We report new observations with the Very Large Array, Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and Submillimeter Array at frequencies from 1.0 to 355 GHz of the Galactic Center black hole, Sagittarius A*. These observations were conducted between October 2012
and November 2014. While we see variability over the whole spectrum with an amplitude as large as a factor of 2 at millimeter wavelengths, we find no evidence for a change in the mean flux density or spectrum of Sgr A* that can be attributed to interaction with the G2 source. The absence of a bow shock at low frequencies is consistent with a cross-sectional area for G2 that is less than $2 times 10^{29}$ cm$^2$. This result fits with several model predictions including a magnetically arrested cloud, a pressure-confined stellar wind, and a stellar photosphere of a binary merger. There is no evidence for enhanced accretion onto the black hole driving greater jet and/or accretion flow emission. Finally, we measure the millimeter wavelength spectral index of Sgr A* to be flat; combined with previous measurements, this suggests that there is no spectral break between 230 and 690 GHz. The emission region is thus likely in a transition between optically thick and thin at these frequencies and requires a mix of lepton distributions with varying temperatures consistent with stratification.
Various radio galaxies show signs of having gone through episodic jet outbursts in the past. An example is the class of double-double radio galaxies (DDRGs). However, to follow the evolution of an individual source in real-time is impossible due to t
he large time scales involved. Numerical studies provide a powerful tool to investigate the temporal behavior of episodic jet outbursts in a (magneto-)hydrodynamical setting. We simulate the injection of two jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN), separated by a short interruption time. Three different jet models are compared. We find that an AGN jet outburst cycle can be divided into four phases. The most prominent phase occurs when the restarted jet is propagating completely inside the hot and inflated cocoon left behind by the initial jet. In that case, the jet-head advance speed of the restarted jet is significantly higher than the initial jet-head. While the head of the initial jet interacts strongly with the ambient medium, the restarted jet propagates almost unimpeded. As a result, the restarted jet maintains a strong radial integrity. Just a very small fraction of the amount of shocked jet material flows back through the cocoon compared to that of the initial jet and much weaker shocks are found at the head of the restarted jet. We find that the features of the restarted jet in this phase closely resemble the observed properties of a typical DDRG.
A subset of ultraluminous X-ray sources (those with luminosities < 10^40 erg/s) are thought to be powered by the accretion of gas onto black holes with masses of ~5-20 M_solar, probably via an accretion disc. The X-ray and radio emission are coupled
in such Galactic sources, with the radio emission originating in a relativistic jet thought to be launched from the innermost regions near the black hole, with the most powerful emission occurring when the rate of infalling matter approaches a theoretical maximum (the Eddington limit). Only four such maximal sources are known in the Milky Way, and the absorption of soft X-rays in the interstellar medium precludes determining the causal sequence of events that leads to the ejection of the jet. Here we report radio and X-ray observations of a bright new X-ray source whose peak luminosity can exceed 10^39 erg/s in the nearby galaxy, M31. The radio luminosity is extremely high and shows variability on a timescale of tens of minutes, arguing that the source is highly compact and powered by accretion close to the Eddington limit onto a stellar mass black hole. Continued radio and X-ray monitoring of such sources should reveal the causal relationship between the accretion flow and the powerful jet emission.
The fundamental plane of black hole activity is a relation between X-ray luminosity, radio luminosity, and black hole mass for hard state Galactic black holes and their supermassive analogs. The fundamental plane suggests that, at low-accretion rates
, the physical processes regulating the conversion of an accretion flow into radiative energy could be universal across the entire black hole mass scale. However, there is still a need to further refine the fundamental plane in order to better discern the radiative processes and their geometry very close to the black hole, in particular the source of hard X-rays. Further refinement is necessary because error bars on the best-fit slopes of the fundamental plane are generally large, and also the inferred coefficients can be sensitive to the adopted sample of black holes. In this work, we regress the fundamental plane with a Bayesian technique. Our approach shows that sub-Eddington black holes emit X-ray emission that is predominantly optically thin synchrotron radiation from the jet, provided that their radio spectra are flat or inverted. X-ray emission dominated by very radiatively inefficient accretion flows are excluded at the >3sigma level. We also show that it is difficult to place FR I galaxies onto the fundamental plane because their X-ray jet emission is highly affected by synchrotron cooling. On the other hand, BL Lac objects fit onto the fundamental plane. Including a uniform subset of high-energy peaked BL Lac objects from the SDSS, we find sub-Eddington black holes with flat/inverted radio spectra follow log L_x=(1.45pm0.04)log L_R-(0.88pm0.06)logM_{BH}-6.07pm1.10, with sigma_{int}=0.07pm0.05 dex. Finally, we discuss how the effects of synchrotron cooling of jet emission from the highest black hole masses can bias fundamental plane regressions, perhaps leading to incorrect inferences on X-ray radiation mechanisms.
Recent radio VLBI observations of the ~parsec-scale nuclear region of the narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4051 hint toward the presence of outflowing plasma. From available literature we have collected high-quality, high-resolution broadband spectra
l energy distribution data of the nuclear region of NGC 4051 spanning from radio through X-rays, to test whether the broadband SED can be explained within the framework of a relativistically outflowing jet model. We show that once the contribution from the host galaxy is taken into account, the broadband emission from the active galactic nucleus of NGC 4051 can be well described by the jet model. Contributions from dust and ongoing star-formation in the nuclear region tend to dominate the IR emission even at the highest resolutions. In the framework of the jet model, the correlated high variability of the extreme ultraviolet and X-rays compared to other wavelengths suggests that the emission at these wavelengths is optically thin synchrotron originating in the particle acceleration site(s) in the jet very close (few $r_g=GM_{BH}/c^2$) to the central supermassive black hole of mass M_{BH}. Our conclusions support the hypothesis that narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies (which NGC 4051 is a member of) harbor a jetted outflow with properties similar to what has already been seen in low-luminosity AGNs and stellar mass black holes in hard X-ray state.
We measure black hole masses for 71 BL Lac objects from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with redshifts out to z~0.4. We perform spectral decompositions of their nuclei from their host galaxies and measure their stellar velocity dispersions. Black hole m
asses are then derived from the black hole mass - stellar velocity dispersion relation. We find BL Lac objects host black holes of similar masses, ~10^{8.5} M_sun, with a dispersion of 0.4 dex, similar to the uncertainties on each black hole measurement. Therefore, all BL Lac objects in our sample have the same indistinguishable black hole mass. These 71 BL Lac objects follow the black hole mass - bulge luminosity relation, and their narrow range of host galaxy luminosities confirm previous claims that BL Lac host galaxies can be treated as standard candles. We conclude that the observed diversity in the shapes of BL Lac object spectral energy distributions is not strongly driven by black hole mass or host galaxy properties.
In this paper we review and discuss some of the intriguing properties of the Galactic Center supermassive black hole candidate Sgr A*. Of all possible black hole sources, the event horizon of Sgr A*, subtends the largest angular scale on the sky. It
is therefore a prime candidate to study and image plasma processes in strong gravity and it even allows imaging of the shadow cast by the event horizon. Recent mm-wave VLBI and radio timing observations as well as numerical GRMHD simulations now have provided several breakthroughs that put Sgr A* back into the focus. Firstly, VLBI observations have now measured the intrinsic size of Sgr A* at multiple frequencies, where the highest frequency measurements have approached the scale of the black hole shadow. Moreover, measurements of the radio variability show a clear time lag between 22 GHz and 43 GHz. The combination of size and timing measurements, allows one to actually measure the flow speed and direction of magnetized plasma at some tens of Schwarzschild radii. This data strongly support a moderately relativistic outflow, consistent with an accelerating jet model. This is compared to recent GRMHD simulation that show the presence of a moderately relativistic outflow coupled to an accretion flow Sgr A*. Further VLBI and timing observations coupled to simulations have the potential to map out the velocity profile from 5-40 Schwarzschild radii and to provide a first glimpse at the appearance of a jet-disk system near the event horizon. Future submm-VLBI experiments would even be able to directly image those processes in strong gravity and directly confirm the presence of an event horizon.
GRS1915+105 is a very peculiar black hole binary that exhibits accretion-related states that are not observed in any other stellar-mass black hole system. One of these states, however -- referred to as the plateau state -- may be related to the canon
ical hard state of black hole X-ray binaries. Both the plateau and hard state are associated with steady, relatively lower X-ray emission and flat/inverted radio emission, that is sometimes resolved into compact, self-absorbed jets. However, while generally black hole binaries quench their jets when the luminosity becomes too high, GRS1915+105 seems to sustain them despite the fact that it accretes at near- or super-Eddington rates. In order to investigate the relationship between the plateau and the hard state, we fit two multi-wavelength observations using a steady-state outflow-dominated model, developed for hard state black hole binaries. The data sets consist of quasi-simultaneous observations in radio, near-infrared and X-ray bands. Interestingly, we find both significant differences between the two plateau states, as well as between the best-fit model parameters and those representative of the hard state. We discuss our interpretation of these results, and the possible implications for GRS 1915+105s relationship to canonical black hole candidates.
The black hole at the Galactic Center, Sgr A*, is the prototype of a galactic nucleus at a very low level of activity. Its radio through submm-wave emission is known to come from a region close to the event horizon, however, the source of the emissio
n is still under debate. A successful theory explaining the emission is based on a relativistic jet model scaled down from powerful quasars. We want to test the predictive power of this established jet model against newly available measurements of wavelength-dependent time lags and the size-wavelength structure in Sgr A*. Using all available closure amplitude VLBI data from different groups, we again derived the intrinsic wavelength-dependent size of Sgr A*. This allowed us to calculate the expected frequency-dependent time lags of radio flares, assuming a range of in- and outflow velocities. Moreover, we calculated the time lags expected in the previously published pressure-driven jet model. The predicted lags are then compared to radio monitoring observations at 22, 43, and 350 GHz. The combination of time lags and size measurements imply a mildly relativistic outflow with bulk outflow speeds of gamma*beta ~ 0.5-2. The newly measured time lags are reproduced well by the jet model without any major fine tuning. The results further strengthen the case for the cm-to-mm wave radio emission in Sgr A* as coming from a mildly relativistic jet-like outflow. The combination of radio time lag and VLBI closure amplitude measurements is a powerful new tool for assessing the flow speed and direction in Sgr A*. Future VLBI and time lag measurements over a range of wavelengths will reveal more information about Sgr A*, such as the existence of a jet nozzle, and measure the detailed velocity structure of a relativistic jet near its launching point for the first time.
Infrared interferometry is currently in a rapid development phase, with new instrumentation soon achieving milliarcsecond spatial resolutions for faint sources and astrometry on the order of 10 microarcseconds. For jet studies in particular, the next
generation of instruments will bring us closer to the event horizon of supermassive black holes such as Sgr A*, and the region where jet launching must occur. But a new possibility to study microquasars in general and jet physics in particular may also arise, using techniques similar to those employed for finding faint exoplanets around stars. The compact, steady jets observed in the hard state of X-ray binaries display a flat/inverted spectrum from the lower radio wavelengths up through at least the far-IR band. Somewhere above this band, a turnover is predicted where the jets become optically thin, revealing a power-law spectrum. This break may have been observed directly in GX339-4, but in most sources such a feature is likely hidden under bright emission from the stellar companion or accretion disk components. Detecting the exact location of this break would provide a new constraint on our models of jet physics, since the break frequency is dependent on the total power, as well as internal density and magnetic field. Furthermore, knowing the break location combined with the spectral index of the power-law would help constrain the amount of synchrotron emission contributed by the jets to the X-ray bands. Along with a summary of some potential observations requiring less optimal instrumental specifications, I will discuss a technique which may enable us to discern the jet break, and the chances of success based on theoretical models applied to some potential target sources.
