Disks, winds and jets 1483.9. References 152Chapter 4. Relativistic Jets and Very High Energy Mechanisms 155Hélène SOL4.1. The advent of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy 1564.2. Very high energy gamma-ray observations of active galactic nuclei 1594.3. Extragalactic jets, structures observed from sub-parsec to mega-parsec scales 1684.4. Non-thermal emissions and instantaneous radiative models 1774.5. Particle acceleration and time-dependent radiative models 1944.6. Perspectives on active galactic nuclei at very high energies 2114.7. References 221Chapter 5. Galactic Bulge–Black Hole Co-evolution, Feeding and Feedback of AGNs 233Françoise COMBES5.1. Co-evolution: mass of black holes and bulges 2335.2. Interpretations: cause or effect? 2455.3. Black hole fueling processes 2585.4. AGN feedback – efficiency 2675.5. Conclusion 2755.6. References 275Chapter 6. Binary Black Holes in the Gravitational Wave Universe 281Monica COLPI6.1. Introduction 2826.2. Black holes in the cosmic landscape 2836.3. Gravitational waves from coalescing black hole binaries 2876.4. The Gravitational Wave Universe 2926.5. Black hole dynamics in merging galaxies 2956.6. Multi-messenger view of a massive black hole merger 3006.7. Concluding remarks 3016.8. References 301List of Authors 307Index 309