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Register a new userRelative depolarization of the black hole photon ring in GRMHD models of Sgr A* and M87*
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Added by
Alejandra Jimenez-Rosales
Publication date
2021
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accreting black holes, we show that a suitable subtraction of the linear polarization per pixel from total intensity images can enhance the photon ring features. We find that the photon ring is typically a factor of $simeq 2$ less polarized than the rest of the image. This is due to a combination of plasma and general relativistic effects, as well as magnetic turbulence. When there are no other persistently depolarized image features, adding the subtracted residuals over time results in a sharp image of the photon ring. We show that the method works well for sample, viable GRMHD models of Sgr A* and M87*, where measurements of the photon ring properties would provide new measurements of black hole mass and spin, and potentially allow for tests of the no-hair theorem of general relativity.
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The role of bremsstrahlung in the emission from hot accretion flows around slowly accreting supermassive black holes is not thoroughly understood. In order to appraise the importance of bremsstrahlung relative to other radiative processes, we compute spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of accretion disks around slowly accreting supermassive black holes including synchrotron radiation, inverse Compton scattering, and bremsstrahlung. We compute SEDs for (i) four axisymmetric radiative general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RadGRMHD) simulations of $10^{8}M_{odot}$ black holes with accretion rates between $10^{-8}dot{M}_{text{Edd}}$ and $10^{-5}dot{M}_{text{Edd}}$, (ii) four axisymmetric RadGRMHD simulations of M87$^ast$ with varying dimensionless spin $a_ast$ and black hole mass, and (iii) a 3D GRMHD simulation scaled for Sgr A$^ast$. At $10^{-8}dot{M}_{text{Edd}}$, most of the luminosity is synchrotron radiation, while at $10^{-5}dot{M}_{text{Edd}}$ the three radiative processes have similar luminosities. In most models, bremsstrahlung dominates the SED near $512text{ keV}$. In the M87$^ast$ models, bremsstrahlung dominates this part of the SED if $a_{ast} = 0.5$, but inverse Compton scattering dominates if $a_{ast}= 0.9375$. Since scattering is more variable than bremsstrahlung, this result suggests that $512text{ keV}$ variability could be a diagnostic of black hole spin. In the appendix, we compare some bremsstrahlung formulae found in the literature.
Recently, the image of a Schwarzschild black hole with an accretion disk has been revisited, and it showed that the photon ring, defined as highly bent light rays that intersect the disk plane more than twice, is extremely narrow and makes a negligible contribution to the total brightness. In this paper, we investigate the observational appearance of an optically and geometrically thin accretion disk around a hairy black hole in an Einstein-Maxwell-scalar model. Intriguingly, we find that in a certain parameter regime, due to an extra maximum or an ankle-like structure in the effective potential for photons, the photon ring can be remarkably wide, thus making a notable contribution to the flux of the observed image. In particular, there appears a wide and bright annulus, which comprises multiple concentric bright thin rings with different luminosity, in the high resolution image.
The M87 jet is extensively examined by utilizing general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations as well as the steady axisymmetric force-free electrodynamic (FFE) solution. Quasi-steady funnel jets are obtained in GRMHD simulations up to the scale of $sim 100$ gravitational radius ($r_{rm g}$) for various black hole (BH) spins. As is known, the funnel edge is approximately determined by the following equipartitions; i) the magnetic and rest-mass energy densities and ii) the gas and magnetic pressures. Our numerical results give an additional factor that they follow the outermost parabolic streamline of the FFE solution, which is anchored to the event horizon on the equatorial plane. We also identify the matter dominated, non-relativistic corona/wind play a dynamical role in shaping the funnel jet into the parabolic geometry. We confirm a quantitative overlap between the outermost parabolic streamline of the FFE jet and the edge of jet sheath in VLBI observations at $sim 10^{1}$-$10^{5} , r_{rm g}$, suggesting that the M87 jet is likely powered by the spinning BH. Our GRMHD simulations also indicate a lateral stratification of the bulk acceleration (i.e., the spine-sheath structure) as well as an emergence of knotty superluminal features. The spin characterizes the location of the jet stagnation surface inside the funnel. We suggest that the limb-brightened feature could be associated with the nature of the BH-driven jet, if the Doppler beaming is a dominant factor. Our findings can be examined with (sub-)mm VLBI observations, giving a clue for the origin of the M87 jet.
The direct detection of a bright, ring-like structure in horizon-resolving images of M87* by the Event Horizon Telescope is a striking validation of general relativity. The angular size and shape of the ring is a degenerate measure of the location of the emission region, mass, and spin of the black hole. However, we show that the observation of multiple rings, corresponding to the low-order photon rings, can break this degeneracy and produce mass and spin measurements independent of the shape of the rings. We describe two potential experiments that would measure the spin. In the first, observations of the direct emission and $n=1$ photon ring are made at multiple epochs with different emission locations. This method is conceptually similar to spacetime constraints that arise from variable structures (or hot spots) in that it breaks the near-perfect degeneracy between emission location, mass, and spin for polar observers using temporal variability. In the second, observations of the direct emission, $n=1$ and $n=2$ photon rings are made during a single epoch. For both schemes, additional observations comprise a test of general relativity. Thus, comparisons of Event Horizon Telescope observations in 2017 and 2018 may be capable of producing the first horizon-scale spin estimates of M87* inferred from strong lensing alone. Additional observation campaigns from future high-frequency, Earth-sized and space-based radio interferometers can produce high-precision tests of general relativity.
Long-term observations have shown that black hole X-ray binaries exhibit strong, aperiodic variability on time-scales of a few milliseconds to seconds. The observed light curves display various characteristic features like a log-normal distribution of flux and a linear rms-flux relation, which indicate that the underlying variability process is stochastic in nature. It is also thought to be intrinsic to accretion. This variability has been modelled as inward propagating fluctuations of mass accretion rate, although the physical process driving the fluctuations remains puzzling. In this work, we analyse five exceptionally long duration general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations of optically thin, geometrically thick, black hole accretion flows to look for hints of propagating fluctuations in the simulation data. We find that the accretion profiles from these simulations do show evidence for inward propagating fluctuations below the viscous frequency by featuring strong radial coherence and positive time lags when comparing smaller to larger radii, although these time lags are generally shorter than the viscous time-scale and frequency independent. Our simulations also support the notion that the fluctuations in $dot{M}$ build up in a multiplicative manner, as the simulations exhibit linear rms-mass flux relations, as well as log-normal distributions of their mass fluxes. When combining the mass fluxes from the simulations with an assumed emissivity profile, we additionally find broad agreement with observed power spectra and time lags, including a recovery of the frequency dependency of the time lags.
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