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Register a new userCold, clumpy accretion onto an active supermassive black hole
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Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless largely unconstrained by observations, and is instead routinely simplified as a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. Recent theory and simulations instead predict that accretion can be dominated by a stochastic, clumpy distribution of very cold molecular clouds - a departure from the hot mode accretion model - although unambiguous observational support for this prediction remains elusive. Here we report observations that reveal a cold, clumpy accretion flow towards a supermassive black hole fuel reservoir in the nucleus of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG), a nearby (redshift z=0.0821) giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a dense halo of hot plasma. Under the right conditions, thermal instabilities can precipitate from this hot gas, producing a rain of cold clouds that fall toward the galaxys centre, sustaining star formation amid a kiloparsec-scale molecular nebula that inhabits its core. The observations show that these cold clouds also fuel black hole accretion, revealing shadows cast by the molecular clouds as they move inward at about 300 kilometres per second towards the active supermassive black hole in the galaxy centre, which serves as a bright backlight. Corroborating evidence from prior observations of warmer atomic gas at extremely high spatial resolution, along with simple arguments based on geometry and probability, indicate that these clouds are within the innermost hundred parsecs of the black hole, and falling closer towards it.
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In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of clumps embedded in and confined by the advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAF), in which collisions among the clumps are neglected. We start from the collisionless Boltzmann equation and assume that interaction between the clumps and the ADAF is responsible for transporting angular momentum of clumps outward. The inner edge of the clumpy-ADAF is set to be the tidal radius of the clumps. We consider strong and weak coupling cases, in which the averaged properties of clumps follow the ADAF dynamics and mainly determined by the black hole potential, respectively. We get the analytical solution of the dynamics of clumps for the two cases. The velocity dispersion of clumps is one magnitude higher than the ADAF for the strong coupling case. For the weak coupling case, we find that the mean radial velocity of clumps is linearly proportional to the coefficient of the drag force. We show that the tidally disrupted clumps would lead to accumulation of the debris to form a debris disk in the Shakura-Sunyaev regime. The entire hot ADAF will be efficiently cooled down by photons from the debris disk, giving rise to collapse of the ADAF and quench the clumpy accretion. Subsequently, evaporation of the collapsed ADAF drives resuscitate of a new clumpy-ADAF, resulting in an oscillation of the global clumpy-ADAF. Applications of the present model are briefly discussed to X-ray binaries, ionization nuclear emission regions (LINERs) and BL Lac objects.
We study low-density axisymmetric accretion flows onto black holes (BHs) with two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations, adopting the $alpha$-viscosity prescription. When the gas angular momentum is low enough to form a rotationally supported disk within the Bondi radius ($R_{rm B}$), we find a global steady accretion solution. The solution consists of a rotational equilibrium distribution at $rsim R_{rm B}$, where the density follows $rho propto (1+R_{rm B}/r)^{3/2}$, surrounding a geometrically thick and optically thin accretion disk at the centrifugal radius, where thermal energy generated by viscosity is transported via strong convection. Physical properties of the inner solution agree with those expected in convection-dominated accretion flows (CDAF; $rho propto r^{-1/2}$). In the inner CDAF solution, the gas inflow rate decreases towards the center due to convection ($dot{M}propto r$), and the net accretion rate (including both inflows and outflows) is strongly suppressed by several orders of magnitude from the Bondi accretion rate $dot{M}_{rm B}$ The net accretion rate depends on the viscous strength, following $dot{M}/dot{M}_{rm B}propto (alpha/0.01)^{0.6}$. This solution holds for low accretion rates of $dot{M}_{rm B}/dot{M}_{rm Edd}< 10^{-3}$ having minimal radiation cooling, where $dot{M}_{rm Edd}$ is the Eddington rate. In a hot plasma at the bottom ($r<10^{-3}~R_{rm B}$), thermal conduction would dominate the convective energy flux. Since suppression of the accretion by convection ceases, the final BH feeding rate is found to be $dot{M}/dot{M}_{rm B} sim 10^{-3}-10^{-2}$. This rate is as low as $dot{M}/dot{M}_{rm Edd} sim 10^{-7}-10^{-6}$ inferred for SgrA$^*$ and the nuclear BHs in M31 and M87, and can explain the low luminosities in these sources, without invoking any feedback mechanism.
We present the first constraint on Faraday rotation measure (RM) at submillimeter wavelengths for the nucleus of M 87. By fitting the polarization position angles ($chi$) observed with the SMA at four independent frequencies around $sim$230 GHz and interpreting the change in $chi$ as a result of emph{external} Faraday rotation associated with accretion flow, we determine the rotation measure of the M 87 core to be between $-$7.5$times$10$^{5}$ and 3.4$times$10$^{5}$ rad/m$^{2}$. Assuming a density profile of the accretion flow that follows a power-law distribution and a magnetic field that is ordered, radial, and has equipartition strength, the limit on the rotation measure constrains the mass accretion rate $dot{M}$ to be below 9.2$times$10$^{-4}$ M$_{odot}$~yr$^{-1}$ at a distance of 21 Schwarzchild radii from the central black hole. This value is at least two orders of magnitude smaller than the Bondi accretion rate, suggesting significant suppression of the accretion rate in the inner region of the accretion flow. Consequently, our result disfavors the classical emph{advection dominated accretion flow} (ADAF) and prefers the emph{adiabatic inflow-outflow solution} (ADIOS) or emph{convection-dominated accretion flow} (CDAF) for the hot accretion flow in M 87.
We study the gas accretion onto a supermassive black hole (SMBH) using the 3D SPH code GADGET-3 on scales of 0.1-200 pc. First we test our code with spherically symmetric, adiabatic Bondi accretion problem. We find that our simulation can reproduce the expected Bondi accretion flow very well for a limited amount of time until the effect of outer boundary starts to be visible. We also find artificial heating of gas near the inner accretion boundary due to the artificial viscosity of SPH. Second, we implement radiative cooling and heating due to X-rays, and examine the impact of thermal feedback by the central X-ray source. The accretion flow roughly follows the Bondi solution for low central X-ray luminosities, however, the flow starts to exhibit non-spherical fragmentation due to thermal instability for a certain range of central L_X, and a strong overall outflow develops for greater L_X. The cold gas develops filamentary structures that fall into the central SMBH, whereas the hot gas tries to escape through the channels in-between the cold filaments. Such fragmentation of accreting gas can assist in the formation of clouds around AGN, induce star-formation, and contribute to the observed variability of narrow-line regions.
Disks of gas accreting onto supermassive black holes are thought to power active galactic nuclei (AGN). Stars may form in gravitationally unstable regions of these disks, or may be captured from nuclear star clusters. Because of the dense gas environment, the evolution of such embedded stars can diverge dramatically from those in the interstellar medium. This work extends previous studies of stellar evolution in AGN disks by exploring a variety of ways that accretion onto stars in AGN disks may differ from Bondi accretion. We find that tidal effects from the supermassive black hole significantly alter the evolution of stars in AGN disks, and that our results do not depend critically on assumptions about radiative feedback on the accretion stream. Thus, in addition to depending on $rho/c_s^3$, the fate of stars in AGN disks depends sensitively on the distance to and mass of the supermassive black hole. This affects where in the disk stellar explosions occur, where compact remnants form and potentially merge to produce gravitational waves, and where different types of chemical enrichment take place.
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