NGC 1275 is one of the most conspicuous active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the local universe. The radio jet currently emits a flux density of ∼10 Jy at ∼1 mm wavelengths, down from the historic high of ...∼65 Jy in 1980. Yet, the nature of the AGN in NGC 1275 is still controversial. It has been debated whether this is a broad emission line (BEL) Seyfert galaxy, an obscured Seyfert galaxy, a narrow line radio galaxy, or a BL Lac object. We clearly demonstrate a persistent Hβ BEL over the last 35 yr with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 4150-6000 km s−1. We also find a prominent P BEL (FWHM 4770 km s−1) and a weak C iv BEL (FWHM 4000 km s−1), Hβ/C iv 2. A far-UV Hubble Space Telescope observation during suppressed jet activity reveals a low luminosity continuum. The Hβ BEL luminosity is typical of broad line Seyfert galaxies with similar far-UV luminosity. X-ray observations indicate a softer ionizing continuum than what would be expected for a broad line Seyfert galaxy with similar far-UV luminosity. This is the opposite of the expectation of advection-dominated accretion. The AGN continuum appears to be thermal emission from a low luminosity, optically thick, accretion flow with a low Eddington ratio, ∼0.0001. The soft, weak, ionizing continuum is consistent with the relatively weak C iv BEL. Evidence that the BEL luminosity is correlated with the jet millimeter-wave luminosity is presented. It appears that the accretion rate regulates jet power.
Abstract X-ray continuum emission of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) may be reflected by circumnuclear dusty tori, producing prominent fluorescence iron lines at X-ray frequencies. Here, we discuss the ...broadband emission of three radio-loud AGNs belonging to the class of compact symmetric objects (CSOs), with detected narrow Fe K α lines. CSOs have newly born radio jets, forming compact radio lobes with projected linear sizes of the order of a few to hundreds of parsecs. We model the radio-to- γ -ray spectra of compact lobes in J1407+2827, J1511+0518, and J2022+6137, which are among the nearest and the youngest CSOs known to date, and are characterized by an intrinsic X-ray absorbing column density of N H > 10 23 cm −2 . In addition to the archival data, we analyze the newly acquired Chandra X-ray Observatory and Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations, and also refine the γ -ray upper limits from Fermi Large Area Telescope monitoring. The new Chandra data exclude the presence of the extended X-ray emission components on scales larger than 1.″5. The SMA data unveil a correlation between the spectral index of the electron distribution in the lobes and N H , which can explain the γ -ray quietness of heavily obscured CSOs. Based on our modeling, we argue that the inverse-Compton emission of compact radio lobes may account for the intrinsic X-ray continuum in all these sources. Furthermore, we propose that the observed iron lines may be produced by a reflection of the lobes’ continuum from the surrounding cold dust.
Abstract
The variability of submillimeter emission provides a useful tool to probe the accretion physics in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei. We accumulate four years of observations using the ...Submillimeter Array for Centaurus A, NGC 4374, NGC 4278, and NGC 5077, and one year of observations for NGC 4552 and NGC 4579. All sources are variable. We measure the characteristic timescale at which the variability is saturated by modeling these sources’ light curves as a damped random walk. We detect a timescale for all the sources except NGC 4552. The detected timescales are comparable to the orbital timescale at the event horizon scale for most sources. Combined with previous studies, we show a correlation between the timescale and the black hole mass over 3 orders of magnitude. This discovery suggests the submillimeter emission is optically thin with the emission originating from the event horizon. The mass scaling relationship further suggests that a group of radio sources with a broadband spectrum that peaks at submillimeter wavelengths have similar inner accretion physics. Sources that follow this relationship may be good targets for high-resolution imaging with the Event Horizon Telescope.
We report results from very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) observations of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center, Sgr A*, at 1.3 mm (230 GHz). The observations were performed in ...2013 March using six VLBI stations in Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Chile. Compared to earlier observations, the addition of the APEX telescope in Chile almost doubles the longest baseline length in the array, provides additional uv coverage in the N-S direction, and leads to a spatial resolution of ∼30 as (∼3 Schwarzschild radii) for Sgr A*. The source is detected even at the longest baselines with visibility amplitudes of ∼4%-13% of the total flux density. We argue that such flux densities cannot result from interstellar refractive scattering alone, but indicate the presence of compact intrinsic source structure on scales of ∼3 Schwarzschild radii. The measured nonzero closure phases rule out point-symmetric emission. We discuss our results in the context of simple geometric models that capture the basic characteristics and brightness distributions of disk- and jet-dominated models and show that both can reproduce the observed data. Common to these models are the brightness asymmetry, the orientation, and characteristic sizes, which are comparable to the expected size of the black hole shadow. Future 1.3 mm VLBI observations with an expanded array and better sensitivity will allow more detailed imaging of the horizon-scale structure and bear the potential for a deep insight into the physical processes at the black hole boundary.
ABSTRACT We perform a multi-wavelength polarimetric study of the quasar CTA 102 during an extraordinarily bright γ-ray outburst detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope in 2012 September-October ...when the source reached a flux of F>100 MeV = 5.2 0.4 × 10−6 photons cm−2 s−1. At the same time, the source displayed an unprecedented optical and near-infrared (near-IR) outburst. We study the evolution of the parsec-scale jet with ultra-high angular resolution through a sequence of 80 total and polarized intensity Very Long Baseline Array images at 43 GHz, covering the observing period from 2007 June to 2014 June. We find that the γ-ray outburst is coincident with flares at all the other frequencies and is related to the passage of a new superluminal knot through the radio core. The powerful γ-ray emission is associated with a change in direction of the jet, which became oriented more closely to our line of sight (θ ∼ 1 2) during the ejection of the knot and the γ-ray outburst. During the flare, the optical polarized emission displays intra-day variability and a clear clockwise rotation of electric vector position angles (EVPAs), which we associate with the path followed by the knot as it moves along helical magnetic field lines, although a random walk of the EVPA caused by a turbulent magnetic field cannot be ruled out. We locate the γ-ray outburst a short distance downstream of the radio core, parsecs from the black hole. This suggests that synchrotron self-Compton scattering of NIR to ultraviolet photons is the probable mechanism for the γ-ray production.
PKS 1510-089 is a bright and active γ-ray source that showed strong and complex γ-ray flares in mid-2015 during which the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cerenkov telescopes detected variable very ...high energy (photon energies >100 GeV) emission. We present long-term multifrequency radio, optical, and γ-ray light curves of PKS 1510-089 from 2013 to 2018, and results of an analysis of the jet kinematics and linear polarization using 43 GHz Very Long Baseline Array data observed between late 2015 and mid-2017. We find that a strong radio flare trails the γ-ray flares in 2015, showing an optically thick spectrum at the beginning and becoming optically thin over time. Two laterally separated knots of emission are observed to emerge from the radio core nearly simultaneously during the γ-ray flares. We detect an edge-brightened linear polarization near the core in the active jet state in 2016, similar to the quiescent jet state in 2008-2013. These observations indicate that the γ-ray flares may originate from compression of the knots by a standing shock in the core and the jet might consist of multiple complex layers showing time-dependent behavior, rather than of a simple structure of a fast jet spine and a slow jet sheath.
Abstract
We have used the Submillimeter Array (SMA) at 860 $\mu$m to observe the brightest sources in the Submillimeter Common User Bolometer Array-2 (SCUBA-2) Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS). The ...goal of this survey is to exploit the large field of the S2CLS along with the resolution and sensitivity of the SMA to construct a large sample of these rare sources and to study their statistical properties. We have targeted 70 of the brightest single-dish SCUBA-2 850 $\mu$m sources down to S850 ≈ 8 mJy, achieving an average synthesized beam of 2.4 arcsec and an average rms of σ860 = 1.5 mJy beam−1 in our primary beam-corrected maps. We searched our SMA maps for 4σ peaks, corresponding to S860 ≳ 6 mJy sources, and detected 62, galaxies, including three pairs. We include in our study 35 archival observations, bringing our sample size to 105 bright single-dish submillimetre sources with interferometric follow-up. We compute the cumulative and differential number counts, finding them to overlap with previous single-dish survey number counts within the uncertainties, although our cumulative number count is systematically lower than the parent S2CLS cumulative number count by 14 ± 6 per cent between 11 and 15 mJy. We estimate the probability that a ≳10 mJy single-dish submillimetre source resolves into two or more galaxies with similar flux densities to be less than 15 per cent. Assuming the remaining 85 per cent of the targets are ultraluminous starburst galaxies between z = 2 and 3, we find a likely volume density of ≳400 M⊙ yr−1 sources to be ${\sim }\,3^{+0.7}_{-0.6}\,{\times }\,10^{-7}$ Mpc−3. We show that the descendants of these galaxies could be ≳4 × 1011 M⊙ local quiescent galaxies, and that about 10 per cent of their total stellar mass would have formed during these short bursts of star formation.
Abstract
We report multiepoch very long baseline interferometric observations of the compact radio lobe in the radio galaxy 3C 84 (NGC 1275) during 2016–2020. The image sequence of 3C 84 reveals that ...the hotspot in the radio lobe showed the 1 year long frustration in 2017 within a compact region of about 0.07 pc, suggesting a strong collision between the jet and a compact dense cloud with an estimated average density of about (4–6) × 10
5
cm
−3
. Although the hotspot and the radio lobe began to move south again after its breakout, the radio lobe showed a morphological transition from an FR II- to FR I-class radio lobe and its radio flux became fainter. This is the first detection of the dynamical feedback from the cloud to the jet where the cloud located on the jet axis significantly interferes with the jet propagation and evolution at the central 1 pc region in the active galactic nucleus.
Abstract
We present 1.3 mm (230 GHz) observations of the recent and nearby Type II supernova, SN 2023ixf, obtained with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) at 2.6–18.6 days after explosion. The ...observations were obtained as part the SMA Large Program, POETS (Pursuit of Extragalactic Transients with the SMA). We do not detect any emission at the location of SN 2023ixf, with the deepest limits of
L
ν
(230 GHz) ≲ 8.6 × 10
25
erg s
−1
Hz
−1
at 2.7 and 7.7 days, and
L
ν
(230 GHz) ≲ 3.4 × 10
25
erg s
−1
Hz
−1
at 18.6 days. These limits are about a factor of 2 times dimmer than the millimeter emission from SN 2011dh (IIb), about 1 order of magnitude dimmer compared to SN 1993J (IIb) and SN 2018ivc (IIL), and about 30 times dimmer than the most luminous nonrelativistic SNe in the millimeter band (Type IIb/Ib/Ic). Using these limits in the context of analytical models that include synchrotron self-absorption and free–free absorption, we place constraints on the proximate circumstellar medium around the progenitor star, to a scale of ∼2 × 10
15
cm, excluding the range
M
̇
∼
few
×
10
−
6
−
10
−
2
M
⊙
yr
−1
(for a wind velocity,
v
w
= 115 km s
−1
, and ejecta velocity,
v
ej
∼ (1 − 2) × 10
4
km s
−1
). These results are consistent with an inference of the mass-loss rate based on optical spectroscopy (∼2 × 10
−2
M
⊙
yr
−1
for
v
w
= 115 km s
−1
), but are in tension with the inference from hard X-rays (∼7 × 10
−4
M
⊙
yr
−1
for
v
w
= 115 km s
−1
). This tension may be alleviated by a nonhomogeneous and confined CSM, consistent with results from high-resolution optical spectroscopy.
We present the results of simultaneous multifrequency imaging observations at 22, 43, 86, and 129 GHz of OJ 287. We used the Korean Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network as part of the ...Interferometric Monitoring of Gamma-ray Bright active galactic nuclei (iMOGABA). The iMOGABA observations were performed during 31 epochs from 2013 January 16 to 2016 December 28. We also used 15 GHz OVRO and 225 GHz SMA flux density data. We analyzed four flux enhancements in the light curves. The estimated timescales of three flux enhancements were similar with timescales of ∼50 days at two frequencies. A fourth flux enhancement had a variability timescale approximately twice as long. We found that 225 GHz enhancements led the 15 GHz enhancements by a range of 7-30 days in the time delay analysis. We found the fractional variability did not change with frequency between 43 and 86 GHz. We could reliably measure the turnover frequency, , of the core of the source in three epochs. This was measured to be in a range from 27 to 50 GHz and a flux density at the turnover frequency, , ranging from 3 to 6 Jy. The derived SSA magnetic fields, , are in a range from 0.157 0.104 to 0.255 0.146 mG. We estimated the equipartition magnetic field strengths to be in a range from 0.95 0.15 to 1.93 0.30 mG. The equipartition magnetic field strengths are up to a factor of 10 higher than the values of . We conclude that the downstream jet may be more particle energy dominated.
PDF
