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Full-Text Articles in External Galaxies
Variable Nature Of Accretion Disk Outflows Around Supermassive Black Holes In Active Galaxies, Mary Ogborn
Variable Nature Of Accretion Disk Outflows Around Supermassive Black Holes In Active Galaxies, Mary Ogborn
Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current
Seyfert galaxies are a sub-class of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in which outflows are ubiquitously observed and thought to be produced from accretion disks surrounding supermassive black holes (SMBHs). These outflows manifest themselves as blueshifted absorption features in their X-Ray spectra (aka. warm absorbers (WAs)), allowing for spectroscopic analysis to examine the physical conditions of the constituent plasma as well as the AGN itself. In the context of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), we utilize a magnetically-driven disk-wind model that describes the behavior within the disk and to study 3 exemplary Seyfert 1 AGNs in an effort to constrain the strength of the …
Mid-Ir Properties Of H2o Megamaser Disks, Catherine Witherspoon
Mid-Ir Properties Of H2o Megamaser Disks, Catherine Witherspoon
Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019
Astrophysical masers are natural microwave amplifiers by stimulated emission and when detected in galaxy centers, they are extremely luminous (i.e. millions of times more luminous than those associated with typical star-forming regions in the spiral arms of our own Milky Way). A fraction of water megamasers detected in 22 GHz emission in galactic nuclear regions are in a disk-like configuration, which makes them extremely valuable for providing direct geometrical distances to galaxies and the most precise and accurate masses of supermassive black holes. Nevertheless, these systems are extremely rare. While the exact mechanism of water maser emission production is not …