415 research outputs found
A SuperMassive Black Hole Fundamental Plane for Ellipticals
We obtain the coefficients of a new fundamental plane for supermassive black
holes at the centers of elliptical galaxies, involving measured central black
hole mass and photometric parameters which define the light distribution. The
galaxies are tightly distributed around this mass fundamental plane, with
improvement in the rms residual over those obtained from the \mbh-\sigma and
\mbh-L relations. This implies a strong multidimensional link between the
central massive black hole formation and global photometric properties of
elliptical galaxies and provides an improved estimate of black hole mass from
galaxy data.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
A Correlation between Galaxy Light Concentration and Supermassive Black Hole Mass
We present evidence for a strong correlation between the concentration of
bulges and the mass of their central supermassive black hole (M_bh) -- more
concentrated bulges have more massive black holes. Using C_{r_e}(1/3) from
Trujillo, Graham & Caon (2001b) as a measure of bulge concentration, we find
that log (M_bh/M_sun) = 6.81(+/-0.95)C_{r_e}(1/3) + 5.03(+/-0.41). This
correlation is shown to be marginally stronger (Spearman's r_s=0.91) than the
relationship between the logarithm of the stellar velocity dispersion and log
M_bh (Spearman's r_s=0.86), and has comparable, or less, scatter (0.31 dex in
log M_bh), which decreases to 0.19 dex when we use only those galaxies whose
supermassive black hole's radius of influence is resolved and remove one well
understood outlying data point).Comment: 7 pages, 1 table, 2 figures. ApJ Letters, accepte
Are Particles in Advection-Dominated Accretion Flows Thermal?
We investigate the form of the momentum distribution function for protons and
electrons in an advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF). We show that for all
accretion rates, Coulomb collisions are too inefficient to thermalize the
protons. The proton distribution function is therefore determined by the
viscous heating mechanism, which is unknown. The electrons, however, can
exchange energy quite efficiently through Coulomb collisions and the emission
and absorption of synchrotron photons. We find that for accretion rates greater
than \sim 10^{-3} of the Eddington accretion rate, the electrons have a thermal
distribution throughout the accretion flow. For lower accretion rates, the
electron distribution function is determined by the electron's source of
heating, which is primarily adiabatic compression. Using the principle of
adiabatic invariance, we show that an adiabatically compressed collisionless
gas maintains a thermal distribution until the particle energies become
relativistic. We derive a new, non-thermal, distribution function which arises
for relativistic energies and provide analytic formulae for the synchrotron
radiation from this distribution. Finally, we discuss its implications for the
emission spectra from ADAFs.Comment: 29 pages (Latex), 3 Figures. Submitted to Ap
A Limit Relation between Black Hole Mass and H Width: Testing Super-Eddington Accretion in Active Galactic Nuclei
(abbreviated) We show that there is a limit relation between the black hole
mass and the width at the half maximum of H for active galactic nuclei
(AGNs) with super-Eddington accretion rates. When a black hole has a
super-Eddington accretion rate, the empirical relation of reverberation mapping
has two possible ways. First, it reduces to a relation between the black hole
mass and the size of the broad line region due to the photon trapping effects
inside the accretion disk. For the Kaspi et al.'s empirical reverberation
relation, we get the limit relation as , called as the
Eddington limit. Second, the Eddington limit luminosity will be relaxed if the
trapped photons can escape from the magnetized super-Eddington accretion disk
via the photon bubble instability, and the size of the broad line region will
be enlarged according to the empirical reverberation relation, leading to a
relatively narrow width of H. We call this the Begelman limit.
Super-Eddington accretions in a sample composed of 164 AGNs have been
searched by this limit relation. We find there are a handful of objects locate
between the Eddington and Begelman limit lines, they may be candidates of
super-Eddington accretors in a hybrid structure of photon trapping and photon
bubble instability. The maximum width of H is in the reange of km s for the maximum mass black holes with
super-Eddington accretion rates among AGNs. We suggest that this limit relation
is more reliable and convenient to test whether a source is super-Eddington and
useful to probe the structure of the super-Eddington accretion process.Comment: 5 pages (emulateapj5.sty), 1 figure. Astronomical Journal, 125 (June
Issue 2003) in pres
Star Captures by Quasar Accretion Disks: A Possible Explanation of the M-sigma Relation
A new theory of quasars is presented in which the matter of thin accretion
disks around black holes is supplied by stars that plunge through the disk.
Stars in the central part of the host galaxy are randomly perturbed to highly
radial orbits, and as they repeatedly cross the disk they lose orbital energy
by drag, eventually merging into the disk. Requiring the rate of stellar mass
capture to equal the mass accretion rate into the black hole, a relation
between the black hole mass and the stellar velocity dispersion is predicted of
the form M_{BH} \propto sigma_*^{30/7}. The normalization depends on various
uncertain parameters such as the disk viscosity, but is consistent with
observation for reasonable assumptions. We show that a seed central black hole
in a newly formed stellar system can grow at the Eddington rate up to this
predicted mass via stellar captures by the accretion disk. Once this mass is
reached, star captures are insufficient to maintain an Eddington accretion
rate, and the quasar may naturally turn off as the accretion switches to a
low-efficiency advection mode. The model provides a mechanism to deliver mass
to the accretion disk at small radius, probably solving the problem of
gravitational instability to star formation in the disk at large radius. We
note that the matter from stars that is incorporated to the disk has an average
specific angular momentum that is very small or opposite to that of the disk,
and discuss how a rotating disk may be maintained as it captures this matter if
a small fraction of the accreted mass comes from stellar winds that form a disk
extending to larger radius. We propose several observational tests and
consequences of this theory.Comment: submitted to Ap
The Cooling Flow to Accretion Flow Transition
Cooling flows in galaxy clusters and isolated elliptical galaxies are a
source of mass for fueling accretion onto a central supermassive black hole. We
calculate the dynamics of accreting matter in the combined gravitational
potential of a host galaxy and a central black hole assuming a steady state,
spherically symmetric flow (i.e., no angular momentum). The global dynamics
depends primarily on the accretion rate. For large accretion rates, no simple,
smooth transition between a cooling flow and an accretion flow is possible; the
gas cools towards zero temperature just inside its sonic radius, which lies
well outside the region where the gravitational influence of the central black
hole is important. For accretion rates below a critical value, however, the
accreting gas evolves smoothly from a radiatively driven cooling flow at large
radii to a nearly adiabatic (Bondi) flow at small radii. We argue that this is
the relevant parameter regime for most observed cooling flows. The transition
from the cooling flow to the accretion flow should be observable in M87 with
the {\it Chandra X-ray Observatory}.Comment: emulateapj.sty, 10 pages incl. 5 figures, to appear in Ap
Stellar Kinematics of the Double Nucleus of M31
We report observations of the double nucleus of M31 with the f/48 long-slit
spectrograph of the HST Faint Object Camera. We obtain a total exposure of
19,000 sec. over 7 orbits, with the 0.063-arcsec-wide slit along the line
between the two brightness peaks (PA 42). A spectrum of Jupiter is used as a
spectral template. The rotation curve is resolved, and reaches a maximum
amplitude of ~250 km/s roughly 0.3 arcsec either side of a rotation center
lying between P1 and P2, 0.16 +/- 0.05 arcsec from the optically fainter P2. We
find the velocity dispersion to be < 250 km/s everywhere except for a narrow
``dispersion spike'', centered 0.06 +/- 0.03 arcsec on the anti-P1 side of P2,
in which sigma peaks at 440 +/- 70 km/s. At much lower confidence, we see local
disturbances to the rotation curve at P1 and P2, and an elevation in sigma at
P1. At very low significance we detect a weak asymmetry in the line-of-sight
velocity distribution opposite to the sense usually encountered. Convolving our
V and sigma profiles to CFHT resolution, we find good agreement with the
results of Kormendy & Bender (1998, preprint), though there is a 20%
discrepancy in the dispersion that cannot be attributed to the dispersion
spike. Our results are not consistent with the location of the maximum
dispersion as found by Bacon et al. We find that the sinking star cluster model
of Emsellem & Combes (1997) does not reproduce either the rotation curve or the
dispersion profile. The eccentric disk model of Tremaine (1995) fares better,
and can be improved somewhat by adjusting the original parameters. However,
detailed modeling will require dynamical models of significantly greater
realism.Comment: 29 pages, Latex, AASTeX v4.0, with 7 eps figures. To appear in The
Astronomical Journal, February 199
Coevolution of Supermassive Black Holes and Circumnuclear Disks
We propose a new evolutionary model of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and a
circumnuclear disk (CND), taking into account the mass-supply from a host
galaxy and the physical states of CND. In the model, two distinct accretion
modes depending on gravitational stability of the CND play a key role on
accreting gas to a SMBH. (i) If the CMD is gravitationally unstable, energy
feedback from supernovae (SNe) supports a geometrically thick, turbulent gas
disk. The accretion in this mode is dominated by turbulent viscosity, and it is
significantly larger than that in the mode (ii), i.e., the CMD is supported by
gas pressure. Once the gas supply from the host is stopped, the high accretion
phase () changes to the low one (mode
(ii), ), but there is a delay with yr. Through this evolution, the gas-rich CND turns into the gas poor
stellar disk. We found that not all the gas supplied from the host galaxy
accrete onto the SMBH even in the high accretion phase (mode (i)), because the
part of gas is used to form stars. As a result, the final SMBH mass () is not proportional to the total gas mass supplied from the host
galaxy (); decreases with .This would indicate that it is difficult to form a SMBH with observed at high- QSOs. The evolution of the SMBH and CND would
be related to the evolutionary tracks of different type of AGNs.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
An accretion model for the growth of the central black hole associated with ionization instability in quasars
A possible accretion model associated with the ionization instability of
quasar disks is proposed to address the growth of the central black hole
harbored in the host galaxy.The mass ratio between black hole and its host
galactic bulge is a nature consequence of our model.Comment: submitted to ApJ, 15 page
Using Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Nuclear Dust Morphology to Rule Out Bars Fueling Seyfert Nuclei
If AGN are powered by the accretion of matter onto massive black holes, how
does the gas in the host galaxy lose the required angular momentum to approach
the black hole? Gas easily transfers angular momentum to stars in strong bars,
making them likely candidates. Although ground-based searches for bars in
active galaxies using both optical and near infrared surface brightness have
not found any excess of bars relative to quiescent galaxies, the searches have
not been able to rule out small-scale nuclear bars. To look for these nuclear
bars we use HST WFPC2-NICMOS color maps to search for the straight dust lane
signature of strong bars. Of the twelve Seyfert galaxies in our sample, only
three have dust lanes consistent with a strong nuclear bar. Therefore, strong
nuclear bars cannot be the primary fueling mechanism for Seyfert nuclei. We do
find that a majority of the galaxies show an spiral morphology in their dust
lanes. These spiral arms may be a possible fueling mechanism.Comment: To be published in the Astronomical Journal, June 1999. 25 pages and
14 figures. Full resolution figures are available at
ftp://www.ciw.edu/pub/mregan/fullfigs.tar.g
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