scholarly journals Can gravitational microlensing be used to probe geometry of a massive black-hole?

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S238) ◽  
pp. 431-432
Author(s):  
Luka Č Popović ◽  
Predrag Jovanović

AbstractHere we discuss the possibility to use gravitational microlensing in order to probe the geometry around a massive black hole. Taking into account that lensed quasars are emitting X-rays which come from the heart of these objects, we investigated the influence of microlensing on the Fe Kα line shape originated in Schwarzschild and Kerr metrics.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinwen Shu ◽  
Wenjie Zhang ◽  
Shuo Li ◽  
Ning Jiang ◽  
Liming Dou ◽  
...  

AbstractOptical transient surveys have led to the discovery of dozens of stellar tidal disruption events (TDEs) by massive black hole in the centers of galaxies. Despite extensive searches, X-ray follow-up observations have produced no or only weak X-ray detections in most of them. Here we report the discovery of delayed X-ray brightening around 140 days after the optical outburst in the TDE OGLE16aaa, followed by several flux dips during the decay phase. These properties are unusual for standard TDEs and could be explained by the presence of supermassive black hole binary or patchy obscuration. In either scenario, the X-rays can be produced promptly after the disruption but are blocked in the early phase, possibly by a radiation-dominated ejecta which leads to the bulk of optical and ultraviolet emission. Our findings imply that the reprocessing is important in the TDE early evolution, and X-ray observations are promising in revealing supermassive black hole binaries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 830 (2) ◽  
pp. L35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy E. Reines ◽  
Mark T. Reynolds ◽  
Jon M. Miller ◽  
Gregory R. Sivakoff ◽  
Jenny E. Greene ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S274) ◽  
pp. 2-9
Author(s):  
Stirling A. Colgate ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Philipp P. Kronberg

AbstractThe consistency is awesome between over a dozen observations and the paradigm of radio lobes being immense sources of magnetic energy, flux, and relativistic electrons, – a magnetized universe.The greater the total energy of an astrophysical phenomenon, the more restricted are the possible explanations. Magnetic energy is the most challenging because its origin is still considered problematic. We suggest that it is evident that the universe is magnetized because of radio lobes, ultra relativistic electrons, Faraday rotation measures, the polarized emission of extra galactic radio structures, the x-rays from relativistic electrons Comptonized on the CMB, and possibly extra galactic cosmic rays. The implied energies are so large that only the formation of supermassive black hole, (SMBH) at the center of every galaxy is remotely energetic enough to supply this immense energy, ~(1/10) 108M⊙c2 per galaxy. Only a galaxy cluster of 1000 galaxies has comparable energy, but it is inversely, (to the number of galaxies), rare per galaxy. Yet this energy appears to be shared between magnetic fields and accelerated relativistic particles, both electrons and ions. Only a large-scale coherent dynamo generating poloidal flux within the accretion disk forming the massive black hole makes a reasonable starting point. The subsequent winding of this dynamo-derived magnetic flux by conducting, angular momentum-dominated accreting matter, (~1011 turns near the event horizon in 108 years) produces the immense, coherent magnetic jets or total flux of radio lobes and similarly in star formation. By extending this same physics to supernova-neutron star formation, we predict that similar differential winding of the flux that couples explosion ejecta and a newly formed, rapidly rotating neutron star will produce similar phenomena of a magnetic jet and lobes in the forming supernova nebula. In all cases the conversion of force-free magnetic energy into accelerated ions and electrons is a major challenge.


Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6426) ◽  
pp. 531-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dheeraj R. Pasham ◽  
Ronald A. Remillard ◽  
P. Chris Fragile ◽  
Alessia Franchini ◽  
Nicholas C. Stone ◽  
...  

The tidal forces close to massive black holes can rip apart stars that come too close to them. As the resulting stellar debris spirals toward the black hole, the debris heats up and emits x-rays. We report observations of a stable 131-second x-ray quasi-periodic oscillation from the tidal disruption event ASASSN-14li. Assuming the black hole mass indicated by host galaxy scaling relations, these observations imply that the periodicity originates from close to the event horizon and that the black hole is rapidly spinning. Our findings demonstrate that tidal disruption events can generate quasi-periodic oscillations that encode information about the physical properties of their black holes.


2000 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 1157-1171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Gebhardt ◽  
Douglas Richstone ◽  
John Kormendy ◽  
Tod R. Lauer ◽  
Edward A. Ajhar ◽  
...  

2009 ◽  
Vol 692 (2) ◽  
pp. 1075-1109 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gillessen ◽  
F. Eisenhauer ◽  
S. Trippe ◽  
T. Alexander ◽  
R. Genzel ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Hajime Inoue

Abstract We investigate a mechanism for a super-massive black hole at the center of a galaxy to wander in the nucleus region. A situation is supposed in which the central black hole tends to move by the gravitational attractions from the nearby molecular clouds in a nuclear bulge but is braked via the dynamical frictions from the ambient stars there. We estimate the approximate kinetic energy of the black hole in an equilibrium between the energy gain rate through the gravitational attractions and the energy loss rate through the dynamical frictions in a nuclear bulge composed of a nuclear stellar disk and a nuclear stellar cluster as observed from our Galaxy. The wandering distance of the black hole in the gravitational potential of the nuclear bulge is evaluated to get as large as several 10 pc, when the black hole mass is relatively small. The distance, however, shrinks as the black hole mass increases, and the equilibrium solution between the energy gain and loss disappears when the black hole mass exceeds an upper limit. As a result, we can expect the following scenario for the evolution of the black hole mass: When the black hole mass is smaller than the upper limit, mass accretion of the interstellar matter in the circumnuclear region, causing the AGN activities, makes the black hole mass larger. However, when the mass gets to the upper limit, the black hole loses the balancing force against the dynamical friction and starts spiraling downward to the gravity center. From simple parameter scaling, the upper mass limit of the black hole is found to be proportional to the bulge mass, and this could explain the observed correlation of the black hole mass with the bulge mass.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 280-282
Author(s):  
Gustavo Amaral Lanfranchi ◽  
Anderson Caproni ◽  
Jennifer F. Soares ◽  
Larissa S. de Oliveira

AbstractThe gas evolution of a typical Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy is investigated by means of 3D hydrodynamic simulations, taking into account the feedback of type II and Ia supernovae, the outflow of an Intermediate Massive Black Hole (IMBH) and a static cored dark matter potential. When the IMBH’s outflow is simulated in an homogeneous medium a jet structure is created and a small fraction of the gas is pushed away from the galaxy. No jet structure can be seen, however, when the medium is disturbed by supernovae, but gas is still pushed away. In this case, the main driver of the gas removal are the supernovae. The interplay between the stellar feedback and the IMBH’s outflow should be taken into account.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 312-317
Author(s):  
Francoise Combes

AbstractGas fueling AGN (Active Galaxy Nuclei) is now traceable at high-resolution with ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) and NOEMA (NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array). Dynamical mechanisms are essential to exchange angular momentum and drive the gas to the super-massive black hole. While at 100pc scale, the gas is sometimes stalled in nuclear rings, recent observations reaching 10pc scale (50mas), may bring smoking gun evidence of fueling, within a randomly oriented nuclear gas disk. AGN feedback is also observed, in the form of narrow and collimated molecular outflows, which point towards the radio mode, or entrainment by a radio jet. Precession has been observed in a molecular outflow, indicating the precession of the radio jet. One of the best candidates for precession is the Bardeen-Petterson effect at small scale, which exerts a torque on the accreting material, and produces an extended disk warp. The misalignment between the inner and large-scale disk, enhances the coupling of the AGN feedback, since the jet sweeps a large part of the molecular disk.


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