61 research outputs found
Evolution of supermassive black holes
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are nowadays believed to reside in most
local galaxies, and the available data show an empirical correlation between
bulge luminosity - or stellar velocity dispersion - and black hole mass,
suggesting a single mechanism for assembling black holes and forming spheroids
in galaxy halos. The evidence is therefore in favour of a co-evolution between
galaxies, black holes and quasars. In cold dark matter cosmogonies, small-mass
subgalactic systems form first to merge later into larger and larger
structures. In this paradigm galaxy halos experience multiple mergers during
their lifetime. If every galaxy with a bulge hosts a SMBH in its center, and a
local galaxy has been made up by multiple mergers, then a black hole binary is
a natural evolutionary stage. The evolution of the supermassive black hole
population clearly has to be investigated taking into account both the
cosmological framework and the dynamical evolution of SMBHs and their hosts.
The seeds of SMBHs have to be looked for in the early Universe, as very
luminous quasars are detected up to redshift higher than z=6. These black holes
evolve then in a hierarchical fashion, following the merger hierarchy of their
host halos. Accretion of gas, traced by quasar activity, plays a fundamental
role in determining the two parameters defining a black hole: mass and spin. A
particularly intriguing epoch is the initial phase of SMBH growth. It is very
challenging to meet the observational constraints at z=6 if BHs are not fed at
very high rates in their infancy.Comment: Extended version of the invited paper to appear in the Proceedings of
the Conference "Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology - Einstein's Legacy
The lifecycle of powerful AGN outflows
During the course of this conference, much evidence was presented that points
to an intimate connection between the energetic outflows driven by AGN and the
energy budget and quite possibly also the evolution of their gaseous
environments. However, it is still not clear if and how the AGN activity is
triggered by the cooling gas, how long the activity lasts for and how these
effects give rise to the observed distribution of morphologies of the outflows.
In this contribution we concentrate on the high radio luminosity end of the AGN
population. While most of the heating of the environmental gas may be due to
less luminous and energetic outflows, these more powerful objects have a very
profound influence on their surroundings. We will describe a simple model for
powerful radio galaxies and radio-loud quasars that explains the dichotomy of
their large-scale radio morphologies as well as their radio luminosity
function.Comment: 6 pages, contribution to 'Heating vs. coooling in galaxies and galaxy
clusters', Garching 2006, proceedings to be published by Springer (ESO
Astrophysics Symposia), eds. H. Boehringer, P. Schuecker, G.W. Pratt & A.
Finogueno
The near-infrared imager and slitless spectrograph for the James Webb Space Telescope. II. Wide field slitless spectroscopy
We acknowledge support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through a variety of its funding programs. This work is in part supported by Canadian Space Agency grant 18JWSTGTO1. C.P., S.R. and K.V. are supported by the Canadian Space Agency under a contract with NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics. K.M. acknowledges funding by the Science and Technology Foundation of Portugal (FCT), grants No. IF/00194/2015, PTDC/FIS-AST/28731/2017, UIDB/00099/2020.We present the wide field slitless spectroscopy mode of the NIRISS instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. This mode employs two orthogonal low-resolution (resolving power â150) grisms in combination with a set of six blocking filters in the wavelength range 0.8â2.3 ÎŒm to provide a spectrum of almost every source across the field-of-view. When combined with the low background, high sensitivity and high spatial resolution afforded by the telescope, this mode will enable unprecedented studies of the structure and evolution of distant galaxies. We describe the performance of the as-built hardware relevant to this mode and expected imaging and spectroscopic sensitivity. We discuss operational and calibration procedures to obtain the highest quality data. As examples of the observing mode usage, we present details of two planned Guaranteed Time Observations programs: The Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey and The NIRISS Survey for Young Brown Dwarfs and Rogue Planets.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Observing Supermassive Black Holes across cosmic time: from phenomenology to physics
In the last decade, a combination of high sensitivity, high spatial
resolution observations and of coordinated multi-wavelength surveys has
revolutionized our view of extra-galactic black hole (BH) astrophysics. We now
know that supermassive black holes reside in the nuclei of almost every galaxy,
grow over cosmological times by accreting matter, interact and merge with each
other, and in the process liberate enormous amounts of energy that influence
dramatically the evolution of the surrounding gas and stars, providing a
powerful self-regulatory mechanism for galaxy formation. The different
energetic phenomena associated to growing black holes and Active Galactic
Nuclei (AGN), their cosmological evolution and the observational techniques
used to unveil them, are the subject of this chapter. In particular, I will
focus my attention on the connection between the theory of high-energy
astrophysical processes giving rise to the observed emission in AGN, the
observable imprints they leave at different wavelengths, and the methods used
to uncover them in a statistically robust way. I will show how such a combined
effort of theorists and observers have led us to unveil most of the SMBH growth
over a large fraction of the age of the Universe, but that nagging
uncertainties remain, preventing us from fully understating the exact role of
black holes in the complex process of galaxy and large-scale structure
formation, assembly and evolution.Comment: 46 pages, 21 figures. This review article appears as a chapter in the
book: "Astrophysical Black Holes", Haardt, F., Gorini, V., Moschella, U and
Treves A. (Eds), 2015, Springer International Publishing AG, Cha
Black Hole Spin via Continuum Fitting and the Role of Spin in Powering Transient Jets
The spins of ten stellar black holes have been measured using the
continuum-fitting method. These black holes are located in two distinct classes
of X-ray binary systems, one that is persistently X-ray bright and another that
is transient. Both the persistent and transient black holes remain for long
periods in a state where their spectra are dominated by a thermal accretion
disk component. The spin of a black hole of known mass and distance can be
measured by fitting this thermal continuum spectrum to the thin-disk model of
Novikov and Thorne; the key fit parameter is the radius of the inner edge of
the black hole's accretion disk. Strong observational and theoretical evidence
links the inner-disk radius to the radius of the innermost stable circular
orbit, which is trivially related to the dimensionless spin parameter a_* of
the black hole (|a_*| < 1). The ten spins that have so far been measured by
this continuum-fitting method range widely from a_* \approx 0 to a_* > 0.95.
The robustness of the method is demonstrated by the dozens or hundreds of
independent and consistent measurements of spin that have been obtained for
several black holes, and through careful consideration of many sources of
systematic error. Among the results discussed is a dichotomy between the
transient and persistent black holes; the latter have higher spins and larger
masses. Also discussed is recently discovered evidence in the transient sources
for a correlation between the power of ballistic jets and black hole spin.Comment: 30 pages. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to
appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of
Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher). Changes to Sections 5.2,
6.1 and 7.4. Section 7.4 responds to Russell et al. 2013 (MNRAS, 431, 405)
who find no evidence for a correlation between the power of ballistic jets
and black hole spi
The hyperluminous infrared quasar 3C 318 and its implications for interpreting sub-mm detections of high-redshift radio galaxies
The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com--Copyright Blackwell Publishing DOI : 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03267.xPeer reviewe
A 3 x 10 solar mass black hole in the quasar SDSS J1148+5251 at z=6.41
Original article can be found at: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/ Copyright American Astronomical SocietyWe present near-infrared H- and K-band spectra of the z p 6.41 quasar SDSS J114816.64 525150.3. The spectrum reveals a broad Mg ii l2799 emission line with an FWHM of 6000 km s 1. From the peak wavelength of this emission line, we obtain a more accurate redshift than is possible from the published optical spectrum and determine a redshift of z p 6.41 0.01. If the true peak of the Lya emission is at the same redshift, then a large fraction of the flux blueward of the peak is absorbed. The equivalent width of the Mg ii emission line is similar to that of lower redshift quasars, suggesting that the UV continuum is not dominated by a beamed component. Making basic assumptions about the line-emitting gas, we derive a mass estimate of M, 3#109 for the central black hole in this quasar. The very high luminosity of the quasar shows that it is accreting at the maximal allowable rate for a black hole of this mass, adopting the Eddington limit criterion.Peer reviewe
The nature and evolution of radio galaxies and quasars
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