1,358 research outputs found
An extended scheme for fitting X-ray data with accretion disk spectra in the strong gravity regime
Accreting black holes are believed to emit X-rays which then mediate
information about strong gravity in the vicinity of the emission region. We
report on a set of new routines for the Xspec package for analysing X-ray
spectra of black-hole accretion disks. The new computational tool significantly
extends the capabilities of the currently available fitting procedures that
include the effects of strong gravity, and allows one to systematically explore
the constraints on more model parameters than previously possible (for example
black-hole angular momentum). Moreover, axial symmetry of the disk intrinsic
emissivity is not assumed, although it can be imposed to speed up the
computations. The new routines can be used also as a stand-alone and flexible
code with the capability of handling time-resolved spectra in the regime of
strong gravity. We have used the new code to analyse the mean X-ray spectrum
from the long XMM--Newton 2001 campaign of the Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG--6-30-15.
Consistent with previous findings, we obtained a good fit to the broad Fe K
line profile for a radial line intrinsic emissivity law in the disk which is
not a simple power law, and for near maximal value of black hole angular
momentum. However, equally good fits can be obtained also for small values of
the black hole angular momentum. The code has been developed with the aim of
allowing precise modelling of relativistic effects. Although we find that
current data cannot constrain the parameters of black-hole/accretion disk
system well, the approach allows, for a given source or situation, detailed
investigations of what features of the data future studies should be focused on
in order to achieve the goal of uniquely isolating the parameters of such
systems.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ S
Line Emission from an Accretion Disk around a Rotating Black Hole: Toward a Measurement of Frame Dragging
Line emission from an accretion disk and a corotating hot spot about a
rotating black hole are considered for possible signatures of the
frame-dragging effect. We explicitly compare integrated line profiles from a
geometrically thin disk about a Schwarzschild and an extreme Kerr black hole,
and show that the line profile differences are small if the inner radius of the
disk is near or above the Schwarzschild stable-orbit limit of radius 6GM/c^2.
However, if the inner disk radius extends below this limit, as is possible in
the extreme Kerr spacetime, then differences can become significant, especially
if the disk emissivity is stronger near the inner regions. We demonstrate that
the first three moments of a line profile define a three-dimensional space in
which the presence of material at small radii becomes quantitatively evident in
broad classes of disk models. In the context of the simple, thin disk paradigm,
this moment-mapping scheme suggests formally that the iron line detected by the
Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics mission from MCG-6-30-15
(Tanaka et al. 1995) is 3 times more likely to originate from a disk about a
rotating black hole than from a Schwarzschild system. A statistically
significant detection of black hole rotation in this way may be achieved after
only modest improvements in the quality of data. We also consider light curves
and frequency shifts in line emission as a function of time for corotating hot
spots in extreme Kerr and Schwarzschild geometries. Both the frequency-shift
profile and the light curve from a hot spot are valuable measures of orbital
parameters and might possibly be used to detect frame dragging even at radii
approaching 6GM/c^2 if the inclination angle of the orbital plane is large.Comment: 15 pages (LaTex), 7 postscript figures; color plot (Figure 1)
available at http://cfata2.harvard.edu/bromley/nu_nofun.html (This version
contains a new subsection as well as minor corrections.
Region of magnetic dominance near a rotating black hole
This is a brief contribution in which a simplified criterion of the relevance
of the test-particle approximation describing motion of material near a
magnetized black hole is discussed. Application to processes of the dissipative
collimation of astronomical jets (as proposed by de Felice and Curir, 1992) is
mentioned.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in General Relativity and Gravitation, also
available (with additional illustrations) at
http://otokar.troja.mff.cuni.cz/user/karas/au_www/karas/papers.ht
Chaos in black holes surrounded by gravitational waves
The occurrence of chaos for test particles moving around Schwarzschild black
holes perturbed by a special class of gravitational waves is studied in the
context of the Melnikov method. The explicit integration of the equations of
motion for the homoclinic orbit is used to reduce the application of this
method to the study of simple graphics.Comment: 15 pages, LaTex
Gravitational Waves from Chaotic Dynamical System
To investigate how chaos affects gravitational waves, we study the
gravitational waves from a spinning test particle moving around a Kerr black
hole, which is a typical chaotic system. To compare the result with those in
non-chaotic dynamical system, we also analyze a spinless test particle, which
orbit can be complicated in the Kerr back ground although the system is
integrable. We estimate the emitted gravitational waves by the multipole
expansion of a gravitational field. We find a striking difference in the energy
spectra of the gravitational waves. The spectrum for a chaotic orbit of a
spinning particle, contains various frequencies, while some characteristic
frequencies appear in the case of a spinless particle.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures. submitted to PR
The instrumental polarization of the Nasmyth focus polarimetric differential imager NAOS/CONICA (NACO) at the VLT - Implications for time-resolved polarimetric measurements of Sgr A*
We report on the results of calibrating and simulating the instrumental
polarization properties of the ESO VLT adaptive optics camera system
NAOS/CONICA (NACO) in the Ks-band. We use the Stokes/Mueller formalism for
metallic reflections to describe the instrumental polarization. The model is
compared to standard-star observations and time-resolved observations of bright
sources in the Galactic center. We find the instrumental polarization to be
highly dependent on the pointing position of the telescope and about 4% at
maximum. We report a polarization angle offset of 13.28{\deg} due to a position
angle offset of the half-wave plate that affects the calibration of NACO data
taken before autumn 2009. With the new model of the instrumental polarization
of NACO it is possible to measure the polarization with an accuracy of 1% in
polarization degree. The uncertainty of the polarization angle is < 5{\deg} for
polarization degrees > 4%. For highly sampled polarimetric time series we find
that the improved understanding of the polarization properties gives results
that are fully consistent with the previously used method to derive the
polarization. The small difference between the derived and the previously
employed polarization calibration is well within the statistical uncertainties
of the measurements, and for Sgr A* they do not affect the results from our
relativistic modeling of the accretion process.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, accepted by A&A on 2010 October 1
Experimental Indicators of Accretion Processes in Active Galactic Nuclei
Bright Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by accretion of mass onto the super
massive black holes at the centers of the host galaxies. For fainter objects
star formation may significantly contribute to the luminosity. We summarize
experimental indicators of the accretion processes in Active Galactic Nuclei
(AGN), i.e., observable activity indicators that allow us to conclude on the
nature of accretion. The Galactic Center is the closest galactic nucleus that
can be studied with unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity.
Therefore, here we also include the presentation of recent observational
results on Sagittarius A* and the conditions for star formation in the central
stellar cluster. We cover results across the electromagnetic spectrum and find
that the Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) system is well ordered with respect to its
geometrical orientation and its emission processes of which we assume to
reflect the accretion process onto the super massive black hole.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, conference proceeding: Accretion Processes in
Cosmic Sources - APCS2016 - 5-10 September 2016, Saint Petersburg, Russi
X-ray iron line variability for the model of an orbiting flare above a black hole accretion disc
The broad X-ray iron line, detected in many active galactic nuclei, is likely
to be produced by fluorescence from the X-ray illuminated central parts of an
accretion disc close to a supermassive black hole. The time-averaged shape of
the line can be explained most naturally by a combination of special and
general relativistic effects. Such line profiles contain information about the
black hole spin and the accretion disc as well as the geometry of the emitting
region and may help to test general relativity in the strong gravity regime. In
this paper we embark on the computation of the temporal response of the line to
the illuminating flux. Previous studies concentrated on the calculation of
reverberation signatures from static sources illuminating the disc. In this
paper we focus on the more physically justified case of flares located above
the accretion disc and corotating with it. We compute the time dependent iron
line taking into account all general relativistic effects and show that its
shape is of very complex nature, and also present light curves accompanying the
iron line variability. We suggest that future X-ray satellites like XMM or
Constellation-X may be capable of detecting features present in the computed
reverberation maps.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 11 pages, 12 figure
Hawking radiation and thermodynamics of dynamical black holes in phantom dominated universe
The thermodynamic properties of dark energy-dominated universe in the
presence of a black hole are investigated in the general case of a varying
equation-of-state-parameter . We show that all the thermodynamics
quantities are regular at the phantom divide crossing, and particularly the
temperature and the entropy of the dark fluid are always positive definite. We
also study the accretion process of a phantom fluid by black holes and the
conditions required for the validity of the generalized second law of
thermodynamics. As a results we obtain a strictly negative chemical potential
and an equation-of-state parameter Comment: 22 pages,3 figure
Variation in the primary and reprocessed radiation from an orbiting spot around a black hole
We study light curves and spectra (equivalent widths of the iron line and
some other spectral characteristics) which arise by reflection on the surface
of an accretion disc, following its illumination by a primary off-axis source -
an X-ray 'flare', assumed to be a point-like source just above the accretion
disc resulting in a spot with radius dr/r<1. We consider General Relativity
effects (energy shifts, light bending, time delays) near a rotating black hole,
and we find them all important, including the light bending and delay
amplification due to the spot motion. For some sets of parameters the reflected
flux exceeds the flux from the primary component. We show that the
orbit-induced variations of the equivalent width with respect to its mean value
can be as high as 30% for the observer's inclination of 30 degrees, and much
more at higher inclinations. We calculate the ratio of the reflected flux to
the primary flux and the hardness ratio which we find to vary significantly
with the spot phase mainly for small orbital radii. This offers the chance to
estimate the lower limit of the black hole spin if the flare arises close to
the black hole.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted by MNRA
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