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Scaling Relations from Stellar to Supermassive Black Holes

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Abstract

Accretion is a ubiquitous phenomenon—it is seen in sources ranging from young stars to accreting supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies. Here, we present the known empirical connections between stellar mass X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. We argue that this implies that both the accretion disc and the jet are scale invariant with respect to the black hole mass. Finally, we show that also accretion discs and jets in sources with a different accretor can be connected empirically to accreting black holes, hinting towards a common mechanism of accretion in all sources.

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Körding, E. Scaling Relations from Stellar to Supermassive Black Holes. Space Sci Rev 183, 149–161 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0056-4

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