Publications (105)
On the detectability of gravitational waves from primordial black holes orbiting Sgr A*
Stefano Bondani, Francesco Haardt, Alberto Sesana +2
In this work we characterize the expected gravitational wave signal detectable by the planned space-borne interferometer LISA and the proposed next generation space-borne interfero…
Re-weighting dark matter in disc galaxies: a new general relativistic observational test
Davide Astesiano, Sergio L. Cacciatori, Massimo Dotti +2
A recent analysis of data from the ESA Gaia mission demonstrated that the kinematics of stars in the Milky Way can be modelled without invoking the presence of dark matter whatsoev…
The nature of massive black hole binary candidates: II. Spectral energy distribution atlas
Elisabeta Lusso, Roberto Decarli, Massimo Dotti +5
Recoiling supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are considered one plausible physical mechanism to explain high velocity shifts between narrow and broad emission lines sometimes observe…
Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
Pau Amaro Seoane, Jeff Andrews, Manuel Arca Sedda +156
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be a transformative experiment for gravitational wave astronomy, and, as such, it will offer unique opportunities to address many…
Nuclear discs as clocks for the assembly history of early-type galaxies: the case of NGC4458
Marc Sarzi, Hugo R. Ledo, Lodovico Coccato +6
Approximately 20% of early-type galaxies host small nuclear stellar discs that are tens to a few hundred parsecs in size. Such discs are expected to be easily disrupted during majo…
Double quasars: probes of black hole scaling relationships and merger scenarios
Gary Foreman, Marta Volonteri, Massimo Dotti
We analyze the available sample of double quasars, and investigate their physical properties. Our sample comprises 85 pairs, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We d…
On the connection between AGN radiative feedback and massive black hole spin
Francesco Bollati, Alessandro Lupi, Massimo Dotti +1
We present a novel implementation for active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback through ultra-fast winds in the code gizmo. Our feedback recipe accounts for the angular dependence of…
A fast test for the identification and confirmation of massive black hole binaries
Massimo Dotti, Fabio Rigamonti, Stefano Rinaldi +3
We present a new observational test to identify massive black hole binaries in large multi-epoch spectroscopical catalogues and to probe the real nature of already proposed binary…
On the eccentricity evolution of massive black hole binaries in stellar backgrounds
Matteo Bonetti, Alexander Rasskazov, Alberto Sesana +6
We study the dynamical evolution of eccentric massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) interacting with unbound stars by means of an extensive set of three body scattering experiments.…
Testing the blast-wave AGN feedback scenario in MCG-03-58-007
Mattia Sirressi, Claudia Cicone, Paola Severgnini +7
We report the first Atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array observations of MCG-03-58-007, a local (, this work) AGN ()…
Massive black holes in merging galaxies
Marta Volonteri, Tamara Bogdanovic, Massimo Dotti +1
The dynamics of massive black holes (BHs) in galaxy mergers is a rich field of research that has seen much progress in recent years. In this contribution we briefly review the proc…
A survey of dual active galactic nuclei in simulations of galaxy mergers: frequency and properties
Pedro R. Capelo, Massimo Dotti, Marta Volonteri +3
We investigate the simultaneous triggering of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in merging galaxies, using a large suite of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations. We compute dual-A…
Quasi-periodicities at year-like timescales in Blazars
Angela Sandrinelli, Stefano Covino, Massimo Dotti +1
We searched for quasi-periodicities on year-like timescales in the light curves of 6 blazars in the optical - near infrared bands and we made a comparison with the high energy emis…
Growing black holes and galaxies: black hole accretion versus star formation rate
Marta Volonteri, Pedro R. Capelo, Hagai Netzer +3
We present a new suite of hydrodynamical simulations and use it to study, in detail, black hole and galaxy properties. The high time, spatial and mass resolution, and realistic orb…
Identification of periodicities with arbitrary shapes in AGN light curves
Lorenzo Bertassi, Maria Charisi, Riccardo Buscicchio +3
Massive black hole binaries are expected to be observable as periodic AGN in time-domain photometric surveys. Periodicities may originate from different physical processes, includi…
ESPRESSO reveals a single but perturbed broad-line region in the supermassive black hole binary candidate PG 1302-102
Fabio Rigamonti, Paola Severgnini, Erika Sottocorno +12
We present a new, Bayesian analysis of the highest-resolution optical spectrum of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary candidate PG 1302-102, obtained with ESPRESSO@VLT (R \si…
Size matters: are we witnessing super-Eddington accretion in high-redshift black holes from JWST?
Alessandro Lupi, Alessandro Trinca, Marta Volonteri +2
Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope of the Universe at have shown that massive black holes (MBHs) appear extremely overmassive compared to the local correla…
The role of bars on the dynamical-friction driven inspiral of massive perturbers
Elisa Bortolas, Matteo Bonetti, Massimo Dotti +4
In this paper, we systematically explore the impact of a galactic bar on the inspiral time-scale of a massive object (MO) within a Milky Way-like galaxy. We integrate the orbit of…
-process nucleosynthesis in the early Universe through fast mergers of compact binaries in triple systems
Matteo Bonetti, Albino Perego, Pedro R. Capelo +2
Surface abundance observations of halo stars hint at the occurrence of -process nucleosynthesis at low metallicity (), possibly within the first yr after…
Black hole spin evolution in warped accretion discs
Elia Cenci, Luca Sala, Alessandro Lupi +2
Massive black holes (BHs) inhabiting galactic nuclei can be described by two parameters only, i.e. mass and spin, that change through cosmic time in response to accretion and merge…
Gravitational recoil: effects on massive black hole occupation fraction over cosmic time
Marta Volonteri, Kayhan Gultekin, Massimo Dotti
We assess the influence of massive black hole (MBH) ejections from galaxy centres, due to the gravitational radiation recoil, along the cosmic merger history of the MBH population.…
Gravitational waves from an eccentric population of primordial black holes orbiting Sgr A
Stefano Bondani, Matteo Bonetti, Luca Broggi +3
Primordial black holes (PBH), supposedly formed in the very early Universe, have been proposed as a possible viable dark matter candidate. In this work we characterize the expected…
The Quest for Dual and Binary Supermassive Black Holes: A Multi-Messenger View
Alessandra De Rosa, Cristian Vignali, Tamara BogdanoviÄ +27
The quest for binary and dual supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the dawn of the multi-messenger era is compelling. Detecting dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) -- active SMBHs at…
Repeating partial disruptions and two-body relaxation
Luca Broggi, Nicholas C. Stone, Taeho Ryu +4
Two-body relaxation may drive stars onto near-radial orbits around a massive black hole, resulting in a tidal disruption event (TDE). In some circumstances, stars are unlikely to u…
Red-channel (6000-8000 Ã ) nuclear spectra of 376 local galaxies
Giuseppe Gavazzi, Guido Consolandi, Massimo Dotti +4
We obtained long-slit optical spectra of the nuclear regions of 376 galaxies in the local Universe using the 1.5m Cassini telescope of Bologna Observatory. Of these spectra, 164 we…
On the orientation of Narrow Line Seyfert I
Tullia Sbarrato, Massimo Dotti, Giancarlo Ghirlanda +1
We study a sample of Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1) in their optical and radio features, in order to understand the differences between their radio silent, radio-loud and ra…
Optical follow-up of the tick-tock massive black hole binary candidate
Massimo Dotti, Matteo Bonetti, Fabio Rigamonti +8
The observation of a population of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) is key for our complete understanding of galaxy mergers and for the characterization of the expected gravitat…
Dynamical evolution of massive black hole pairs in the presence of spin-dependent radiative feedback
Francesco Bollati, Alessandro Lupi, Massimo Dotti +1
The putative ubiquity of massive black holes (MBH) at the center of galaxies, and the hierarchical progress of structure formation along the cosmic history, together necessarily im…
Real galaxy mergers from galaxy pair catalogs
Hugo Pfister, Massimo Dotti, Clothilde Laigle +2
Mergers of galaxies are extremely violent events shaping their evolution. Such events are thought to trigger starbursts and, possibly, black hole accretion. Nonetheless, it is stil…
Young and turbulent: the early life of massive galaxy progenitors
Davide Fiacconi, Lucio Mayer, Piero Madau +3
We present results from the "Ponos" simulation suite on the early evolution of a massive, M galaxy. At , before feedback f…
Halpha3: an Halpha imaging survey of HI selected galaxies from ALFALFA. III. Nurture shapes up the Hubble sequence in the Great Wall
Giuseppe Gavazzi, Giulia Savorgnan, Matteo Fossati +7
We present the analysis of Halpha3, an Halpha imaging survey of galaxies selected from the HI ALFALFA Survey in the Coma Supercluster. By using the Halpha line as a tracer of the "…
Black hole accretion versus star formation rate: theory confronts observations
Marta Volonteri, Pedro R. Capelo, Hagai Netzer +3
We use a suite of hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy mergers to compare star formation rate (SFR) and black hole accretion rate (BHAR) for galaxies before the interaction ('stoch…
From galactic nuclei to the halo outskirts: tracing supermassive black holes across cosmic history and environments
David Izquierdo-Villalba, Silvia Bonoli, Massimo Dotti +3
We study the mass assembly and spin evolution of supermassive black holes (BHs) across cosmic time as well as the impact of gravitational recoil on the population of nuclear and wa…
Massive black hole and gas dynamics in galaxy nuclei mergers. I. Numerical implementation
Alessandro Lupi, Francesco Haardt, Massimo Dotti
Numerical effects are known to plague adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) codes when treating massive particles, e.g. representing massive black holes (MBHs). In an evolving background,…
Binary black hole signatures in polarized light curves
Massimo Dotti, Matteo Bonetti, Daniel J. D'Orazio +2
Variable active galactic nuclei showing periodic light curves have been proposed as massive black hole binary (MBHB) candidates. In such scenarios the periodicity can be due to rel…
An effective model for the tidal disruption of satellites undergoing minor mergers with axisymmetric primaries
Ludovica Varisco, Massimo Dotti, Matteo Bonetti +2
According to the hierarchical formation paradigm, galaxies form through mergers of smaller entities and massive black holes (MBHs), if lurking at their centers, migrate to the nucl…
Disc instability and bar formation: view from the IllustrisTNG simulations
David Izquierdo-Villalba, Silvia Bonoli, Yetli Rosas-Guevara +7
We make use of z = 0 samples of strongly barred and unbarred disc galaxies from the TNG100 and TNG50 cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to assess the performance of the simple…
Robust automatic photometry of local galaxies from SDSS Dissecting the color magnitude relation with color profiles
Guido Consolandi, Giuseppe Gavazzi, Michele Fumagalli +2
We present an automatic procedure to perform reliable photometry of galaxies on SDSS images. We selected a sample of 5853 galaxies in the Coma and Virgo superclusters. For each gal…
Gravitational Recoil From Accretion-Aligned Black-Hole Binaries
Carlos O. Lousto, Yosef Zlochower, Massimo Dotti +1
We explore the newly discovered "hangup-kick" effect, which greatly amplifies the recoil for configuration with partial spin- orbital-angular momentum alignment, by studying a set…
The evolution of the barred galaxy population in the TNG50 simulation
Yetli Rosas-Guevara, Silvia Bonoli, Massimo Dotti +8
We use the magnetic-hydrodynamical simulation TNG50 to study the evolution of barred massive disc galaxies. Massive spiral galaxies are already present as early as , and bar f…
The Effects of Ram-pressure Stripping and Supernova Winds on the Tidal Stirring of Disky Dwarfs: Enhanced Transformation into Dwarf Spheroidals
Stelios Kazantzidis, Lucio Mayer, Simone Callegari +2
A conclusive model for the formation of dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies still remains elusive. Owing to their proximity to the massive spirals Milky Way (MW) and M31, various envi…
The birth of a supermassive black hole binary
Hugo Pfister, Alessandro Lupi, Pedro R. Capelo +3
We study the dynamical evolution of supermassive black holes, in the late stage of galaxy mergers, from kpc to pc scales. In particular, we capture the formation of the binary, a n…
Astrophysical and relativistic modeling of the recoiling black-hole candidate in quasar 3C 186
Matteo Boschini, Davide Gerosa, Om Sharan Salafia +1
The compact object in quasar 3C 186 is one of the most promising recoiling black-hole candidates, exhibiting both an astrometric displacement between the quasar and the host galaxy…
Massive black hole and gas dynamics in mergers of galaxy nuclei - II. Black hole sinking in star-forming nuclear discs
Alessandro Lupi, Francesco Haardt, Massimo Dotti +1
Mergers of gas-rich galaxies are key events in the hierarchical built-up of cosmic structures, and can lead to the formation of massive black hole binaries. By means of high-resolu…
A quasar-galaxy merger at : black hole mass and quasar properties from the NIRSpec spectrum
Federica Loiacono, Roberto Decarli, Marco Mignoli +31
We present JWST/NIRSpec integral field data of the quasar PJ308-21 at . As shown by previous ALMA and HST imaging, the quasar has two companion sources, interacting with…
The erratic dynamical life of black hole seeds in high-redshift galaxies
Hugo Pfister, Marta Volonteri, Yohan Dubois +2
The dynamics of black hole seeds in high redshift galaxies is key to understand their ability to grow via accretion and to pair in close binaries during galactic mergers. To proper…
The peculiar optical spectrum of 4C+22.25: Imprint of a massive black hole binary?
Roberto Decarli, Massimo Dotti, Carmen Montuori +2
We report the discovery of peculiar features in the optical spectrum of 4C+22.25, a flat spectrum radio quasar at z=0.4183 observed in the SDSS and in a dedicated spectroscopic fol…
Circumbinary disc self-gravity governing supermassive black hole binary mergers
Alessia Franchini, Alberto Sesana, Massimo Dotti
Understanding the interaction of massive black hole binaries with their gaseous environment is crucial since at sub-parsec scales the binary is too wide for gravitational wave emis…
Searching for unresolved massive black hole pairs through AGN photometric variability
Lorenzo Bertassi, Maria Charisi, Fabio Rigamonti +2
Since their discovery, AGN light curves are known to be intrinsically variable. In the optical/UV band, this variability is consistent with correlated or red noise and is particula…
Variability in the supermassive black hole binary candidate SDSS J2320+0024: No evidence of periodic modulation
Fabio Rigamonti, Lorenzo Bertassi, Riccardo Buscicchio +5
Supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs) are a natural outcome of galaxy mergers, and they are expected to be among the loudest gravitational-wave sources at low frequencies. The s…
Unveiling sub-parsec supermassive black hole binary candidates in active galactic nuclei
Roberto Serafinelli, Paola Severgnini, Valentina Braito +11
Elusive supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are thought to be the penultimate stage of galaxy mergers, preceding a final coalescence phase. SMBHBs are sources of continuous g…
Effects Of Circum-nuclear Disk Gas Evolution And The Spin Of Central Black Holes
Umberto Maio, Massimo Dotti, Margarita Petkova +2
Mass and spin are the only two parameters needed to completely characterize black holes in General Relativity. However, the interaction between black holes and their environment is…
Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
Leor Barack, Vitor Cardoso, Samaya Nissanke +203
The grand challenges of contemporary fundamental physics---dark matter, dark energy, vacuum energy, inflation and early universe cosmology, singularities and the hierarchy problem-…
Barred galaxies in cosmological zoom-in simulations: the importance of feedback
Tommaso Zana, Pedro R. Capelo, Massimo Dotti +5
Bars are a key factor in the long-term evolution of spiral galaxies, in their unique role in redistributing angular momentum and transporting gas and stars on large scales. The Eri…
Retrograde binaries of massive black holes in circum-binary accretion discs
Pau Amaro-Seoane, Cristián Maureira-Fredes, Massimo Dotti +1
We explore the hardening of a massive black hole binary embedded in a circum-binary gas disc when the binary and the gas are coplanar and the gas is counter-rotating. The secondary…
Dynamical evolution of massive perturbers in realistic multi-component galaxy models I: implementation and validation
Matteo Bonetti, Elisa Bortolas, Alessandro Lupi +1
Galaxies are self-gravitating structures composed by several components encompassing spherical, axial and triaxial symmetry. Although real systems feature heterogeneous components…
Maximally informed Bayesian modelling of disc galaxies
Fabio Rigamonti, Massimo Dotti, Stefano Covino +5
Dissecting the underlying structure of galaxies is of main importance in the framework of galaxy formation and evolution theories. While a classical bulge+disc decomposition of dis…
Non-isotropic feedback from accreting spinning black holes
Luca Sala, Elia Cenci, Pedro R. Capelo +2
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are massive black holes (BHs) caught in the act of accreting gas at the centre of their host galaxies. Part of the accreting mass is converted to energ…
The buildup of strongly barred galaxies in the TNG100 simulation
Yetli Rosas-Guevara, Silvia Bonoli, Massimo Dotti +7
We analyse the properties of strongly barred disc galaxies using the TNG100 simulation, a cosmological hydrodynamical realisation of the IllustrisTNG suite. We identify 270 disc ga…
Linking the spin evolution of massive black holes to galaxy kinematics
Alberto Sesana, Enrico Barausse, Massimo Dotti +1
We present the results of a semianalytical model that evolves the masses and spins of massive black holes together with the properties of their host galaxies along the cosmic histo…
Dynamical friction-driven orbital circularisation in rotating discs: a semi-analytical description
Matteo Bonetti, Elisa Bortolas, Alessandro Lupi +2
We present and validate a novel semi-analytical approach to study the effect of dynamical friction on the orbits of massive perturbers in rotating stellar discs. We find that dynam…
Fast pre-merger detection of massive black-hole binaries in LISA based on time-frequency excess power
Francesco Nobili, Malvina Bellotti, Riccardo Buscicchio +2
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna is expected to observe gravitational waves from massive black hole binaries across cosmic time. Many are anticipated to be detectable hours t…
Overlapping inflows as catalysts of AGN activity - II: Relative importance of turbulence and inflow-disc interaction
Juan Manuel Carmona-Loaiza, Monica Colpi, Massimo Dotti +1
The main challenge for understanding the fuelling of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei is not to account for the source of fuel, but rather to explain its delivery…
The nature of massive black hole binary candidates: I. Spectral properties and evolution
Roberto Decarli, Massimo Dotti, Michele Fumagalli +5
Theoretically, bound binaries of massive black holes are expected as the natural outcome of mergers of massive galaxies. From the observational side, however, massive black hole bi…
The fragility of thin discs in galaxies -- II. Thin discs as tracers of the assembly history of galaxies
Pablo M. Galán-de Anta, Pedro R. Capelo, Eugene Vasiliev +4
Thin galactic discs and nuclear stellar discs (NSDs) are fragile structures that can be easily disturbed by merger events. By studying the age of the stellar populations in present…
Super-Critical Growth of Massive Black Holes from Stellar-Mass Seeds
Piero Madau, Francesco Haardt, Massimo Dotti
We consider super-critical accretion with angular momentum onto stellar-mass black holes as a possible mechanism for growing billion-solar-mass holes from light seeds at early time…
Bar resilience to flybys in a cosmological framework
Tommaso Zana, Massimo Dotti, Pedro R. Capelo +4
It has been proposed that close interactions with satellite galaxies can significantly perturb the morphology of the main galaxy. However, the dynamics of an already formed bar fol…
Quasi-periodic eruptions from impacts between the secondary and a rigidly precessing accretion disc in an extreme mass-ratio inspiral system
Alessia Franchini, Matteo Bonetti, Alessandro Lupi +7
X-ray quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) represent a recently discovered example of extreme X-ray variability associated with supermassive black holes. These are high-amplitude bursts…
Partial alignment between jets and megamasers: Coherent versus selective accretion
Massimo Dotti, Riccardo Buscicchio, Francesco Bollati +3
Spins play a crucial role in the appearance, evolution, and occupation fraction of massive black holes (MBHs). To date, observational estimates of MBH spins are scarce, and the ass…
Multi-Messenger Astrophysics with Pulsar Timing Arrays
Luke Zoltan Kelley, Maria Charisi, Sarah Burke-Spolaor +29
Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are on the verge of detecting low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs) from supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs). With continued observations of a l…
The influence of Massive Black Hole Binaries on the Morphology of Merger Remnants
Elisa Bortolas, Alessia Gualandris, Massimo Dotti +1
Massive black hole (MBH) binaries, formed as a result of galaxy mergers, are expected to harden by dynamical friction and three-body stellar scatterings, until emission of gravitat…
Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals triggered by Massive Black Hole Binaries: from Relativistic Dynamics to Cosmological Rates
Giovanni Mazzolari, Matteo Bonetti, Alberto Sesana +4
Extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are compact binary systems characterized by a mass-ratio in the range and represent primary gravitational wave (GW)…
Neutron star binary orbits in their host potential: effect on early r-process enrichment
Matteo Bonetti, Albino Perego, Massimo Dotti +1
Coalescing neutron star binary (NSB) systems are primary candidates for -process enrichment of galaxies. The recent detection of -process elements in ultra-faint dwarf (UFD)…
Massive black holes in stellar systems: 'quiescent' accretion and luminosity
Marta Volonteri, Massimo Dotti, Duncan Campbell +1
Only a small fraction of local galaxies harbor an accreting black hole, classified as an active galactic nucleus (AGN). However, many stellar systems are plausibly expected to host…
Black hole mergers from dwarf to massive galaxies with the NewHorizon and Horizon-AGN simulations
Marta Volonteri, Hugo Pfister, Ricarda S. Beckman +12
Massive black hole (MBH) coalescences are powerful sources of low-frequency gravitational waves. To study these events in the cosmological context we need to trace the large-scale…
Can a time evolving, asymmetric broad line region mimic a massive black hole binary?
Erika Sottocorno, Mary Ogborn, Lorenzo Bertassi +3
Gas within the influence sphere of accreting massive black holes is responsible for the emission of the broad lines observed in optical-UV spectra of unobscured active galactic nuc…
Massive black hole binary plane reorientation in rotating stellar systems
Alessia Gualandris, Massimo Dotti, Alberto Sesana
We study the evolution of the orientation of the orbital plane of massive black hole binaries (BHBs) in rotating stellar systems in which the total angular momentum of the stellar…
Morphological decomposition of TNG50 galaxies: methodology and catalogue
Tommaso Zana, Alessandro Lupi, Matteo Bonetti +6
We present MORDOR (MORphological DecOmposeR, a new algorithm for structural decomposition of simulated galaxies based on stellar kinematics. The code measures the properties of up…
Overlapping Inflow Events as Catalysts for Supermassive Black Hole Growth
Juan Manuel Carmona-Loaiza, Monica Colpi, Massimo Dotti +1
One of the greatest issues in modelling black hole fuelling is our lack of understanding of the processes by which gas loses angular momentum and falls from galactic scales down to…
Bars as seen by Herschel & Sloan
Guido Consolandi, Massimo Dotti, Alessandro Boselli +2
We present an observational study of the effect of bars on the gas component and on the star formation properties of their host galaxies in a statistically significant sample of re…
Growth and activity of black holes in galaxy mergers with varying mass ratios
Pedro R. Capelo, Marta Volonteri, Massimo Dotti +3
We study supermassive black holes (BHs) in merging galaxies, using a suite of hydrodynamical simulations with very high spatial (~10 pc) and temporal (~1 Myr) resolution, where we…
Nuclear coups: dynamics of black holes in galaxy mergers
Sandor Van Wassenhove, Pedro R. Capelo, Marta Volonteri +4
We study the dynamical evolution of supermassive black holes (BHs) in merging galaxies on scales of hundreds of kpc to 10 pc, to identify the physical processes that aid or hinder…
Testing compact massive black hole binary candidates through multi-epoch spectroscopy
Lorenzo Bertassi, Erika Sottocorno, Fabio Rigamonti +4
Emission from two massive black holes (MBHs) bound in a close binary is expected to be modulated by different processes, such as the Doppler boost due to the orbital motion, accret…
Limiting eccentricity of sub-parsec massive black hole binaries surrounded by self-gravitating gas discs
Constanze Roedig, Massimo Dotti, Alberto Sesana +2
We study the dynamics of supermassive black hole binaries embedded in circumbinary gaseous discs, with the SPH code Gadget-2. The sub-parsec binary (of total mass M and mass ratio…
Linking the fate of massive black hole binaries to the active galactic nuclei luminosity function
Massimo Dotti, Andrea Merloni, Carmen Montuori
Massive black hole binaries are naturally predicted in the context of the hierarchical model of structure formation. The binaries that manage to lose most of their angular momentum…
Bar-driven evolution and quenching of spiral galaxies in cosmological simulations
Daniele Spinoso, Silvia Bonoli, Massimo Dotti +3
We analyse the output of the hi-res cosmological zoom-in simulation ErisBH to study self-consistently the formation of a strong stellar bar in a Milky Way-type galaxy and its effec…
Extreme mass ratio inspirals and tidal disruption events in nuclear clusters. I. Time dependent rates
Luca Broggi, Elisa Bortolas, Matteo Bonetti +2
In this paper we develop a computationally efficient, two-population, time-dependent Fokker-Plank approach in the two dimensions of energy and angular momentum to study the rates o…
Simulating Disky Broad Line Region Reverberation
Mary Ogborn, Michael Eracleous, Jessie C. Runnoe +3
Variability studies of the broad emission lines of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and quasars show stochastic radial velocity variations (i.e., fluctuations in the centroid of the l…
BANG-MaNGA: A census of kinematic discs and bulges across mass and star formation in the local Universe
Fabio Rigamonti, Luca Cortese, Francesco Bollati +4
We investigate the relevance of kinematically identified bulges, discs and their role relative to galaxy quenching. We utilize an analysis of the SDSS-MaNGA survey conducted with t…
A quasar-galaxy merger at : rapid host growth via accretion of two massive satellite galaxies
Roberto Decarli, Federica Loiacono, Emanuele Paolo Farina +38
We present JWST/NIRSpec Integral Field Spectroscopy in the rest-frame optical bands of the system PJ308-21, a quasar at caught as its host galaxy interacts with companio…
Evolution of binary black holes in self gravitating discs: dissecting the torques
Constanze Roedig, Alberto Sesana, Massimo Dotti +3
We study the interplay between gas accretion and gravity torques in changing a binary elements and its total angular momentum (L) budget. Especially, we analyse the physical origin…
Geometry and inclination of the broad line region in blazars
Roberto Decarli, Massimo Dotti, Aldo Treves
We study the properties of the broad line region in blazars by comparing the virial estimate of black hole masses with that derived from the mass of the host galaxies. The former i…
External versus internal triggers of bar formation in cosmological zoom-in simulations
Tommaso Zana, Massimo Dotti, Pedro R. Capelo +4
The emergence of a large-scale stellar bar is one of the most striking features in disc galaxies. By means of state-of-the-art cosmological zoom-in simulations, we study the format…
ALMA and HST kiloparsec-scale imaging of a quasar-galaxy merger at
Roberto Decarli, Massimo Dotti, Eduardo Bañados +12
We present kpc-scale ALMA and HST imaging of the quasar PJ308-21 at =, tracing dust, gas (via the [CII] 158 m line) and young stars. At a resolution of (…
AGN mass estimates in large spectroscopic surveys: the effect of host galaxy light
Ludovica Varisco, Tullia Sbarrato, Giorgio Calderone +1
Virial-based methods for estimating active supermassive black hole masses are now commonly used on extremely large spectroscopic quasar catalogues. Most spectral analyses, though,…
Massive black hole binary eccentricity in rotating stellar systems
Alberto Sesana, Alessia Gualandris, Massimo Dotti
In this letter we study the eccentricity evolution of a massive black hole (MBH) binary (MBHB) embedded in a rotating stellar cusp. Following the observation that stars on counter-…
Stellar hardening of massive black hole binaries: the impact of the host rotation
Ludovica Varisco, Elisa Bortolas, Massimo Dotti +1
Massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) with masses of ~ 10^4 to ~ 10^10 of solar masses are one of the main targets for currently operating and forthcoming space-borne gravitational w…
Global torques and stochasticity as the drivers of massive black hole pairing in the young Universe
Elisa Bortolas, Pedro R. Capelo, Tommaso Zana +5
The forthcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will probe the population of coalescing massive black hole (MBH) binaries up to the onset of structure formation. Here we…
Shocks and angular momentum flips: a different path to feeding the nuclear regions of merging galaxies
Pedro R. Capelo, Massimo Dotti
We study the dynamics of galaxy mergers, with emphasis on the gas feeding of nuclear regions, using a suite of hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy encounters. The high spatial and…
New insights on the recoiling/binary black hole candidate J0927+2943 via molecular gas observations
Roberto Decarli, Massimo Dotti, Chiara Mazzucchelli +2
The peculiar QSO J0927+2943 shows multiple sets of emission lines in its optical spectrum. This signature has been interpreted as the relative motion between a black hole, either r…