199 research outputs found
Interpreting radiative efficiency in radio-loud AGNs
Author submitted version of unrefereed Nature Astronomy comment. Version in journal format available at https://rdcu.be/KH6WRadiative efficiency in radio-loud active galactic nuclei is governed by the accretion rate onto the central black hole rather than directly by the type of accreted matter; while it correlates with real differences in host galaxies and environments, it does not provide unambiguous information about particular objects.Non peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Radio variability of 1st 3-months Fermi blazars at 5 GHz: affected by interstellar scintillation?
Blazars from the first-three-months Fermi-AGN list were observed with the
Urumqi 25m radio telescope at 5GHz in IDV (Intra-Day Variability) mode and
inter-month observation mode. A significant correlation between the flux
density at 5GHz and the gamma-ray intensity for the Fermi-LAT detected blazars
is seen. There is a higher IDV detection rate in Fermi detected blazars than
those reported for other samples. Stronger variability appears at lower
Galactic latitudes; IDV appears to be stronger in weaker sources, indicating
that the variability is affected by interstellar scintillation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, in proceedings of 'Multiwavelength Variability of
Blazars' in Guangzhou Uni. of China, 22-24, Sep. 2010, to appear in JA
Unification of Radio Galaxies and Their Accretion/Jet Properties
We investigate the relation between black hole mass, M_bh, and jet power,
Q_jet, for a sample of BL Lacs and radio quasars. We find that BL Lacs are
separated from radio quasars by the FR I/II dividing line in M_bh-Q_jet plane,
which strongly supports the unification scheme of FR I/BL Lac and FR II/radio
quasar. The Eddington ratio distribution of BL Lacs and radio quasars exhibits
a bimodal nature with a rough division at L_bol/L_Edd~0.01, which imply that
they may have different accretion modes. We calculate the jet power extracted
from advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF), and find that it require
dimensionless angular momentum of black hole j~0.9-0.99 to reproduce the
dividing line between FR I/II or BL Lac/radio quasar if dimensionless accretion
rate mdot=0.01 is adopted, which is required by above bimodal distribution of
Eddington ratios. Our results suggest that black holes in radio galaxies are
rapidly spinning.Comment: To appear JAA in Jun
Estimating black hole masses of blazars
Estimating black hole masses of blazars is still a big challenge. Because of
the contamination of jets, using the previously suggested size -- continuum
luminosity relation can overestimate the broad line region (BLR) size and black
hole mass for radio-loud AGNs, including blazars. We propose a new relation
between the BLR size and emission line luminosity and present
evidences for using it to get more accurate black hole masses of radio-loud
AGNs. For extremely radio-loud AGNs such as blazars with weak/absent emission
lines, we suggest to use the fundamental plane relation of their elliptical
host galaxies to estimate the central velocity dispersions and black hole
masses, if their velocity dispersions are not known but the host galaxies can
be mapped. The black hole masses of some well-known blazars, such as OJ 287, AO
0235+164 and 3C 66B, are obtained using these two methods and the M -
relation. The implications of their black hole masses on other related studies
are also discussed.Comment: 7 pages, invited talk presented in the workshop on Multiwavelength
Variability of Blazars (Guangzhou, China, Sept. 22-24, 2010). To be published
in the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronom
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Age differences in brain activity during emotion processing: reflections of age-Related decline or increased emotion regulation?
Despite the fact that physical health and cognitive abilities decline with aging, the ability to regulate emotion remains stable and in some aspects improves across the adult life span. Older adults also show a positivity effect in their attention and memory, with diminished processing of negative stimuli relative to positive stimuli compared with younger adults. The current paper reviews functional magnetic resonance imaging studies investigating age-related differences in emotional processing and discusses how this evidence relates to two opposing theoretical accounts of older adultsâ positivity effect. The aging-brain model [Cacioppo et al. in: Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding the Underpinnings of the Social Mind. New York, Oxford University Press, 2011] proposes that older adultsâ positivity effect is a consequence of age-related decline in the amygdala, whereas the cognitive control hypothesis [Kryla-Lighthall and Mather in: Handbook of Theories of Aging, ed 2. New York, Springer, 2009; Mather and Carstensen: Trends Cogn Sci 2005;9:496â502; Mather and Knight: Psychol Aging 2005;20:554â570] argues that the positivity effect is a result of older adultsâ greater focus on regulating emotion. Based on evidence for structural and functional preservation of the amygdala in older adults and findings that older adults show greater prefrontal cortex activity than younger adults while engaging in emotion-processing tasks, we argue that the cognitive control hypothesis is a more likely explanation for older adultsâ positivity effect than the aging-brain model
BASS. XXXV. The MBH-Ï* Relation of 105 Month Swift-BAT Type 1 AGNs
We present two independent measurements of stellar velocity dispersions (sigma(star)) from the Ca II H+K lambda 3969, 3934 and Mg I b lambda 5183, 5172, 5167 region (3880-5550 angstrom) and the calcium triplet region (8350-8750 angstrom) for 173 hard X-ray-selected Type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs; z <= 0.08) from the 105 month Swift-BAT catalog. We construct one of the largest samples of local Type 1 AGNs that have both single-epoch virial black hole mass (M-BH) estimates and sigma(star) measurements obtained from high spectral resolution data, allowing us to test the usage of such methods for supermassive black hole studies. We find that the two independent sigma(star) measurements are highly consistent with each other, with an average offset of only 0.002 +/- 0.001 dex. Comparing M-BH estimates based on broad emission lines and stellar velocity dispersion measurements, we find that the former is systematically lower by approximate to 0.12 dex. Consequently, Eddington ratios estimated through broad-line MBH determinations are similarly biased (but in the opposite way). We argue that the discrepancy is driven by extinction in the broad-line region. We also find an anticorrelation between the offset from the M-BH-sigma(star) relation and the Eddington ratio. Our sample of Type 1 AGNs shows a shallower M-BH-sigma(star) relation (with a power-law exponent of approximate to 3.5) compared with that of inactive galaxies (with a power-law exponent of approximate to 4.5), confirming earlier results obtained from smaller samples
Multifrequency Strategies for the Identification of Gamma-Ray Sources
More than half the sources in the Third EGRET (3EG) catalog have no firmly
established counterparts at other wavelengths and are unidentified. Some of
these unidentified sources have remained a mystery since the first surveys of
the gamma-ray sky with the COS-B satellite. The unidentified sources generally
have large error circles, and finding counterparts has often been a challenging
job. A multiwavelength approach, using X-ray, optical, and radio data, is often
needed to understand the nature of these sources. This chapter reviews the
technique of identification of EGRET sources using multiwavelength studies of
the gamma-ray fields.Comment: 35 pages, 22 figures. Chapter prepared for the book "Cosmic Gamma-ray
Sources", edited by K.S. Cheng and G.E. Romero, to be published by Kluwer
Academic Press, 2004. For complete article and higher resolution figures, go
to: http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~muk/mukherjee_multiwave.pd
GLAST: Understanding the High Energy Gamma-Ray Sky
We discuss the ability of the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT) to identify,
resolve, and study the high energy gamma-ray sky. Compared to previous
instruments the telescope will have greatly improved sensitivity and ability to
localize gamma-ray point sources. The ability to resolve the location and
identity of EGRET unidentified sources is described. We summarize the current
knowledge of the high energy gamma-ray sky and discuss the astrophysics of
known and some prospective classes of gamma-ray emitters. In addition, we also
describe the potential of GLAST to resolve old puzzles and to discover new
classes of sources.Comment: To appear in Cosmic Gamma Ray Sources, Kluwer ASSL Series, Edited by
K.S. Cheng and G.E. Romer
BASS. XLII. The Relation between the Covering Factor of Dusty Gas and the Eddington Ratio in Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei
Accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) located at the centers of galaxies are typically surrounded by large quantities of gas and dust. The structure and evolution of this circumnuclear material can be studied at different wavelengths, from the submillimeter to the X-ray. Recent X-ray studies have shown that the covering factor of the obscuring material tends to decrease with increasing Eddington ratio, likely due to radiative feedback on dusty gas. Here we study a sample of 549 nearby (z less than or similar to 0.1) hard X-ray (14-195 keV) selected nonblazar active galactic nuclei (AGN) and use the ratio between the AGN infrared and bolometric luminosity as a proxy of the covering factor. We find that, in agreement with what has been found by X-ray studies of the same sample, the covering factor decreases with increasing Eddington ratio. We also confirm previous findings that showed that obscured AGN typically have larger covering factors than unobscured sources. Finally, we find that the median covering factors of AGN located in different regions of the column density-Eddington ratio diagram are in good agreement with what would be expected from a radiation-regulated growth of SMBHs
Accreting Black Holes
This chapter provides a general overview of the theory and observations of
black holes in the Universe and on their interpretation. We briefly review the
black hole classes, accretion disk models, spectral state classification, the
AGN classification, and the leading techniques for measuring black hole spins.
We also introduce quasi-periodic oscillations, the shadow of black holes, and
the observations and the theoretical models of jets.Comment: 41 pages, 18 figures. To appear in "Tutorial Guide to X-ray and
Gamma-ray Astronomy: Data Reduction and Analysis" (Ed. C. Bambi, Springer
Singapore, 2020). v3: fixed some typos and updated some parts. arXiv admin
note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1711.1025
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