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Radiative Models of Sgr A* and M87* from Relativistic MHD Simulations Jason Dexter University of Washington / UC Berkeley With Eric Agol, Chris Fragile and Jonathan McKinney
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Sagittarius A* AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec2 Jet or nonthermal electrons far from BH Thermal electrons at BH Simultaneous IR/X-ray flares close to BH? no data available Charles Gammie, Rainer Schödel
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Millimeter VLBI of Sgr A* Precision black hole astrophysics 3AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec Doeleman et al. (2008) Gaussian FWHM ~4 R s !
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Black Hole Images & Shadows Sensitive to viewing geometry & details of accretion flow – Need accurate theoretical predictions! Bardeen (1973); Dexter & Agol (2009) Falcke, Melia & Agol (2000) 4AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec Broderick & Loeb (2009) Dexter et al. (2009, 2010)
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Models of Sgr A* Semi-analytic: – RIAF or jet Narayan & Yi (1995), Yuan et al. (2003), Broderick et al. (2009, 2010, 2011), Falcke & Markoff (2000) – Hotspots/expanding blobs Broderick & Loeb (2006), Eckart et al. (2006), Yusef-Zadeh et al. (2006) MHD Simulations: – Non-relativistic Goldston et al. (2005), Chan et al. (2008), Huang et al. (2009) – Axisymmetric or averaged GRMHD Noble et al. (2007), Moscibrodzka et al. (2009), Hilburn et al. (2009) AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec5
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GRMHD Models of Sgr A* 3D, time-dependent GRMHD great for mm Sgr A* – Thick, MRI-driven accretion flow – Insignificant cooling(?) – Synchrotron radiation near BH Not perfect… – Collisionless plasma (mfp = 10 4 R s ) – No electrons Assume constant T i /T e AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec6 Moscibrodzka et al. (2009)
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Assume light rays are geodesics: –geokerr, Dexter & Agol (2009) 5 (4) Simulations: – Fragile et al. (2007, 2009) – McKinney & Blandford (2009) Synchrotron emissivity: – Leung et al. (2011) Joint fits to spectral & VLBI data: – Marrone 2006, Doeleman et al. 2008, Fish et al. 2011 – Parameters: dM/dt, i, a, T i /T e AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec7 Ray Tracing Schnittman et al. (2006)
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Parameter Estimates i = 60 degrees ξ = -70 degrees T e /10 10 K = 6 ± 2 dM/dt = 3 x 10 -9 M sun yr -1 All to 90% confidence AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec8 +15 -15 +86 -15 +7 Dexter et al. (2010, 2011) Sky Orientation Inclination Electron Temperature Accretion Rate All VLBI 2007
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Millimeter Flares Correlation with accretion rate Driven by magnetic turbulence Models reproduce observed mm flares IR/X-ray? AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec9 Solid – 230 GHz (1.3mm) Dotted – 690 GHz (0.4mm)
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Black Hole Shadow in Sgr A* AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec10 Shadow may be detected on Chile-Mexico baseline (in closure phase too) Shadow 230 GHz 345 GHz
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M87 1600 M Sgr A* at 2000 D Sgr A* Jet launching physics? Known viewing geometry? AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec11 7mm Junor et al. (1999) 2cm Kovalev et al. (2007) Hubble
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M87* Models Simulation: McKinney & Blandford (2009) Jet: B 2 > ρc 2, u jet =ηB 2 Representative models: Disk/jet or jet Unlike previous models – Can’t have disk peak in radio – Can’t match radio at all AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec12 Broderick & Loeb ( 2009)
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Images & Visibilities Images are still crescents! Gaussian size: 36-41 μas Shadow on Hawaii-Mexico or Mexico-Chile AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec13 Dexter et al. (2011)
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Conclusions Millimeter images/light curves of Sgr A* and M87* from GRMHD simulations Sgr A* (Dexter et al. 2009, 2010, 2011) – Excellent fits with GRMHD & images are crescents! – Estimates for viewing geometry and physical conditions – Reproduce observed mm flares – Mexico—Chile next best chance for observing shadow M87 (Dexter et al. 2011) – Disk/jet or jet models – Predict 36-41 μas size, shadow on Hawaii—Chile or Mexico—Chile – Robust results if geometry is correct AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec14
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Tilted Sgr A* AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec15 No reason to expect Sgr A* isn’t tilted Unconstrained parameters Best fit images are still crescents Shadow still visible Shadow
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RIAF Fits AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec16 Dexter et al. (2010, 2011), Broderick et al. (2010)
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Shadow in Closure Phase AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec17
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Visibility Variance AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec18
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Spectra AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec19
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Accretion Rate Variability AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec20
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Event Horizon Telescope AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec21 UV coverage (Phase I: black) From Shep Doeleman’s Decadal Survey Report on the EHT Doeleman et al (2009)
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Comparison to Observed Flares AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec22 Eckart et al. (2008)Marrone et al. (2008)
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Galactic Center Black Hole AHAR 2011: The Central Kiloparsec23
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