An important point which emerged from this meeting is that disks in AGNs are not simply thin, Keplerian type; they show more complex behaviour. Chakrabarti (1990a and references therein) has shown that in an inviscid accretion disk with significant angular momentum, the centrifugal barrier is strong enough to produce axisymmetric standing shock wave. Subsequently, this work was extended to include the non-axisymmetric and viscous disks (Chakrabarti, 1990b). Particularly important are the solutions with viscosity, as they show that as the viscosity is increased, the stable becomes weaker and weaker till it disappears completely. This solution has a unifying character that inviscid pressure driven disks have almost constant angular momentum and can have shock discontinuities, but viscous driven disks dissipate angular momentum quick enough not to have centrifugal barrier and therefore no shock waves. Chakrabarti & Molteni (1993), using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics have shown that shocks are produced in inviscid disks, exactly where they are predicted.

Unlike a Keplerian disk, a disk with a shock has basically two temperature zones. The post shock solution is responsible for the Big Blue Bump and UV excess (Chakrabarti and Wiita, 1992). At the shock location, the disk is ‘bulged’ the hard radiation from this region is intercepted by the cooler pre-shock flow. The shock strength and location are sensitive to input specific energy of the flow. This configuration might be responsible for the ‘zero-lag’ correlated variability of, say, NGC 5548 (Chakrabarti, Haardt, Maraschi & Molendi, AA, submitted) discussed in this meeting. Spiral shocks which may be produced in disks in a binary system can also appear in disks around AGNs; the perturbation may be due to passage of massive objects (Chakrabarti & Wiita, 1993a). They also cause time variations in the double horned pattern from disk line emission (Chakrabarti & Wiita 1993b) as observed in, say ARP 102B. All these observations point that shocks are probably important ingredients in any accretion disk in AGNs

Radiation emitted from an accretion disk around a central black hole is the widely accepted model for the observed optical to UV emission from AGN. We have calculated the properties of a standard α-accretion disk (Shakura and Sunyaev, 1973). We present a fully self-consistent model of the structure and the spectrum of such a disk, i.e. the internal vertical density and temperature profiles are calculated simultaneously with the local spectra. Constant density models have been presented by (Ross et al., 1992). The central object is assumed to be a Kerr black hole (BH); relativistic corrections are included. The local energy production is assumed to be entirely due to turbulence. The radiative transfer equation is solved using the Eddington approximation. Inelastic Compton scattering is treated approximately by the Kompaneets equation, and the absorption cross section contains free-free and bound-free processes for hydrogen. The energy transport includes radiation and convection, and the convective flux is calculated in the mixing length theory, taking into account the heating and cooling of the rising elements. Although the convective flux is energetically negligible it has a strong influence on the vertical density structure. We performed several calculations for different parameters such as Ṁ and α. In regions, where the surface radiation flux is large, we get a strong density inversion because the radiation force per unit mass overcomes the gravitational force. Such a density profile, however, is unstable against convection. Including the convective flux then leads to a monotonic density profile. Figures 1 and 2 show the structure and integrated spectrum for two different disk models.

The properties of the nuclear region of the elliptical galaxy NGC4261 (=3C270), the second brightest radio source in the Virgo cluster, have been studied using high resolution HST images and La Palma WHT spectra.

Field and Rogers (1993) proposed that the accretion disks in moderate - L AGN (≲ 1044 erg sec−1) are dominated by magnetic stress rather than gas or radiation pressure. A magnetic field parallel to the disk forms loops above and below it where reconnection accelerates electrons to relativistic energies. The nonthermal radiation observed is the synchrotron emission and inverse-Compton scattering by these electrons.

The present paper reports results of a study of turbulent energy transport in AGN accretion disks. We follow the spirit of the papers by Shakura et al. and Rüdiger et. al in which the concept of an eddy heat conductivity was introduced and developed. For the viscosity we use a standard α− description with the main component of the stress tensor trø proportional to the gas pressure. The dimensionless Prandtl number Pr given as the ratio of turbulent kinematic viscosity and turbulent heat conductivity enters the model as a free parameter. The disk structure depends sensitively on material properties such as opacities and specific heats. In our calculations we have used an equation of state and mean opacities taking into account a list of the most important ionization processes as well as the radiation contributions to thermodynamic quantities.

Radial structure of outer regions of α-disks (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973) is investigated in a more sophisticated way than in Collin-Souffrin & Dumont (1990). The vertically averaged equations for the disk structure hold but some of them are reconsidered : the equation of state (atoms, ions and molecules) with a the rigourous treatment of opacities is introduced. The radiative flux is treated as in Hubeny (1990), and finally a rigourous treatment of the self-gravitaty is included.

We investigate the structure of an X-ray heated accretion disk in active galactic nuclei. It is found that X-ray heating can prevent the disk to be disrupted by its self-gravity under sufficient X-ray heating. The disk size can be two orders of magnitute larger than that limited by self-gravity of the disk without X-ray heating. An accretion disk corona will be formed by X-ray heating and can be a site for line emission. We present such emission line spectra which range from optical to hard X-ray energies and compare with the observational data.

We study the structure of hot, two-temperature accretion disks around black holes, including the effects of thermal cyclo-synchrotron radiation and magnetic viscosity. This work is an extension of previous work by Björnsson & Svensson (1991a, b, 1992) and Kusunose & Mineshige (1992), which did not include those effects. Magnetic field, B, is assumed to be randomly oriented and determined by prescribing the ratio α = P mag/P gas or α = P mag/(P gas + P rad), where P mag, P gas, and P rad are the pressures of magnetic field, gas, and radiation, respectively. We find those effects do not change the qualitative properties of the disks, i.e., there are two critical accretion rates related to production of e ± pairs, Ṁ cr U and Ṁ cr L that affect the number of local and global disk solutions, as recently found for the case with B = 0 (Björnsson & Svensson 1991a, b, 1992). However, a critical value of the α-viscosity parameter above which those critical accretion rates disappear becomes smaller than αcr = 1 found in the case of B = 0, for P mag = α(P gas + P rad). If P mag = αP gas, on the other hand, αcr is still about unity. Moreover, when Comptonized cyclo-synchrotron radiation dominates Comptonized bremsstrahlung, radiation from the disk obeys a power law with the energy spectral index of ∼ 0.5, in a qualitative agreement with X-ray observations of AGNs and Galactic black hole candidates. The spectral index is weakly dependent on the mass accretion rate.

We present the results of 3-d numerical simulations of galactic dynamos. Using reasonably justifiable parameters, kinematic dynamo models are shown to reproduce the gross features of galaxy magnetic fields. The central field morphology is suggestive of an embryonic jet generator.

We consider two forms of variability in black hole accretion disks: harmonically oscillating modes trapped near the disk inner edge, and noisy fluctuations throughout the entire disk. We apply the former to AGN disks, and the latter to the X-ray power spectra of GX339-4.

The structure and stability of the two-temperature accretion disk around compact object with central soft-photon source is studied.

It is commonly admitted that AGN contain a massive black hole fuelled most likely by an accretion disc. Several spectral features of the AGN, as the continuum excess in the UV and the broad line spectrum, involving different physical processes of emission (thermal for the UV continuum, photoionisation for the line spectrum) have been proposed as signatures of the disc. Physical parameters of the nucleus (as the mass of the black hole, M, the disc inclination, i, and accretion rate, Ṁ) are better determined when these two spectral features are modelled simultaneously. Here, we present results from the disc modelling (see) of the UV and broad Hβ emission of the 22 Seyfert 1 galaxies in a complete AGN sample selected in a hard X-ray survey.

A model and simulation code have been developed for time-dependent axisymmetric disk accretion onto a compact object including for the first time the influence of an ordered magnetic field and magnetically driven outflow of energy and angular momentum in (±z) directions (see also Lovelace et al., 1993). It was shown that the system behaviour crucially depends on the amplitude of the poloidal magnetic field fluctuation B p, compared to the critical value B cr ∼ (α2 T 1/2σ/R 3/2)1/2, where T(r, t) is the temperature, σ(r, t) the surface density of the disk, R the radial distance, α the alpha coefficient of Shakura-Sunyaev disk model. If the fluctuation is small, B p < B cr, then it diffuses outwards with decreasing the amplitude and eventually disappears. In the opposite case B p > B cr, a soliton-like structure forms in the disk density, temperature, and magnetic field and propagates implosively inward. In this case the radial accretion speed u(r, t) is shown to be the sum of the usual viscous contribution and magneitic contribution ∼ R 3/2 B 2p/σ. The essential part of angular momentum and energy is going to the jet from the region of fluctuation. Compression of matter in the propagating wave leads to enhancement of magnetic field and more effective angular momentum outflow. This leads in turn to accelerated accretion and subsequent enhancement of magnetic field. It gives the implosive nature of the process, which can be observed as: simultaneous burst in the radiation and outflow. The model is pertinent to the formation of discrete components observed in VLBI jets which appear to originate at times of optical outbursts at some quasars.

The hybrid accretion-disk (HAD) model links the two characteristic components of AGN spectra – the UV bump and the X-ray power-law – in the framework of one physical model. The radially stratified hybrid disk is a self consistent combination of a thin, cool accretion disk at large radii, with an inner hot two-temperature disk. Its spectrum consists of three components, corresponding to the three radial disk regions: a blackbody thermal spectrum from the outer cool disk, a Comptonized soft photon power-law spectrum from the intermediate region, and a thermal Comptonized bremsstrahlung spectrum from the inner region. The dependence of the hybrid disk spectrum on the accretion rate and on other parameters is discussed and applied to AGN spectral evolution, and in particular to explaining the cosmic X-ray background by AGN.

Using the magnetized accretion disk AGN model of Field and Rogers (1993, ApJ, 403, 94), the spectral emission from far infrared to γ-ray is calculated. The resulting spectrum closely resembles that of Seyfert 1 galaxies. The effect of optically thin dust above the accretion disk is investigated.

We consider illumination effects in a weakly self–gravitating (4πGΣ ∼ Ω2 z) outer disk region (R ∼ 1017cm) around a supermassive blackhole of M 8 = M/108Msun = 1 with relatively high mass accretion rates (Ṁ 25 = Ṁ/1025g/s = 1). (e.g., Shlosman and Begelman 1989, APJ, 341, 685; Shore and White 1982, APJ, 256, 390).

To study whether the radio properties of BL Lacertae type objects and QSOs differ, we initiated a program in 1979 to monitor the total flux density and linear polarization at 14.5, 8.0 and 4.8 GHz of the strongest then known BL Lac objects which met the Hewitt-Burbidge criteria (Ledden, private communications) plus 3 subsequently identified high declination BL Lacs (Biermann et al. 1981). Results based on the behavior of the 45 brightest sample members are compared here with the properties of the QSOs in the flux-limited Pearson-Readhead sample (Pearson and Readhead 1988).

By characterising the range of quasar UV-optical spectral indices and any correlation with it e.g. luminosity or line parameters, we hope to remove one more bias from the quasar luminosity function (QLF).

Dynamical studies of galactic collisions, conducted previously (Chatterjee, 1992, 1993a, b), indicated that most of the mergers take place in two to three shrinking orbital periods. We extend this line of research work to study induced nuclear activity. We study the binary evolution of a spiral galaxy perturbed by a compact elliptical galaxy of comparable mass and find that each time the perturber penetrates the disk of the spiral, the disk is subjected to an appropriate perturbation, causing inflow of gas towards its nucleus due to loss of angular momentum; there it could activate an inert black hole (consistent with previous studies; e.g. Naguchi, 1988). However a new feature that we find is that repeated episodes of disk penetration by the perturber occur in gradually shorter timescales, causing an overlap of the activity timescale and the dynamical timescale. In fact if the elliptical is very compact and the spiral has a massive bulge, subsequent dynamical timescales reduce by more than an order of magnitude. This periodic increase in the activity of the nucleus is of a secular nature (in contrast to a reactivation process), and could lead to the evolution of the spiral along the following lines, Starburst → Seyfert 2 → Seyfert 1, as interpenetrations follow.

The information of spatial distribution of quasars would be very important in building the model of formation of AGN. Following the development of high efficiency detectors and related technique, quasar samples with less selection effect were and will gradually available. As we know that the power spectrum analysis gives a more robust determination of large scale distribution of objets. We develop a new methods to determine the power spectrum in a three dimension ball, which is more suited to the case of quasars survey. The details of our approach can be found in Tao and Chu (1993).