Magnetic field spotted surrounding Milky Way's supermassive black hole

Physics Today ◽  
2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole

scholarly journals A strong magnetic field around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Galaxy

Nature ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 501 (7467) ◽  
pp. 391-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. Eatough ◽  
H. Falcke ◽  
R. Karuppusamy ◽  
K. J. Lee ◽  
D. J. Champion ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Strong Magnetic Field ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
The Galaxy

scholarly journals Observational signatures of magnetic field structure in relativistic AGN jets

2019 ◽  
Vol 622 ◽  
pp. A122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Prior ◽  
Konstantinos N. Gourgouliatos
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Radio Emission ◽  
Faraday Rotation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Structure ◽  
Synchrotron Emission ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Rotation Measure

Context. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) launch highly energetic jets sometimes outshining their host galaxy. These jets are collimated outflows that have been accelerated near a supermassive black hole located at the centre of the galaxy. Their, virtually indispensable, energy reservoir is either due to gravitational energy released from accretion or due to the extraction of kinetic energy from the rotating supermassive black hole itself. In order to channel part of this energy to the jet, though, the presence of magnetic fields is necessary. The extent to which these magnetic fields survive in the jet further from the launching region is under debate. Nevertheless, observations of polarised emission and Faraday rotation measure confirm the existence of large scale magnetic fields in jets. Aims. Various models describing the origin of the magnetic fields in AGN jets lead to different predictions about the large scale structure of the magnetic field. In this paper we study the observational signatures of different magnetic field configurations that may exist in AGN jets in order to asses what kind of information regarding the field structure can be obtained from radio emission, and what would be missed. Methods. We explore three families of magnetic field configurations. First, a force-free helical magnetic field corresponding to a dynamically relaxed field in the rest frame of the jet. Second, a magnetic field with a co-axial cable structure arising from the Biermann-battery effect at the accretion disk. Third, a braided magnetic field that could be generated by turbulent motion at the accretion disk. We evaluate the intensity of synchrotron emission, the intrinsic polarization profile and the Faraday rotation measure arising from these fields. We assume that the jet consists of a relativistic spine where the radiation originates from and a sheath containing thermalised electrons responsible for the Faraday screening. We evaluate these values for a range of viewing angles and Lorentz factors. We account for Gaussian beaming that smooths the observed profile. Results. Radio emission distributions from the jets with dominant large-scale helical fields show asymmetry across their width. The Faraday rotation asymmetry is the same for fields with opposing chirality (handedness). For jets which are tilted towards the observer the synchrotron emission and fractional polarization can distinguish the field’s chirality. When viewed either side-on or at a Blazar type angle only the fractional polarization can make this distinction. Further this distinction can only be made if the direction of the jet propagation velocity is known, along with the location of the jet’s origin. The complex structure of the braided field is found not to be observable due to a combination of line of sight integration and limited resolution of observation. This raises the possibility that, even if asymmetric radio emission signatures are present, the true structure of the field may still be obscure.

scholarly journals M87 black hole mass and spin estimate through the position of the jet boundary shape break

2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (1) ◽  
pp. 1197-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
E E Nokhrina ◽  
L I Gurvits ◽  
V S Beskin ◽  
M Nakamura ◽  
K Asada ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Central Area ◽  
Active Galaxy ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Black Hole Mass ◽  
Boundary Shape ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Bulk Motion ◽  
Energy Equipartition

Abstract We propose a new method of estimating the mass of a supermassive black hole residing in the centre of an active galaxy. The active galaxy M87 offers a convenient test case for the method due to the existence of a large amount of observational data on the jet and ambient environment properties in the central area of the object. We suggest that the observed transition of a jet boundary shape from a parabolic to a conical form is associated with the flow transiting from the magnetically dominated regime to the energy equipartition between plasma bulk motion and magnetic field. By coupling the unique set of observations available for the jet kinematics, environment and boundary profile with our MHD modelling under assumption on the presence of a dynamically important magnetic field in the M87 jet, we estimate the central black hole mass and spin. The method leads us to believe that the M87 supermassive black hole has a mass somewhat larger than typically accepted so far.

scholarly journals A strong magnetic field in the jet base of a supermassive black hole

Science ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 348 (6232) ◽  
pp. 311-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Marti-Vidal ◽  
S. Muller ◽  
W. Vlemmings ◽  
C. Horellou ◽  
S. Aalto
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Black Hole ◽  
Strong Magnetic Field ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole

Central kiloparsec of NGC 1326 observed with SINFONI

2020 ◽  
Vol 638 ◽  
pp. A53
Author(s):  
Nastaran Fazeli ◽  
Gerold Busch ◽  
Andreas Eckart ◽  
Françoise Combes ◽  
Persis Misquitta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Galaxy Evolution ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Velocity Fields ◽  
Molecular Gas ◽  
Nearby Galaxy ◽  
Stellar Content ◽  
Stellar Rotation ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Integral Field Spectrograph

Gas inflow processes in the vicinity of galactic nuclei play a crucial role in galaxy evolution and supermassive black hole growth. Exploring the central kiloparsec of galaxies is essential to shed more light on this subject. We present near-infrared H- and K-band results of the nuclear region of the nearby galaxy NGC 1326, observed with the integral-field spectrograph SINFONI mounted on the Very Large Telescope. The field of view covers 9″ × 9″ (650 × 650 pc2). Our work is concentrated on excitation conditions, morphology, and stellar content. The nucleus of NGC 1326 was classified as a LINER, however in our data we observed an absence of ionised gas emission in the central r ∼ 3″. We studied the morphology by analysing the distribution of ionised and molecular gas, and thereby detected an elliptically shaped, circum-nuclear star-forming ring at a mean radius of 300 pc. We estimate the starburst regions in the ring to be young with dominating ages of < 10 Myr. The molecular gas distribution also reveals an elongated east to west central structure about 3″ in radius, where gas is excited by slow or mild shock mechanisms. We calculate the ionised gas mass of 8 × 105 M⊙ completely concentrated in the nuclear ring and the warm molecular gas mass of 187 M⊙, from which half is concentrated in the ring and the other half in the elongated central structure. The stellar velocity fields show pure rotation in the plane of the galaxy. The gas velocity fields show similar rotation in the ring, but in the central elongated H2 structure they show much higher amplitudes and indications of further deviation from the stellar rotation in the central 1″ aperture. We suggest that the central 6″ elongated H2 structure might be a fast-rotating central disc. The CO(3–2) emission observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array reveal a central 1″ torus. In the central 1″ of the H2 velocity field and residual maps, we find indications for a further decoupled structure closer to a nuclear disc, which could be identified with the torus surrounding the supermassive black hole.

scholarly journals WISDOM project – VII. Molecular gas measurement of the supermassive black hole mass in the elliptical galaxy NGC 7052

2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (4) ◽  
pp. 5984-5996
Author(s):  
Mark D Smith ◽  
Martin Bureau ◽  
Timothy A Davis ◽  
Michele Cappellari ◽  
Lijie Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Hubble Space Telescope ◽  
Elliptical Galaxy ◽  
Continuum Emission ◽  
Molecular Gas ◽  
Supermassive Black Hole ◽  
Gas Kinematics ◽  
Long Baseline ◽  
Gas Measurement ◽  
Strong Gradient

ABSTRACT Supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses can be measured by resolving the dynamical influences of the SMBHs on tracers of the central potentials. Modern long-baseline interferometers have enabled the use of molecular gas as such a tracer. We present here Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the elliptical galaxy NGC 7052 at 0${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$11 ($37\,$pc) resolution in the 12CO(2-1) line and $1.3\,$ mm continuum emission. This resolution is sufficient to resolve the region in which the potential is dominated by the SMBH. We forward model these observations, using a multi-Gaussian expansion of a Hubble Space Telescope F814W image and a spatially constant mass-to-light ratio to model the stellar mass distribution. We infer an SMBH mass of $2.5\pm 0.3\times 10^{9}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$ and a stellar I-band mass-to-light ratio of $4.6\pm 0.2\, \mathrm{M_\odot /L_{\odot ,I}}$ (3σ confidence intervals). This SMBH mass is significantly larger than that derived using ionized gas kinematics, which however appears significantly more kinematically disturbed than the molecular gas. We also show that a central molecular gas deficit is likely to be the result of tidal disruption of molecular gas clouds due to the strong gradient in the central gravitational potential.

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