Modelling the black hole silhouette in Sgr A* with ion tori

We calculate the "observed at infinity" image and spectrum of the accretion structure in Sgr A*, by modelling it as an optically thin, constant angular momentum ion torus in hydrodynamic equilibrium. The physics we consider includes a two-temperature plasma, a toroidal magnetic field, as well as radiative cooling by bremsstrahlung, synchrotron and inverse Compton processes. Our relativistic model has the virtue of being fully analytic and very simple, depending only on eight tunable parameters: the black hole spin and the inclination of the spin axis to our line of sight, the torus angular momentum, the polytropic index, the magnetic to total pressure ratio, the central values of density and electron temperature and the ratio of electron to ion temperatures. The observed image and spectrum are calculated numerically using the ray-tracing code GYOTO. Our results demonstrate that the ion torus model is able to account for the main features of the accretion structure surrounding Sgr A*.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, submitted to A &

Imaging the Schwarzschild-radius-scale Structure of M87 with the Event Horizon Telescope Using Sparse Modeling

We propose a new imaging technique for radio and optical/infrared interferometry. The proposed technique reconstructs the image from the visibility amplitude and closure phase, which are standard data products of short-millimeter very long baseline interferometers such as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and optical/infrared interferometers, by utilizing two regularization functions: the ℓ_1-norm and total variation (TV) of the brightness distribution. In the proposed method, optimal regularization parameters, which represent the sparseness and effective spatial resolution of the image, are derived from data themselves using cross-validation (CV). As an application of this technique, we present simulated observations of M87 with the EHT based on four physically motivated models. We confirm that ℓ_1 + TV regularization can achieve an optimal resolution of ~20%–30% of the diffraction limit λ/D_(max), which is the nominal spatial resolution of a radio interferometer. With the proposed technique, the EHT can robustly and reasonably achieve super-resolution sufficient to clearly resolve the black hole shadow. These results make it promising for the EHT to provide an unprecedented view of the event-horizon-scale structure in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole in M87 and also the Galactic center Sgr A*

Binary black hole shadows, chaotic scattering and the Cantor set

We investigate the qualitative features of binary black hole shadows using the model of two extremally charged black holes in static equilibrium (a Majumdar–Papapetrou solution). Our perspective is that binary spacetimes are natural exemplars of chaotic scattering, because they admit more than one fundamental null orbit, and thus an uncountably infinite set of perpetual null orbits which generate scattering singularities in initial data. Inspired by the three-disc model, we develop an appropriate symbolic dynamics to describe planar null geodesics on the double black hole spacetime. We show that a one-dimensional (1D) black hole shadow may constructed through an iterative procedure akin to the construction of the Cantor set; thus the 1D shadow is self-similar. Next, we study non-planar rays, to understand how angular momentum affects the existence and properties of the fundamental null orbits. Taking slices through 2D shadows, we observe three types of 1D shadow: regular, Cantor-like, and highly chaotic. The switch from Cantor-like to regular occurs where outer fundamental orbits are forbidden by angular momentum. The highly chaotic part is associated with an unexpected feature: stable and bounded null orbits, which exist around two black holes of equal mass M separated by a1 < a < √ 2a1, where a1 = 4M/√ 27. To show how this possibility arises, we define a certain potential function and classify its stationary points. We conjecture that the highly chaotic parts of the 2D shadow possess the Wada property. Finally, we consider the possibility of following null geodesics through event horizons, and chaos in the maximally extended spacetime

A [4Fe-4S]-Fe(CO)(CN)-L-cysteine intermediate is the first organometallic precursor in [FeFe] hydrogenase H-cluster bioassembly.

Biosynthesis of the [FeFe] hydrogenase active site (the 'H-cluster') requires the interplay of multiple proteins and small molecules. Among them, the radical S-adenosylmethionine enzyme HydG, a tyrosine lyase, has been proposed to generate a complex that contains an Fe(CO)2(CN) moiety that is eventually incorporated into the H-cluster. Here we describe the characterization of an intermediate in the HydG reaction: a [4Fe-4S][(Cys)Fe(CO)(CN)] species, 'Complex A', in which a CO, a CN- and a cysteine (Cys) molecule bind to the unique 'dangler' Fe site of the auxiliary [5Fe-4S] cluster of HydG. The identification of this intermediate-the first organometallic precursor to the H-cluster-validates the previously hypothesized HydG reaction cycle and provides a basis for elucidating the biosynthetic origin of other moieties of the H-cluster

Detection of intrinsic source structure at ~3 Schwarzschild radii with Millimeter-VLBI observations of SAGITTARIUS A*

We report results from very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) observations of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center, Sgr A*, at 1.3 mm (230 GHz). The observations were performed in 2013 March using six VLBI stations in Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Chile. Compared to earlier observations, the addition of the APEX telescope in Chile almost doubles the longest baseline length in the array, provides additional {\it uv} coverage in the N-S direction, and leads to a spatial resolution of $\sim$30 $\mu$as ($\sim$3 Schwarzschild radii) for Sgr A*. The source is detected even at the longest baselines with visibility amplitudes of $\sim$4-13% of the total flux density. We argue that such flux densities cannot result from interstellar refractive scattering alone, but indicate the presence of compact intrinsic source structure on scales of $\sim$3 Schwarzschild radii. The measured nonzero closure phases rule out point-symmetric emission. We discuss our results in the context of simple geometric models that capture the basic characteristics and brightness distributions of disk- and jet-dominated models and show that both can reproduce the observed data. Common to these models are the brightness asymmetry, the orientation, and characteristic sizes, which are comparable to the expected size of the black hole shadow. Future 1.3 mm VLBI observations with an expanded array and better sensitivity will allow a more detailed imaging of the horizon-scale structure and bear the potential for a deep insight into the physical processes at the black hole boundary.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Ap