We report the results of ALMA observations of a protoplanetary disk surrounding the Herbig Ae star AB Aurigae. We obtained high-resolution (0 1; 14 au) images in 12CO J = 2 − 1 emission and in the ...dust continuum at the wavelength of 1.3 mm. The continuum emission is detected at the center and at the ring with a radius (r) of ∼120 au. The CO emission is dominated by two prominent spirals within the dust ring. These spirals are trailing and appear to be about 4 times brighter than their surrounding medium. Their kinematics is consistent with Keplerian rotation at an inclination of 23°. The apparent two-arm-spiral pattern is best explained by tidal disturbances created by an unseen companion located at r of 60-80 au, with dust confined in the pressure bumps created outside this companion orbit. An additional companion at r of 30 au, coinciding with the peak CO brightness and a large pitch angle of the spiral, would help to explain the overall emptiness of the cavity. Alternative mechanisms to excite the spirals are discussed. The origin of the large pitch angle detected here remains puzzling.
The Photon Ring in M87 Broderick, Avery E.; Pesce, Dominic W.; Gold, Roman ...
The Astrophysical journal,
08/2022, Letnik:
935, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
We report measurements of the gravitationally lensed secondary image—the first in an infinite series of so-called “photon rings”—around the supermassive black hole M87* via simultaneous ...modeling and imaging of the 2017 Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations. The inferred ring size remains constant across the seven days of the 2017 EHT observing campaign and is consistent with theoretical expectations, providing clear evidence that such measurements probe spacetime and a striking confirmation of the models underlying the first set of EHT results. The residual diffuse emission evolves on timescales comparable to one week. We are able to detect with high significance a southwestern extension consistent with that expected from the base of a jet that is rapidly rotating in the clockwise direction. This result adds further support to the identification of the jet in M87* with a black hole spin-driven outflow, launched via the Blandford–Znajek process. We present three revised estimates for the mass of M87* based on identifying the modeled thin ring component with the bright ringlike features seen in simulated images, one of which is only weakly sensitive to the astrophysics of the emission region. All three estimates agree with each other and previously reported values. Our strongest mass constraint combines information from both the ring and the diffuse emission region, which together imply a mass-to-distance ratio of
4.20
−
0.06
+
0.12
μ
as
and a corresponding black hole mass of (7.13 ± 0.39) × 10
9
M
⊙
, where the error on the latter is now dominated by the systematic uncertainty arising from the uncertain distance to M87*.
The formation of planets around binary stars may be more difficult than around single stars. In a close binary star (with a separation of less than a hundred astronomical units), theory predicts the ...presence of circumstellar disks around each star, and an outer circumbinary disk surrounding a gravitationally cleared inner cavity around the stars. Given that the inner disks are depleted by accretion onto the stars on timescales of a few thousand years, any replenishing material must be transferred from the outer reservoir to fuel planet formation (which occurs on timescales of about one million years). Gas flowing through disk cavities has been detected in single star systems. A circumbinary disk was discovered around the young low-mass binary system GG Tau A (ref. 7), which has recently been shown to be a hierarchical triple system. It has one large inner disk around the single star, GG Tau Aa, and shows small amounts of shocked hydrogen gas residing within the central cavity, but other than a single weak detection, the distribution of cold gas in this cavity or in any other binary or multiple star system has not hitherto been determined. Here we report imaging of gas fragments emitting radiation characteristic of carbon monoxide within the GG Tau A cavity. From the kinematics we conclude that the flow appears capable of sustaining the inner disk (around GG Tau Aa) beyond the accretion lifetime, leaving time for planet formation to occur there. These results show the complexity of planet formation around multiple stars and confirm the general picture predicted by numerical simulations.
Abstract
Astrophysical black holes are expected to be described by the Kerr metric. This is the only stationary, vacuum, axisymmetric metric, without electromagnetic charge, that satisfies Einstein’s ...equations and does not have pathologies outside of the event horizon. We present new constraints on potential deviations from the Kerr prediction based on 2017 EHT observations of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). We calibrate the relationship between the geometrically defined black hole shadow and the observed size of the ring-like images using a library that includes both Kerr and non-Kerr simulations. We use the exquisite prior constraints on the mass-to-distance ratio for Sgr A* to show that the observed image size is within ∼10% of the Kerr predictions. We use these bounds to constrain metrics that are parametrically different from Kerr, as well as the charges of several known spacetimes. To consider alternatives to the presence of an event horizon, we explore the possibility that Sgr A* is a compact object with a surface that either absorbs and thermally reemits incident radiation or partially reflects it. Using the observed image size and the broadband spectrum of Sgr A*, we conclude that a thermal surface can be ruled out and a fully reflective one is unlikely. We compare our results to the broader landscape of gravitational tests. Together with the bounds found for stellar-mass black holes and the M87 black hole, our observations provide further support that the external spacetimes of all black holes are described by the Kerr metric, independent of their mass.
Abstract
In this paper we provide a first physical interpretation for the Event Horizon Telescope's (EHT) 2017 observations of Sgr A*. Our main approach is to compare resolved EHT data at 230 GHz and ...unresolved non-EHT observations from radio to X-ray wavelengths to predictions from a library of models based on time-dependent general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations, including aligned, tilted, and stellar-wind-fed simulations; radiative transfer is performed assuming both thermal and nonthermal electron distribution functions. We test the models against 11 constraints drawn from EHT 230 GHz data and observations at 86 GHz, 2.2
μ
m, and in the X-ray. All models fail at least one constraint. Light-curve variability provides a particularly severe constraint, failing nearly all strongly magnetized (magnetically arrested disk (MAD)) models and a large fraction of weakly magnetized models. A number of models fail only the variability constraints. We identify a promising cluster of these models, which are MAD and have inclination
i
≤ 30°. They have accretion rate (5.2–9.5) × 10
−9
M
⊙
yr
−1
, bolometric luminosity (6.8–9.2) × 10
35
erg s
−1
, and outflow power (1.3–4.8) × 10
38
erg s
−1
. We also find that all models with
i
≥ 70° fail at least two constraints, as do all models with equal ion and electron temperature; exploratory, nonthermal model sets tend to have higher 2.2
μ
m flux density; and the population of cold electrons is limited by X-ray constraints due to the risk of bremsstrahlung overproduction. Finally, we discuss physical and numerical limitations of the models, highlighting the possible importance of kinetic effects and duration of the simulations.
Our understanding of strong gravity near supermassive compact objects has recently improved thanks to the measurements made by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). We use here the M87* shadow size to ...infer constraints on the physical charges of a large variety of nonrotating or rotating black holes. For example, we show that the quality of the measurements is already sufficient to rule out that M87* is a highly charged dilaton black hole. Similarly, when considering black holes with two physical and independent charges, we are able to exclude considerable regions of the space of parameters for the doubly-charged dilaton and the Sen black holes.
Abstract
We present the first event-horizon-scale images and spatiotemporal analysis of Sgr A* taken with the Event Horizon Telescope in 2017 April at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. Imaging of Sgr A* has ...been conducted through surveys over a wide range of imaging assumptions using the classical CLEAN algorithm, regularized maximum likelihood methods, and a Bayesian posterior sampling method. Different prescriptions have been used to account for scattering effects by the interstellar medium toward the Galactic center. Mitigation of the rapid intraday variability that characterizes Sgr A* has been carried out through the addition of a “variability noise budget” in the observed visibilities, facilitating the reconstruction of static full-track images. Our static reconstructions of Sgr A* can be clustered into four representative morphologies that correspond to ring images with three different azimuthal brightness distributions and a small cluster that contains diverse nonring morphologies. Based on our extensive analysis of the effects of sparse (
u
,
v
)-coverage, source variability, and interstellar scattering, as well as studies of simulated visibility data, we conclude that the Event Horizon Telescope Sgr A* data show compelling evidence for an image that is dominated by a bright ring of emission with a ring diameter of ∼50
μ
as, consistent with the expected “shadow” of a 4 × 10
6
M
⊙
black hole in the Galactic center located at a distance of 8 kpc.
Molecular line emission from protoplanetary disks is a powerful tool to constrain their physical and chemical structure. Nevertheless, only a few molecules have been detected in disks so far. We take ...advantage of the enhanced capabilities of the IRAM 30m telescope by using the new broad band correlator (FTS) to search for so far undetected molecules in the protoplanetary disks surrounding the TTauri stars DM Tau, GO Tau, LkCa 15 and the Herbig Ae star MWC 480. We report the first detection of HC3N at 5 sigma in the GO Tau and MWC 480 disks with the IRAM 30-m, and in the LkCa 15 disk (5 sigma), using the IRAM array, with derived column densities of the order of 10^{12}cm^{-2}. We also obtain stringent upper limits on CCS (N < 1.5 x 10^{12} cm^{-3}). We discuss the observational results by comparing them to column densities derived from existing chemical disk models (computed using the chemical code Nautilus) and based on previous nitrogen and sulfur-bearing molecule observations. The observed column densities of HC3N are typically two orders of magnitude lower than the existing predictions and appear to be lower in the presence of strong UV flux, suggesting that the molecular chemistry is sensitive to the UV penetration through the disk. The CCS upper limits reinforce our model with low elemental abundance of sulfur derived from other sulfur-bearing molecules (CS, H2S and SO).
Abstract
In this paper we quantify the temporal variability and image morphology of the horizon-scale emission from Sgr A*, as observed by the EHT in 2017 April at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. We find ...that the Sgr A* data exhibit variability that exceeds what can be explained by the uncertainties in the data or by the effects of interstellar scattering. The magnitude of this variability can be a substantial fraction of the correlated flux density, reaching ∼100% on some baselines. Through an exploration of simple geometric source models, we demonstrate that ring-like morphologies provide better fits to the Sgr A* data than do other morphologies with comparable complexity. We develop two strategies for fitting static geometric ring models to the time-variable Sgr A* data; one strategy fits models to short segments of data over which the source is static and averages these independent fits, while the other fits models to the full data set using a parametric model for the structural variability power spectrum around the average source structure. Both geometric modeling and image-domain feature extraction techniques determine the ring diameter to be 51.8 ± 2.3
μ
as (68% credible intervals), with the ring thickness constrained to have an FWHM between ∼30% and 50% of the ring diameter. To bring the diameter measurements to a common physical scale, we calibrate them using synthetic data generated from GRMHD simulations. This calibration constrains the angular size of the gravitational radius to be
4.8
−
0.7
+
1.4
μ
as, which we combine with an independent distance measurement from maser parallaxes to determine the mass of Sgr A* to be
4.0
−
0.6
+
1.1
×
10
6
M
⊙
.
We present measurements of the properties of the central radio source in M87 using Event Horizon Telescope data obtained during the 2017 campaign. We develop and fit geometric crescent models ...(asymmetric rings with interior brightness depressions) using two independent sampling algorithms that consider distinct representations of the visibility data. We show that the crescent family of models is statistically preferred over other comparably complex geometric models that we explore. We calibrate the geometric model parameters using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) models of the emission region and estimate physical properties of the source. We further fit images generated from GRMHD models directly to the data. We compare the derived emission region and black hole parameters from these analyses with those recovered from reconstructed images. There is a remarkable consistency among all methods and data sets. We find that >50% of the total flux at arcsecond scales comes from near the horizon, and that the emission is dramatically suppressed interior to this region by a factor >10, providing direct evidence of the predicted shadow of a black hole. Across all methods, we measure a crescent diameter of 42 3 as and constrain its fractional width to be <0.5. Associating the crescent feature with the emission surrounding the black hole shadow, we infer an angular gravitational radius of GM/Dc2 = 3.8 0.4 as. Folding in a distance measurement of gives a black hole mass of . This measurement from lensed emission near the event horizon is consistent with the presence of a central Kerr black hole, as predicted by the general theory of relativity.
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