39 research outputs found
Compact radio cores: from the first black holes to the last
One of the clearest signs of black hole activity is the presence of a compact
radio core in the nuclei of galaxies. With the Square Kilometer Array (SKA)
these cores can be used to study the evolution of black holes throughout the
universe and even to detect the very first generation of supermassive black
holes. We start by introducing some of the basic properties of compact radio
cores and how they scale with accretion power. The relative contribution of
jets and radio cores to the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) is strongest in
sub-Eddington black holes but also present in the most luminous objects. Radio
and X-rays are correlated as a function of black hole mass such that the most
massive black holes are most suited for radio detections. We present a radio
core luminosity function for the present universe down to the least luminous
AGN. The SKA will essentially detect all dormant black holes in the local
universe, such as that in our Milky Way, out to several tens of Megaparsecs. It
will also be able to see black holes in the making at redshifts z>10 for black
hole masses larger than 10^7 M_sun. Finally, we suggest that the first
generation of black holes may have jets that are frustrated in their dense
environment and thus appear as Gigahertz-Peaked-Spectrum (GPS) sources. Since
their intrinsic size and peak frequency are related and angular size and
frequency scale differently with redshift, there is a unique region in
parameter space that should be occupied by emerging black holes in the epoch of
reionization. This can be well probed by radio-only methods with the SKA.
(abridged)Comment: latex, 16 pages, 11 figures, to appear in: "Science with the Square
Kilometer Array," eds. C. Carilli and S. Rawlings, New Astronomy Reviews,
(Elsevier: Amsterdam
PROFIT: a new alternative for emission-line PROfile FITting
I briefly describe a simple routine for emission-line profiles fitting by
Gaussian curves or Gauss-Hermite series. The PROFIT (line-PROfile FITting)
routine represent a new alternative for use in fits data cubes, as those from
Integral Field Spectroscopy or Fabry-Perot Interferometry, and may be useful to
better study the emission-line flux distributions and gas kinematics in
distinct astrophysical objects, such as the central regions of galaxies and
star forming regions. The PROFIT routine is written in IDL language and is
available at http://www.ufsm.br/rogemar/software.html.
The PROFIT routine was used to fit the [Fe II]1.257um emission-line profiles
for about 1800 spectra of the inner 350 pc of the Seyfert galaxy Mrk1066
obtained with Gemini NIFS and shows that the line profiles are better
reproduced by Gauss-Hermite series than by the commonly used Gaussian curves.
The two-dimensional map of the h_3 Gauss-Hermite moment shows its highest
absolute values in regions close to the edge of the radio structure. These high
values may be originated in an biconical outflowing gas associated with the
radio jet - previously observed in the optical [O III] emission. The analysis
of this kinematic component indicates that the radio jet leaves the center of
the galaxy with the north-west side slightly oriented towards us and the
south-east side away from us, being partially hidden by the disc of the galaxy.Comment: Accepted for publication Astrophysics & Space Science - 7 pges; 4
Fig
Nearby quasar remnants and ultra-high energy cosmic rays
As recently suggested, nearby quasar remnants are plausible sites of
black-hole based compact dynamos that could be capable of accelerating
ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). In such a model, UHECRs would originate
at the nuclei of nearby dead quasars, those in which the putative underlying
supermassive black holes are suitably spun-up. Based on galactic optical
luminosity, morphological type, and redshift, we have compiled a small sample
of nearby objects selected to be highly luminous, bulge-dominated galaxies,
likely quasar remnants. The sky coordinates of these galaxies were then
correlated with the arrival directions of cosmic rays detected at energies EeV. An apparently significant correlation appears in our data. This
correlation appears at closer angular scales than those expected when taking
into account the deflection caused by typically assumed IGM or galactic
magnetic fields over a charged particle trajectory. Possible scenarios
producing this effect are discussed, as is the astrophysics of the quasar
remnant candidates. We suggest that quasar remnants be also taken into account
in the forthcoming detailed search for correlations using data from the Auger
Observatory.Comment: 2 figures, 4 tables, 11 pages. Final version to appear in Physical
Review
The polarized image of a synchrotron-emitting ring of gas orbiting a black hole
High Energy Astrophysic
Constraints on black-hole charges with the 2017 EHT observations of M87*
InstrumentationHigh Energy Astrophysic
The variability of the black hole image in M87 at the dynamical timescale
The black hole images obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) are expected to be variable at the dynamical timescale near their horizons. For the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, this timescale (5–61 days) is comparable to the 6 day extent of the 2017 EHT observations. Closure phases along baseline triangles are robust interferometric observables that are sensitive to the expected structural changes of the images but are free of station-based atmospheric and instrumental errors. We explored the day-to-day variability in closure-phase measurements on all six linearly independent nontrivial baseline triangles that can be formed from the 2017 observations. We showed that three triangles exhibit very low day-to-day variability, with a dispersion of ∼3°–5°. The only triangles that exhibit substantially higher variability (∼90°–180°) are the ones with baselines that cross the visibility amplitude minima on the u–v plane, as expected from theoretical modeling. We used two sets of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations to explore the dependence of the predicted variability on various black hole and accretion-flow parameters. We found that changing the magnetic field configuration, electron temperature model, or black hole spin has a marginal effect on the model consistency with the observed level of variability. On the other hand, the most discriminating image characteristic of models is the fractional width of the bright ring of emission. Models that best reproduce the observed small level of variability are characterized by thin ring-like images with structures dominated by gravitational lensing effects and thus least affected by turbulence in the accreting plasmas.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac332e/pdfPublished versio
Event Horizon Telescope observations of the jet launching and collimation in Centaurus A
InstrumentationLarge scale structure and cosmolog
A universal power-law prescription for variability from synthetic images of black hole accretion flows
Instrumentatio