S. Komossa's homepage

 Dr. S. Komossa  
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik
Giessenbachstr. 
D-85748 Garching

phone: 49 89 30000-3577
fax:   49 89 30000-3569  
email: skomossa [at] mpe.mpg.de

# Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund >

# Geo schützt den Regenwald >

new: 460th WE-Heraeus Seminar: Black Holes June 7-11, 2010

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

List of publications

Selected recent publications:

• NTT, Spitzer and Chandra spectroscopy of SDSSJ095209.56+214313.3: the most luminous coronal-line supernova ever observed, or a stellar tidal disruption event ?
  Komossa S., H. Zhou, A. Rau, M. Dopita, A. Gal-Yam, J. Greiner, J. Zuther, M. Salvato, D. Xu, H. Lu, R. Saxton, M. Ajello, ApJ, 701, 105 (2009)
  
  
• Gravitational Wave Recoil Oscillations of Black Boles: Implications for Unified Models of Active Galactic Nuclei
  Komossa S., Merritt D., ApJ Letters 689, L89, 2008
  
  
• Tidal Disruption Flares from Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes
  Komossa S., Merritt D., ApJ Letters, 683, L21, 2008
  
  
• A recoiling supermassive black hole in the quasar SDSSJ092712.65+294344.0?
  Komossa S., Zhou H., Lu H.,
  ApJ Letters, 678, L81, 2008
  press releases: MPE , MPG
  
  
• Discovery of superstrong, fading, iron line emission and double-peaked Balmer lines of the galaxy SDSSJ0952+2143 - the light echo of a huge flare
  Komossa S., Zhou H., Wang T., Ajello M., Ge. J., Greiner J., Lu H., Salvato M., Saxton R., Shan H., Xu D., Yuan W.,
  ApJ Letters, 678, L13, 2008
  
  
• On the Nature of Seyfert Galaxies with Extreme Outflows
  Komossa S., Xu D., Zhou H., Storchi-Bergmann T., Binette, L.,
  ApJ, 680, 926, 2008
  
  
• Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies on the M-sigma Relation
  Komossa S., Xu D.,
  ApJ Letters, 667, L33, 2007
  
  
• Radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
  Komossa S., Voges W., Xu D., Mathur S., Adorf H.M., Lemsson G., Duschl W., Grupe D.,
  AJ 132, 531 (2006)
  
  
• Tidal disruption of a star by a supermassive black hole
  Komossa S., Halpern J., Schartel N., Hasinger G., Santos-Lleo M., Predehl P.,
  ApJ Letters 603, L17, 2004
  NASA press release, ESA press release
  
  

(a) Selected Reviews

• Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
  Komossa S., in: The nuclear region, host galaxy and environment of AGN, E. Benitez, I. Cruz-Gonzales, Y. Krongold (eds), RMxAC, 32, 86, 2008 (arXiv:0710.3326v1)
  
  
• Observational evidence for supermassive black hole binaries
  Komossa S., in: The Astrophysics of Gravitational Wave Sources, J. Centrella (ed.), AIP Conf. Proc. 686, 161, (2003)
  
  
• The X-ray evolving Universe: (Ionized) absorption and dust, from nearby Seyfert galaxies to high redshift quasars ,
  Komossa S., Hasinger G., (2003) in: XEUS - studying the evolution of the hot universe, G. Hasinger et al. (eds), MPE Report 281, 85
  
  
• X-ray Evidence for Supermassive Black Holes at the Centers of Nearby Galaxies: Tidal disruption of stars by SMBHs ,
  Komossa S., Ludwig-Biermann-Award Lecture (held Sept. 2001 at JENAM), in: Reviews in Modern Astronomy 15, R. Schielicke (ed),Wiley-VCH, 27-56 (2002)
  
  
• Warm Absorbers in AGN - a review
  Komossa S., (1999), in ASCA-ROSAT workshop on AGN , T. Takahashi, H. Inoue (eds), ISAS Report, p. 149-160
  
  
• Galactic Fountains and Galactic Winds
  Breitschwerdt D., Komossa S., (2000), in proc. of the Evora workshop on Astrophysical Dynamics, D. Berry et al. (eds); Ap&SS 272, p.3-13
  
  

(b) Tidal disruption of stars by supermassive black holes; in form of X-ray flares from non-active galaxies

The giant X-ray outbursts in NGC 5905 and IC 3599: Follow-up observations and outburst scenarios
Komossa S., Bade N., (1999), A&A 343, 775
the paper provides a detailed discussion of the tidal disruption flare of NGC 5905, various alternative outburst scenarios which can be rejected, detailed spectral modelling in terms of different models (powerlaw, bbdy, warm absorber, dusty warm absorber), and shows that the decline lightcurve of NGC 5905 is consistent with a t^{-5/3} law

(c) ULIRGS: NGC 6240

• Discovery of a binary AGN in the ultraluminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240 using Chandra
  Komossa S., Burwitz V., Hasinger G., Predehl P., Kaastra J.S., Ikebe Y., (2003), ApJ 582, L15
  >>> Chandra Press Release, CNN, BBC, Science, etc
  
  
• ROSAT HRI discovery of luminous extended X-ray emission in NGC 6240
  Komossa S., Schulz H., Greiner J., (1998), A&A 334, 110
  
  
• ROSAT evidence for AGN and superwind activity in NGC 6240 and NGC 2782
  Schulz H., Komossa S., Berghöfer T., Boer B., (1998), A&A 330, 823
  
  

(d) Warm absorbers in AGN

• Discovery of an ionized Fe-K edge in the z=3.91 Broad Absorption Line quasar APM 08279+5255 with XMM-Newton
  Hasinger G., Schartel N., Komossa S., (2002), ApJ 573, L77
  
  
• The X-ray view of the quasar MR 2251-178 and its host cluster: variability, absorption, and intracluster gas emission
  Komossa S., (2001), A&A 367, 801
  
  
• X-ray absorption lines in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 discovered with Chandra-LETGS
  ~~~~~~~~~ press release
  Kaastra J., Mewe R., Liedahl D.A., Komossa S., Brinkman A.C., (2000), A&A 354, L83
  
  
• Dusty warm absorbers: IRAS 13349+2438
  Komossa S., Breitschwerdt D., in Astrophysical Dynamics, D. Berry et al. (eds), Ap&SS 272, 299, (2000)
  
  
• Properties of dusty warm absorbers and the case of IRAS 17020+4544
  Komossa S., Bade N., (1998), A&A 331, L49
  
  
• Evidence for a dusty warm absorber in NGC 3227
  Komossa S., Fink H., (1997), A&A 327, 483
  
  
• A ROSAT observation of the warm-absorbed soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 4051
  Komossa S., Fink H., (1997), A&A 322, 719
  
  
• Properties of warm absorbers and constraints from their optical and UV line emission
  Komossa S., Fink H., (1997), in Emission Lines in Active Galaxies: New Methods and Techniques,
  B.M. Peterson et al. (eds), ASP conf. ser. 113, 246
  
  

(e) Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies

• X-ray emission/absorption mechanisms of 4 NLSy-1-like AGN and a radio quasar: QSO 0117-2837, RX J0134.3-4258, NGC 4051, Mrk 1298, 4C +74.26
  Komossa S., Meerschweinchen J., A&A 354, 411, (2000)
  
  
• NGC 4051 (see above), IRAS 17020+4544 (see above), IRAS 13349+2438 (see above), RXJ0134.3-4258 (see above)
  
  

(f) NLR photoionization modelling

• Interpretation of the emission line spectra of Seyfert 2 galaxies by multi-component photoionization models
  Komossa S., Schulz H., (1997), A&A 323, 31
  
  

(g) LINERs, LLAGN and Starbursts

• X-ray properties of LINERs
  Komossa S., Boehringer H., Huchra J., (1999), A&A 349, 88
  
  
• The ROSAT view of NGC 1365 and the luminous, highly variable, off-nuclear X-ray source NGC 1365-X1
  Komossa S., Schulz H., (1998), A&A 339, 345
  
  

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Some useful links (external links are marked with #)

# ADS
# ADS at ESO, Garching
# NED
# A&A
# ApJ
# Active Galaxies Newsletter
Clusters of Galaxies and Cosmology at MPE
# Astronomy meetings worldwide
# Skinakas Observatory, Crete

Conferences

Lighthouses of the Universe. The Most Luminous Celestial Objects and their use for Cosmology
JENAM 2001
Workshop on X-ray spectroscopy of active galactic nuclei with Chandra and XMM-Newton
China-Germany Workshop on The Multiwavelength View on Active Galactic Nuclei
X-Ray Astronomy from the Solar System to the High Redshift Universe (AG Tagung 2002)
The Astrophysics of Gravitational Wave Sources
Japan-Germany Colloquium on The Relativistic Universe

Citations1~~~ Citations2 (by M. Simkin and V. Roychowdhury)

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Last update: Feb. 2010