Search results for "black hole"
showing 10 items of 336 documents
Consequences of a possible jet-star interaction in the inner central parsec of Centaurus A
2015
The jet-counterjet system of the closest radio-loud active galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A) can be studied with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) on unprecedented small linear scales of ~0.018pc. These high-resolution observations provide essential information on jet emission and propagation within the inner parsec of an AGN jet. We present the results of a kinematic study performed within the framework of the Southern-hemisphere AGN monitoring program TANAMI. Over 3.5years, the evolution of the central-parsec jet structure of Cen A was monitored with VLBI. These observations reveal complex jet dynamics which are well explained by a spine-sheath structure supported by the downstream accele…
Detection of jet precession in the active nucleus of M81
2011
(See the complete and formatted abstract in the paper). We report on VLBI monitoring of the low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN) in M81 at 1.7, 2.3, 5, and 8.4GHz. These observations are phase-referenced to the supernova SN1993J (located in the same galaxy) and cover from late 1993 to late 2005. The source consists at all frequencies of a slightly resolved core and a small jet extension towards the north-east direction (position angle of ~65 degrees) in agreement with previous publications. We find that the position of the intensity peak in the images at 8.4GHz is very stable in the galactic frame of M81 (proper motion upper limit about 0.010 mas per year). We confirm previous reports that the peaks …
The radio afterglow of Swift J1644+57 reveals a powerful jet with fast core and slow sheath
2015
We model the non-thermal transient Swift J1644+57 as resulting from a relativistic jet powered by the accretion of a tidally-disrupted star onto a super-massive black hole. Accompanying synchrotron radio emission is produced by the shock interaction between the jet and the dense circumnuclear medium, similar to a gamma-ray burst afterglow. An open mystery, however, is the origin of the late-time radio rebrightening, which occurred well after the peak of the jetted X-ray emission. Here, we systematically explore several proposed explanations for this behavior by means of multi-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations coupled to a self-consistent radiative transfer calculation of the synchrotron …
Limit to the radio emission from a putative central compact source in SN1993J
2013
SN1993J in M81 is the best studied young radio-luminous supernova in the Northern Hemisphere. We recently reported results from the analysis of a complete set of VLBI observations of this supernova at 1.7, 2.3, 5.0, and 8.4 GHz, covering a time baseline of more than one decade. Those reported results were focused on the kinematics of the expanding shock, the particulars of its evolving non-thermal emission, the density profile of the circumstellar medium, and the evolving free-free opacity by the supernova ejecta. In the present paper, we complete our analysis by performing a search for any possible signal from a compact source (i.e., a stellar-mass black hole or a young pulsar nebula) at t…
On Relativistic Disk Spectroscopy in Compact Objects with X-ray CCD Cameras
2010
X-ray charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are the workhorse detectors of modern X-ray astronomy. Typically covering the 0.3-10.0 keV energy range, CCDs are able to detect photoelectric absorption edges and K shell lines from most abundant metals. New CCDs also offer resolutions of 30-50 (E/dE), which is sufficient to detect lines in hot plasmas and to resolve many lines shaped by dynamical processes in accretion flows. The spectral capabilities of X-ray CCDs have been particularly important in detecting relativistic emission lines from the inner disks around accreting neutron stars and black holes. One drawback of X-ray CCDs is that spectra can be distorted by photon "pile-up", wherein two or mor…
Accurate evolutions of unequal-mass neutron-star binaries: properties of the torus and short GRB engines
2010
We present new results from accurate and fully general-relativistic simulations of the coalescence of unmagnetized binary neutron stars with various mass ratios. The evolution of the stars is followed through the inspiral phase, the merger and prompt collapse to a black hole, up until the appearance of a thick accretion disk, which is studied as it enters and remains in a regime of quasi-steady accretion. Although a simple ideal-fluid equation of state with \Gamma=2 is used, this work presents a systematic study within a fully general relativistic framework of the properties of the resulting black-hole--torus system produced by the merger of unequal-mass binaries. More specifically, we show…
The Nature of Soft Excess in ESO 362-G18 Revealed by XMM-Newton and NuSTAR Spectroscopy
2021
We present a detailed spectral analysis of the joint XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the Seyfert 1.5 Galaxy ESO 362-G18. The broadband ($0.3\mbox{--}79$ keV) spectrum shows the presence of a power-law continuum with a soft excess below $2$ keV, iron K$\alpha$ emission ($\sim 6.4$ keV), and a Compton hump (peaking at $\sim 20$ keV). We find that the soft excess can be modeled by two different possible scenarios: a warm ($kT_\mathrm{e}\sim0.2$ keV) and optically thick ($\tau\sim34$) Comptonizing corona; or with relativistically-blurred reflection off a high-density ($\log{[n_\mathrm{e}/\mathrm{cm}^{-3}]}>18.3$) inner disk. These two models cannot be e…
Explosion and Final State of an Unstable Reissner-Nordström Black Hole
2016
A Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole (BH) is superradiantly unstable against spherical perturbations of a charged scalar field, enclosed in a cavity, with frequency lower than a critical value. We use numerical relativity techniques to follow the development of this unstable system -- dubbed a charged BH bomb -- into the non-linear regime, solving the full Einstein--Maxwell--Klein-Gordon equations, in spherical symmetry. We show that: $i)$ the process stops before all the charge is extracted from the BH; $ii)$ the system settles down into a hairy BH: a charged horizon in equilibrium with a scalar field condensate, whose phase is oscillating at the (final) critical frequency. For low scalar fie…
Late time approach to Hawking radiation: Terms beyond leading order
2019
Black hole evaporation is studied using wave packets for the modes. These allow for approximate frequency and time resolution. The leading order late time behavior gives the well known Hawking radiation that is independent of how the black hole formed. The focus here is on the higher order terms and the rate at which they damp at late times. Some of these terms carry information about how the black hole formed. A general argument is given which shows that the damping is significantly slower (power law) than what might be naively expected from a stationary phase approximation (exponential). This result is verified by numerical calculations in the cases of 2D and 4D black holes that form from…
Nonsingular Black Holes in $f(R)$ Theories
2015
We study the structure of a family of static, spherically symmetric space-times generated by an anisotropic fluid and governed by a particular type of $f(R)$ theory. We find that for a range of parameters with physical interest, such solutions represent black holes with the central singularity replaced by a finite size wormhole. We show that time-like geodesics and null geodesics with nonzero angular momentum never reach the wormhole throat due to an infinite potential barrier. For null radial geodesics, it takes an infinite affine time to reach the wormhole. This means that the resulting space-time is geodesically complete and, therefore, nonsingular despite the generic existence of curvat…